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Why Y? David Hill

Ursa
Tina Shaw
Walker Books, $23.00,
ISBN 9781760651244

Invisibly Breathing
Eileen Merriman
Penguin Random House, $20.00,
ISBN 9780143772859

Flight of the Fantail
Steph Matuku
Huia, $30.00,
ISBN 9781775503521

An unspecified number of years back at a Going West Festival, I was on a panel talking about aspects of YA fiction. At question time, a firm voice from the floor asked why we needed the YA category, anyway? Wasn’t it maybe a bit of a fad, a publishers’ ploy to sell more titles? We’d got along for years without it, so why invent it now?

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Posted in Literature, Review, Young adults

History, myth and jollity, Linda Burgess

Roly the Anzac Donkey
Glyn Harper (Jenny Cooper illus)
Puffin, $20.00,
ISBN 9780143506638

The Song of Kauri
Melinda Szymanik (Dominique Ford illus)
Scholastic, $27.00,
ISBN 9781775432289

I Am Not a Worm
Scott Tulloch
Scholastic, $19.00,
ISBN 9781775432517

Zoo Train
Sally Sutton (Daron Parton illus)
Walker Books, $28.00,
ISBN 9781922179876

There’s an immutable force that stands between a child and a book: the adult who buys it. There’s already been the adult who wrote it, published it, reviewed it, stocked it, displayed it – all that has to have taken place before the child can say that magical – sometimes chilling – word: “Again.”

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Posted in Children, Literature, Review

From trenches to terrorism, Barbara Else

Marked   Denis Martin Walker Books, $20.00, ISBN 9781921977541 My Brother’s War David Hill Puffin, $15.00, ISBN 9781742532653 Into the River Ted Dawe Mangakino University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780473205089 The Nature of Ash Mandy Hager Random House, $20.00, ISBN 9781869799038

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

Becoming somebody, Angelina Sbroma

The Brain Sucker Glenn Wood Walker Books, $19.00, ISBN 9781921933633 The Queen and the Nobody Boy Barbara Else Gecko Press, $25.00, ISBN 9781877579233 How to Sell Toothpaste Leonie Thorpe HarperCollins, $25.00, ISBN 9781869509422 Glenn Wood’s The Brain Sucker is the

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

Superheroic coping, Tatjana Schaefer

Reach Hugh Brown HarperCollins, $23.00, ISBN 9781869509569 Broken Elizabeth Pulford Walker Books, $22.00, ISBN 9781921529887 Both Reach and Broken feature episodes of the superhero genre, and in each case this element of the story functions as an exploration into the

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Posted in Graphic novel, Literature, Review, Young adults

Enchanted hunting, Barbara Else

Tussock Elizabeth Pulford Walker Books, $17.99, ISBN 9781921529450   The Ghosts of Iron Bottom Sound Sandy Nelson HarperCollins, $20.50, ISBN 9781869508678   The Sheep on the Fourth Floor Leonie Thorpe HarperCollins, $19.99, ISBN 9781869508159   Shadow of the Boyd Diana

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Posted in Children, Literature, Review

Innocence and experience, Saskia Voorendt

The Crossing Mandy Hager Random House, $19.99, ISBN 9781869791506 Blackthorn’s Betrayal Elizabeth Pulford Walker Books, $17.00, ISBN 9781921529030 Bute View Janice Marriott Mallinson Rendel, $18.00, ISBN 9781877423253 Fire on High David Hill Mallinson Rendel, $18.00, ISBN 9781877423321 Mandy Hager’s The

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Posted in Children, Literature, Review, Young adults

Flights of fancy, Diane Hebley

Sting Raymond Huber Walker Books, $16.99, ISBN 9781921150890 The Strange and Diverting Story of The Loblolly Boy: A Fantasy Novel Involving Enchantment, Mystery, one Garden Gnome and a Wombat’s Bottom James Norcliffe Longacre Press, $19.99, ISBN 9781877460258 Return for the

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Posted in Children, Literature, Review

Brave new worlds, Joan de Hamel

The Tomorrow Code Brian Falkner   Walker Books, $19.99, ISBN 781921150340 Juno of Taris Fleur Beale    Random House, $18.99, ISBN 781869419882 About Griffen’s Heart  Tina Shaw   Longacre Press, $19.99, ISBN 87746015 Chronicles of Stone: Scorched Bone Vincent Ford 

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Posted in Children, Literature, Review
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