A disappearance. An infatuation. The Frog Prince is an intriguing, multi-layered novel giving us a story, within a story, within a story. Remember the kiss between the frog prince and the princess? What about the part where the princess angrily flings the frog against the wall? What was that about? At an international school in France, the young teacher Cara writes her own version of the classic tale by the Brothers Grimm. Their fairy tale is nothing like Cara’s r...

When Mallory and her sidekick Arthur kidnap the tooth fairy, they get more than they bargained for in this sparkling fantasy adventure novel for children. Mallory is a nasty piece of work. Her one friend is Arthur, who only puts up with her because he has no one else. When Mallory loses a tooth, she comes up with an evil idea to capture and blackmail the tooth fairy for an endless supply of money. But it’s never a good idea to meddle with a magical creature, and Mallory and Arthur are abou...

Scheming Mallory and her reluctant sidekick Arthur have a Halloween misadventure involving nasty tricks, time travel and a sneaky cat. Mallory wants candy, as much as she can grab, and she’s prepared to play some tricks (and kick a pesky black cat) to get it. But when she and her reluctant sidekick Arthur tangle with the owner of a spooky old house, the trick is on them. In the beat of a bat’s wing, they’re a century back in time with a mission to find that slippery cat, or Mallory will ch...

An enchanting story of a story, Twice Upon a Time is a charming junior fiction novel by award-winning writer James Norcliffe. What happens when you find yourself trapped inside a story? What happens if the only way out is to solve the riddles of the Very Bad Very Good Storyteller, Mr Aesop Sod? And where, oh where, is Pop? Ginny and her strange new friend, Digger Dagger, must navigate their way through this upside down, topsy turvy world where Don's Dairy has beco...

How do you escape being the loblolly boy? Find the boy who stole your life and Exchange. An exciting fantasy novel for junior readers The NZ Post Junior Fiction winner returns with outstanding sequel! Following on from the highly acclaimed The Loblolly Boy, this magical and astonishing story, full of lurches and unexpected twists, will keep readers captivated from beginning to end. How do you escape from being the loblolly boy? The answer is simple: find the boy who stole your lif...

A strange and mischievous story written with exceptional style, pace and grace — a true classic in the making. It’s 1740 . . . The Firefly is taken in the night by pirates who sail the Caribbean. The ship’s boy and a handful of men are set adrift in a jolly-boat. Without food or water the half-starved men eye up the young boy. Astonishingly, a mysterious Mr Wicker saves the boy by turning him into an unearthly creature — an invisible flying boy with beautiful eme...

Fantasy, adventure and realism combine in a junior fiction novel by an award-winning writer. When David’s uncle comes to visit he sets off a bizarre series of events. Things become complicated when the pet rats turn bright red. David senses that somehow the red rats are connected to the story he is reading, and he becomes more convinced when the colour red becomes contagious. The parallel story sees Felix and his friend Bella inadvertently shifted into a strange land wher...

Norcliffe professes not to be a confessional poet; nevertheless he freely acknowledges that places and people served as prompts for the poems. New Zealand based, Norcliffe is well-travelled and his poems have international resonance. Placing Shadow Play with one other poetry collection as a finalist for the annual international Proverse Prize in 2011, the judging panel (reviewing entries with no knowledge of the writers) found an expert hand behind a wide variety of well-wrought p...

In the aftermath of the Christchurch terrorist attacks of 15 March 2019, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared: 'We are all New Zealanders.' These words resonated, an instant meme that asserted our national diversity and inclusiveness and, at the same time, issued a rebuke to hatred and divisiveness. Ko Aotearoa Tatou | We Are New Zealand is bursting with new works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art created in response to the editors' questions: What is New Zealand no...

In the aftermath of the Christchurch terrorist attacks of 15 March 2019, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared: 'We are all New Zealanders.' These words resonated, an instant meme that asserted our national diversity and inclusiveness and, at the same time, issued a rebuke to hatred and divisiveness. Ko Aotearoa Tatou | We Are New Zealand is bursting with new works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art created in response to the editors' questions: What is New Zealand no...