Favourite Reads
Picture Books:
I Yam A Donkey by Cece Bell
- Hillarious!!!
- Great read-aloud
-- Donkey introduces himself to a Yam "I Yam a Donkey".
-- The Yam then tries to teach Donkey about grammar!
- Have to read this with an accent
-- 'Country' for Donkey
-- 'Posh British' for Yam
Crow by Leo Timmers
- The illustrations are just awesome!!!
- The facial expressions make the story!!!
- Poor Crow. All the other birds are afraid of him
-- When he tries to trick them into being friends with him things don't turn out quite like he planned!
Footpath Flowers by John Arno Lawson
- Text Free
- Follows a child going for a walk with her father
- Pictures slowly change from grey-scale to bright and colourful
Calvin Can't Fly by Jennifer Berne
- Calvin is a Starling, from a really really really big family. He is also a bookworm!
- When all the other starlings are learning to find food and fly Calvin is more interested in learning to read books and letting his imagination fly
- When the time comes to migrate Calvin's family helps him travel with them, and he (and they) find out that that his book learning can help save them all
Please, Open this book! by Adam Lehraupt
- All about what happens when a book is closed.
- Trust us, you're never going to want to shut a book again!!!
Book of Beards by Lemke & Lemtz
- Board Book
- Interactive
- This book lets kids (and adults) see how they look with a variety of beard options
- Great fun!
Open Very Carefully : The book with bite by Nick Bromley & Nicola O'Byrne
- Interactive
- The story starts off as the 'Ugly Duckling' ... BUT ... There is an uninvited guest!
- Readers have to try and get the crocodile out of the book
Children's Fiction:
Storm Horse by Nick Garlick
- Coming of age
- Set in a remote Dutch island
- Young boy looses his father and is taken to live with a stern uncle.
- Has to deal with Bullies and a change of lifestyle
- A Ship is wrecked off the coast and all hands & horses are lost ... except one who is washed up on shore as Flip is walking along the beach
-- A la 'Black Stallion'
- Flip learns to look after the horse and at the same time learns the importance of family
Young Hank Zipzer / Here's Hank by Henry Winkler (aka 'The Fonze')
- Dyslexia Friendly
-- 'Dyslexie' font
-- Short chapters
-- Widely spaces lines and words
- School stories
- Easily recognisable characters- either the student of a friend
-- Boys and girls will relate
-- Hank tries really hard at school but is always in trouble
-- Sucks at maths, reading and spelling
-- Makes everyone laugh
- Great read-aloud
- approx. Year 3-4
Hank Zipzer : The world's greatest underachiever by Henry Winkler
- Not as Dyslexia Friendly as the 'Young Hank' series
- Catching story starters
- Great read-aloud
- approx. Year 5-6
From the Cutting Room Floor of Barney Kettle by Kate De Goldi
- Fantastic read-aloud for year 5 & 6
- NZ Fiction
- Loved It!
- Transcends age groups
- Set in city community in Christchurch
-- Pre-earthquake - the whole time you are reading it you know there is this 'THING' that is going to happen!
-- Found the suspense almost unbearable with our NZ knowledge
-- Maybe people overseas would not have this same feeling
- Brother and sister close in age
-- He's got a very dominating personality - almost autistic. 11-12 yrs old
-- She's younger but very clever - an organiser. 10 yrs old
-- Brother / sister relationship really well done
- Very Kate De Goldi - The language is just devine!
YA Fiction:
The Illuminae Files Bk1 Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
- Amazing Read!!!!
- Plot twist
- Space Opera
- Told in document files, emails, IMs, security camera footage ...
-- Like a police dossier that has been put together about an event that has happened
- Done so well
-- Written by two authors
-- "How much fun did they have when they were writing this?"
