Last year we shared with you a Sampling from Gwendoline Smith's bestseller The Book of Knowing. And this year, Dr Know is back with a follow-up title, The Book of Overthinking. This new release is more targeted at an adult audience – parents and others who spend time w...

There has been an enormous amount of amazing local non-fiction in recent months – and here's a taster of one of those releases. Volcanoes and Earthquakes by Sarah and Gordon Ell is part of Oratia's 'The NZ Series' and this extract is reproduced with permission. 

Vo...

Some mysterious middle-grade reading for you today, in the form of a new Sampling! Here's the prologue and first two chapters of Isa Pearl Ritchie's first book for young people, Awa and the Dreamrealm. 

PROLOGUE

She slid down through the tunnel of light. I saw her p...

We're delighted to share our latest Sampling with you – a brand new fantastical young adult novel from the beloved Sherryl Jordan, published by OneTree House. Our extract from Wynter's Thief starts right at the beginning of the story, drawing you in with a bang. But do...

'He kino ra te noho a te tamariki. Ko Greg Heffley tetahi e mohio pai ana ki tenei.' Te Rātaka a Tama Hūngoingoi is  the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, translated into te reo Māori. Jeff Kinney is the writer and illustrator, and Hēni Jacob has done the translation, w...

The Invincibles: Power Up! is the first book in a super-charged new junior fiction series. Regular old rugby practice turns into something more when five kids are zapped by lightning and find themselves in possession of a range of different super powers! Scholastic NZ...

Bonjour Lucy Bee is a fast-paced holiday adventure novel.  Lucy Bee is on a family reunion holiday in France when she finds an injured boy behind a bush. Having some idea that he is a refugee, she hides him and gets help. But there is something amiss in their part of F...

From the author of the highly acclaimed Into the White, Amundsen's Way: The Race to the South Pole (Allen & Unwin) is the gripping tale of the Norwegian explorer's courage, determination and ruthlessness in the race to the South Pole. In this excerpt, Amundsen prepares...

In this new book, psychologist Gwendoline Smith (AKA Doctor Know) teaches teens about what's going on in their minds and how to get their feelings under control. It's designed to help them adapt and feel better about their place in the world, cope with anxiety and put...

Ricky’s family buy a mansion in a trendy suburb, with panoramic views of the city. Too good to be true… Yep, a real bargain. But this house also has a resident ghost, who wants them out. Cockroaches in the moving boxes, a red sock in the washing with his cricket whites...

From Washington D.C, comes Leila, a young woman in search of family, a place to belong. Instead she finds her destiny and it threatens to tear her apart. There is the bewitching call of a Telesa sisterhood and there is Daniel. Will Leila embrace her birthright or will...

Rafferty is an orphan, raised by monks. Misfortune strikes and he is outcast, and must fend for himself. He uses his cunning and charm to develop a trade for himself as the town’s ratcatcher... and rat liberator.

Rafferty Ferret: Ratbag is by renowned NZ fantasy author...

When her family moves suburbs, Laura discovers an old abandoned house on her street. It seems like the perfect hideout, but something – or, rather, someone – is already hiding inside.

Laura meets Jacob, a runaway teen in a lot of trouble. What is he hiding from? If Laur...

Here's an extract from a new New Zealand Christmas picture book, The Lonely Little Tree by Moya Kirby and illustrated by Terri Rose Baynton (Scholastic). 

A lone and lonely tree overlooks the sea from the edge of a cliff where a forest once grew. Native birds gather, pr...

Flight of the Fantail is a debut YA novel by Steph Matuku, published by Huia. We are pleased to publish the first chapter to whet your appetite for this spooky homegrown mystery.

A busload of high school students crashes in bush in a remote part of Aotearoa New Zealand....