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Obituary – Jack Lasenby

Jack Lasenby: 1931–2019 Barbara Larson It’s sad when our old people leave us. Losing the charming, astute, irascible, ferociously uncompromising, funny and gifted children’s writer Jack Lasenby makes this especially so. Jack Millen Lasenby was born in the small Waikato

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Truths both bald and stretched, Eirlys Hunter

The Diamond Horse 
Stacy Gregg
HarperCollins, $25.00, ISBN 9780008124397

Grandad’s Wheelies
Jack Lasenby
Penguin Random House, $17.00, ISBN 9780143507338

Rona 
Chris Szekely
Huia, $15.00, ISBN 9781775501985

The Impossible Boy
Leonie Agnew
Penguin Random House, $20.00, ISBN 9780143309062

Reading fiction allows a child to imagine what it would be like to be someone else, and to develop insight into character, motivation and relationships. These four novels are very different from each other, but they all include depictions of behaviour and relationships that will help their readers to understand something true about people.

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Posted in Children, Literature, Review

Obituary — Margaret Mahy

Margaret Mahy  1936-2012 The three most intelligent people I’ve known: Margaret Mahy, Ted Rye, Maurice Duggan, all storytellers, all dead. In them, the torrents of intellect and imagination came together like the staff of Hermes with its twining snakes Knowledge

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Grappling with the world, Jill Holt

Dirt Bomb Fleur Beale Random House, $19.95, ISBN 9781869795467   The Bridge Jane Higgins The Text Publishing Company, $26.00, ISBN 9781921758331   Calling the Gods  Jack Lasenby HarperCollins, $24.99, ISBN 9781869509484   These three novels shortlisted for the senior fiction

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Posted in Literature, Review, Young adults

No holds barred, Joan de Hamel

Too Many Secrets Adele Broadbent HarperCollins, $19.99, ISBN 9781869508562 Smiling Jack  Ken Catran HarperCollins, $22.99, ISBN 9781 869508128 The Haystack Jack Lasenby HarperCollins, $19.99, ISBN 9781869508524 Into the Wilderness Mandy Hager Random House, $19.99, ISBN 9781869793296 Adele Broadbent is an

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Posted in Children, Literature, Review, Young adults

Debuts and returns, Linda Burgess

Enemy at the Gate  Philippa Werry Scholastic New Zealand, $17.99  ISBN 9781869438135 Old Drumble  Jack Lasenby  HarperCollins, $16.99, ISBN 978169506742 Chicken Feathers  Joy Cowley and David Elliot (illus) Puffin Books, $17.95, ISBN 9780143303909 Five (and a bit) Days in the

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Posted in Children, Literature, Review

Ways of being in the world, Eirlys Hunter

When Mum Went Funny Jack Lasenby Longacre Press, $16.99, ISBN 1877361534 The Whizbanger That Emmental Built Reuben Schwarz Puffin, $17.95, ISBN 0143318381 Chute Thru Janice Marriott Mallinson Rendel, $17.00, ISBN 0958262632 Thor’s Tale: Endurance & Adventure in the Southern Ocean 

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Posted in Children, Fiction, Literature, Review

Children’s fiction Wilderness tips, Kathryn Walls

The Tears of Harry Wakatipu Jack Lasenby Longacre Press, $18.99, ISBN 1877361437 Stories about individuals surviving in the wilderness have a long history. The Old Testament represents the wilderness as the place of escape from the oppression and corruption of

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Posted in Children, Fiction, Literature, Review

Surviving, Joan de Hamel

Walking Lightly  Fleur Beale, illustrations by Michaela Sangl Mallinson Rendel, $16.95, ISBN 0908783906 My Story: A New Song in the Land – The Writings of Atapo, Paihia, c 1840  Fleur Beale Scholastic, $16.99, ISBN 1869436113 Robert Moran – Private Ken

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Posted in Children, Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults

Previously unthought ways, Stephanie Johnson

These Lives I Have Buried Lindsay Rabbitt Four Winds Press, $14.95, IBSN 0958251452 What Makes A Teacher?  Jack Lasenby Four Winds Press, $14.95, IBSN 0958251444 Ghost Who Writes Martin Edmond Four Winds Press, $14.95, IBSN 0958251436 A directive for enjoying

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Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Review
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