- Swear words are 'blanked out'
-- Gives options for those kids who don't like the swearing in books
-- OR students can add their own 'words' in place of the blank
A Garvie Smith Mystery Bk1 Running Girl by Simon Mason
- Crime / Mystery
- Drugs, smoking, and ditching school
- Strong male protagonist
- 2 main characters
-- It really good to read a book that does not have the traditional 'white male'
-- Garvie Smith - Highly intelligent. Very bored and doing really badly at school. Hangs out with a really bad crowd. Solving puzzles really gets his mind going. Mum has threatened that unless he picks his grades up they are moving back to Barbados.
-- DI Singh - Trying to solve the case & get promoted. Closely scrutinized by his boss. Does not need the help of
- Very slow start but the story speeds up ... almost as if Garvie himself is the key to the tempo of the story.
- A school mate (& ex girlfriend) of Garvies goes missing, later to be pulled from the pond. Garvie decides to try and solve the crime before the police.
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
- "Really liked it - Devoured it"
- Very Intense read
- Would not recommend for younger readers
- 15 years +
- Opens with a girl who has had her hands cut off
- She was beating a boy up ... she is arrested and put in juvenile detention
- Raised in a cult and the story is told in flash-backs
-- One chapter in the 'now' in Juvie how she is coping with life and dealing with lack of hands
-- One chapter during her life in the cult
- Really 'Yuck' ... what they do in the cult
- "The thought of having no hands really freaks me out"
- Not a lot of books that feature students with severe disabilities
The Rest Of Us Just Live Here by Patrik Ness
- Liked it!!
- It'll make sense in the end - it's almost like two books - the bit at the start of each chapter often bears no resemblance to the rest of the chapter
- Main character quite OCD and how he deals with everything
- "Hate the Mother!"
- "Don't know what you're doing here Patrick .... You've kind of lost me" ... and then "I got it!!!"
- It's great!
Hushed by Kelly York
- More mature YA / 18+
- Recommend to girls more than boys
- Main character is an 18 year old guy
- Serial killer
-- Think 'Dexter' but he hates what he does
-- Pretty damaged
-- A friend was raped and he is killing all the rapist that attacked her
- "I liked the ending .... Realistic"
- No sex scenes
-- Bit of hugging and kissing between the boys
- "Something about it that just sucked me into it ... I really enjoyed it!"
The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson
- Transgender
- "I Loved It!"
- Boy (David) whose family thinks he's gay
- He's not ... he thinks he is a girl
- School's not that awesome for him
- New boy (LEO) starts school - he's mysterious
-- Gets you hooked into the story to find out what happens to him
- Realistic read
- Good for teens struggling with their own identity
-- "Surround yourself with people who love you and support you"
- Students at Boys High school loved it!
My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier
- More mature YA / Senior read
-- Wouldn't give it to a year 10 who wasn't very worldly
- Teenage gy (17/18 yrs old) originally from Sydney
-- Parents set-up 'start-up' businesses and then move on
- 3 goals
-- Get back to Sydney
-- Get a girlfriend / get laid
-- Make sure my sister doesn't hurt anyone (she's 10 years old)
- Understand his motivation for being a good solid guy as you read it
- Really creepy!
- Tension mounting!
- "Creepily good!"
Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Gaudin
- It is sooooo good!
- "Can't wait to get reviews from the boys to see if they like it"
- Speculative fiction
-- AXIS won WWII
- Every year there is a motorcycle race
-- Contestants have to be under 18 years old
-- Volunteer - not forced into it or 'taken'
- Girl enters the race pretending to be someone else who won last year
-- Resistance relies on her winning the race
- Full of action
- Consequences
- So much in the book on 'identities'
- Could be a Level 2 text
- Definitely good for Level 1
Yellow by Megan Jacobson
- Fabulous cover - like diamonds with eyes
- Paranormal / Bullying / Crime
- Strange read
- Set in Sydney / Byron Bay
- Father calls her 'Yellow' because of her eyes
- Mother has 'hit' the gin bottle
- Bullied at school
- Mothering the mother
- Can't handle it anymore - goes to beach to 'end it'
- Public phone at the beach starts to ring and a boy who died 20 years before is on the other end
The Boy At The Top Of The Mountain by John Boyne
- 7 year old French boy living in Paris pre-war
-- Just before Germany invades
-- Father abusive - dies
-- Mother dies of tuberculosis
-- Best friend's parents help look after him
--- Jewish
--- Friend is deaf
- Some of it is a bit unbelievable ... He is sent on a train trip on his own from France to Austria
-- Ends up with his aunt (??) who is housekeeper to Hitler
- He was a lovely young boy who became indocturated into Hitlers way of life
- Transformation from innocent young boy to terrible teen to adulthood
- "Enjoyed it as much, if not more, than 'The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas'
The Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater
- Not Dystopia
- Not a Love Triangle - refreshing
- Arthurian / Magic / Quest
- Prophesy about the girl (Blue) ... 'The boy she falls in love with will die!'
