50 New Zealand Books Every Kid Should Read By Age 12

Todays list is a Kiwi response to the list published last week 50 Books Every Kid Should Read Before They're 12. The folks at Booknotes Unbound came up with (quite a few more than) 50 NZ books for kids to read.

There's some shameless cheating in their list, and that's fine. So much so that the top three positions are Margaret Mahy, Joy Cowley and Maurice Gee- the "holy trinity" of NZ children's authors, and they've suggested that you just read all of their work! I've read some of all three, but barely scratched the surface.

1. Margaret Mahy (see my review of The Changeover)
2. Joy Cowley
3. Maurice Gee (see my review of Under the Mountain)
4. The Wheels on the Bus and Old MacDonald's Farm - Donovan Bixley
5. I am Not Esther (see my review), I am Rebecca, Being Magdalene - Fleur Beale
6. See Ya, Simon - David Hill (see my review)
7. The Bone Tiki - David Hair
8. Genesis - Bernard Beckett
9. The Wednesday Wizard - Sherryl Jordan
10. The 10PM Question - Kate De Goldi

11. Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy - Lynley Dodd
12. The Runaway Settlers - Elsie Locke
13. My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes - Eve Sutton, Lynley Dodd (illustrator)
14. Night Vision - Ella West
15. The Little Yellow Digger - Betty and Alan Gilderdale
16. The Wonkey Donkey - Craig Smith
17. I Am Not A Worm - Scott Tulloch
18. Alex - Tess Duder
19. Duck's Stuck - Kyle Mewburn, Ali Teo and John O'Reilly (illustrators)
20. The Kuia and the Spider - Patricia Grace, Robyn Kahukiwa (illustrator)
21. Oliver in the Garden - Margaret Beames
22. Mr McGee and the Biting Flea - Pamela Allen
23. How Maui Slowed the Sun - Peter Gossage
24. Brain Jack - Brian Falkner
25. The Boring Book - Vasanti Unka
26. Changing Times: The Story of a New Zealand Town and It's Newspaper - Bob Kerr
27. The Travelling Restaurant - Barbara Else

28. Baa Baa Smart Sheep - Mark and Rowan Somerset
29. Pigtails the Pirate - David Elliot
30. Why Do Dogs Sniff Bottoms? - Dawn McMillan and Bert Signal, Ross Kinnaird (illustrator)
31. Grandpa's Slippers - Joy Watson and Wendy Hodder
32. The Bantam and the Soldier - Jennifer Beck and Robyn Belton
33. A Treasury of New Zealand Poems for Children - Paula Green (editor), Jenny Cooper (illustrator)
34. The Whale Rider - Witi Ihimaera (see my review)
35. Purple Heart - Andrew Fiu
36. Baxter Basics: Poems for Children - James K. Baxter
37. Telesa - Lani Wendt Young
38. Stomp - Ruth Paul
39. Marmaduke Duck and the Marmalade Jam - Juliette MacIver and Sarah Davis
40. Red Rocks - Rachael King

41. Project Huia - Des Hunt
42. The Red Poppy - David Hill, Fifi Colton (illustrator)
43. Juggling with Mandarins - V.M Jones
44. Conrad Cooper's Last Stand - Leonie Agnew

45. Chicken Licken - Gavin Bishop
46. New Zealand Hall of Fame: 50 Remarkable Kiwis - Maria Gill, Bruce Potter (illustrator)
47. Mōtītī Blue and the Oil Spill - Debbie McCauley
48. Ngā Kī - Sacha Cotter and Joshua Morgan, Kawata Teepa (translator)
49. Anzac Day: The New Zealand Story - Philippa Wherry
50. School Journal

14/50+

There are several really great books on this list. I am not Esther is fantastic. See Ya, Simon also fabulous. Master Wicker loved Hairy Maclary when he was little. Thankfully I did too as I can still recite much of it 10 years down the track.

No matter how good the editions of The Wheels on the Bus and Old MacDonald's Farm may be I wouldn't put them at number 4. Naturally there are many books on this list that I'd like to read. Some I've been aware of for some time, and others I'd never heard of. Some aren't even books- School Journal.