Tokerau Brown is a Cook Islands Māori illustrator and multimedia artist. Co-director of Māori Pasifika art gallery Wheke Fortress, Brown is also a musician, audio engineer and animator.
Gecko Press
Joy Cowley & Hilary Jean Tapper Good Night, Good Beach An evocative bedtime picture book that distils the essence of a family summer at the bach. Summer holidays by the sea have a rhythm all their own. With a few resonant images Cowley takes us straight to the end of a long hot day with…
David Barrow Have You Seen Dinosaur? In this follow-up to the bestselling picture book Have You Seen Elephant?, boy, dog and elephant search in a dramatic cityscape for a dinosaur that’s surprisingly good at hiding. Best friends boy, dog and elephant are VERY good at hide-and-seek. There’s a missing dinosaur in the city – who…
Joy Cowley Dunger Dunger is a highly readable novel from New Zealand’s beloved Joy Cowley. William and Melissa have been roped into helping their old hippie grandparents fix up their holiday home in the middle of the Sounds. They’ll have no electricity, no cellphone reception, and only each other for company. As far as they’re…
Gavin Bishop Friend A warm and simple board book that shares how to talk about feelings through a friendship between a child and their dog. Through the up-close expressive faces of a child and their dog, we learn the words for a range of feelings. This is my dog. She is silly! She is happy….
Sarah Davis & Juliette MacIver The Grizzled Grist Does Not Exist! An exuberant rhyming picture book about a school trip to the hills, where no one sees the danger—apart from quiet Liam, who pays attention and saves the day with his particular skill of hiding. It’s the class trip to Dismal Hills wilderness. The children…
A mysterious and compelling literary fantasy that weaves magic, mathematics, love, family—and riddles within riddles. Sixteen-year-old Canny Mochrie has always been different; she has a calculating, mathematical mind and she sees something extra. When she begrudgingly joins her stepbrother on a trip to research a 30-year-old coal mine disaster, she meets the alluring Ghislain Zarene,…
The tiny woman makes a coat of leaves with the help of friends in this vibrant rhyming tale. The trees, geese, porcupine, horse and plants all share something so the tiny woman can snip, snip, snip and stitch, stitch, stitch a coat to keep herself warm. Resourcefulness and friendship are at the heart of this…
The land holds the truth … the maps will reveal it. Sal, Joe, Francie and Humphrey Santander are mapmakers looking for their father, a famous explorer who disappeared on his last expedition. Their search leads them to a curious new land and a township under siege. The all-powerful Grania Trading Company plans to uproot the…
Playful animals get up to toddler mischief in this boardbook built on word play, with each page twisting animal names into funny new words to share. In this delightful boardbook built on word play, toddlers will recognise each activity—getting dressed, playing, painting (including themselves), having a bath—and see how the animal makes the mischievous most…
A day with grandad showing in simple, beautiful images the bond between grandfather and child: a small hand in a big one, big gumboots and little, some food, stories and a snooze to finish. Pops is a warm and universal board book about a day with grandad. The bond between grandfather and child is shown…
Mihi / mihimihi / pepeha: introducing yourself and making connections to other people and places. Mihi is a simple book to share with babies and talk about their whānau and place in the world. Repeating colours and shapes show the connections between waka, mountain, iwi through to mama, papa and the baby reader. This book…
Jack Lasenby Uncle Trev and his Whistling Bull It’s the 1930s. Our storyteller is crook in bed trying to get over a long sickness and wanting to go back to school, when Uncle Trev arrives to let Mum go out and do the shopping. Uncle Trev tells one story after another about the animals out…
A scrumptious collection for anyone who loves good healthy food— and an occasional indulgence. Here are after-school snacks, breakfast on a stick, cakes, slices and dinners. Egg and Spoon is for children learning to cook independently and families to enjoy cooking together. Much of the food is naturally gluten-free or vegan. Alexandra Tylee is the…
Miro and Zia live in Aurora, a fishing town nestled in the shadow of a mysterious castle. Miro lives in the world of books; Zia is never without her camera. The day they meet, they stumble on a secret. With Zia determined to discover more, a reluctant Miro is pulled into a real-life adventure. The…
The Cook who Cooked for Captain Cook Cook’s Cook follows the 1768 journey of James Cook’s H.M.S. Endeavour with his ship’s cook, the one-handed John Thompson, as story teller. Through real recipes, events on board and the places the ship travelled on its way to the Pacific, the book tells multiple stories. Here are stories…
In this resonant story from Joy Cowley, Cam the mountain boy follows the river from its trickling source in the snow all the way to the sea. The river leads him through forest, farms and towns to the salty wind of the sea. The dramatic landscapes are packed with detail to discover in the world…
Fairytale, time travel and adventure Harsu has five droplets of god blood and a treasured cloak to remember his father by. Now his father is gone, he lives with his mother, his only friend an old onager donkey. And something is not right with Harsu’s mother. She has started kidnapping children, and sometimes her skin…
A comical story about a very busy bath Pig has been looking forward to a lovely peaceful bath all day… In come Sheep, then Cow and Horse. They are very noisy! But Pig finds a way to make them go away. Oink! by David Elliot White Ravens 2018 Best 50 Kids Books 2018, The…