- Mother is psychic
- Good for boys even though the cover looks quite girly
- Good strong characters
Adult Fiction:
Coffin Road by Peter May
- Detective / Mystery / Crime
- A guy wakes up on a beach in the Scottish Hebrides
-- No recollection of who, what or where he is
- First two chapter you think you know where the story is going, ... then the next couple of chapter are "What! Oh Ok. Now I know where you're going with this". And then "What! Really!!"
- It's always changing
- Really good read
- Very Anne Cleaves
From the Cutting Room Floor of Barney Kettle by Kate De Goldi
- Fantastic read-aloud for year 5 & 6
- NZ Fiction
- Loved It!
- Transcends age groups
- Set in city community in Christchurch
-- Pre-earthquake - the whole time you are reading it you know there is this 'THING' that is going to happen!
-- Found the suspense almost unbearable with our NZ knowledge
-- Maybe people overseas would not have this same feeling
- Brother and sister close in age
-- He's got a very dominating personality - almost autistic. 11-12 yrs old
-- She's younger but very clever - an organiser. 10 yrs old
-- Brother / sister relationship really well done
- Very Kate De Goldi - The language is just devine!
Max by Sarah Cohen-Scali
- "Can't say I enjoyed the book because it's not a nice topic ..... However it is a really interesting read"
- Max tells his story all the way through from the point-of-view when he was a fetus
- He was the first person to be born in the 'perfect' Hitler world
- Just have to forget that it is a fetus telling the story
- Set during the war when Hitler is still alive
Darkest Place by Jaye Ford
- Set in Sydney
- Carried guilt around for last 10 years that she was the reason her friends died in a terrible accident
- Wakes up the first night in her new place and a man is standing in her room looking at her.
-- Calls the police but can't find anything
-- Happens 2 more times and the police tell her to stop making prank calls
- Really enjoyed it! It was really good!
Bob Skinner series by Quentine Jardine
- Scottish Crime
Logan McRae series by Stuart Macbride
- Scottish Crime
- He is so funny
- Pretty raw
- Really creative insults (female cop)
Non Fiction:
The Boy with Two Lives by Abbas Kazerooni
- Biography / Memoirs
- Quite a heartbreaking read
- 10 year old Abbis arrives in England fleeing conscription into the Iranian army
- Sent to live with his cousin - who is a nasty piece of work
- Abbis gets packed off to boarding school and is often left there during breaks as his cousin doesn't want him
- Ending up homeless at age 13 Abbis lives an amazingly hard and desperate existence, but is to scared to tell anybody about his problems in case he is sent back to Iran
The Story of America : Essays on Origins by Jill Lepore
- Historian / Writer for 'New Yorker'
- Themed stories about the history of America
Other Tips and Hints
Check out 'QuizLet' & 'QuizLet Live'
- Quizes, games & flashcards
- Free sign-up
- Track class progress for individual quizes
- Use QuizLet Live to create group competitions
Create a QR treasure hunt in your library
- Have a sheet of paper with questions and clues for students to complete
- Create QR codes with clues and links to the information needed to answer the questions
- Hide these around your library
Please bear in mind that these reviews are our own personal thoughts on the books we have read. They are not necessarily what others may perceive them to be. Goodreads and Amazon are both good places to check out other reviews on these books.
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