Big Little Blue - Double Dippers! by Raymond McGrath
Delightful Bigsies and Littles are back, showcasing the importance of being kind and helping others. Each story is connected by a wellbeing theme, and is designed to offer children coping strategies for navigating friendships, understanding emotional responses, and the importance of mindfulness and being yourself
Lopini the Legend by Feana Tu'akoi
When Lopini is replaced as kapa haka leader at school, he starts to spiral. It doesn't matter that he thinks it's a good idea, or that he agreed to the change in the first place. He's a hard-out perfectionist and this feels like a public failure. Lopini's best mate, Fi, thinks he's overreacting. After all, he's so successful that everyone at school calls him Lopini the Legend. But Lopini still freaks out whenever something goes wrong - and he HATES it. He decides to practise failing, so he won't feel like that anymore. Can Lopini still be a legend, if everyone knows he isn't perfect?
Nine Girls by Stacy Gregg
They dug a hole and they put the box filled with gold inside it. To keep it safe until they could return, one of them placed a tapu on it. A tapu so that anyone who tried to touch the gold would die. Titch is determined to find the gold buried somewhere on her family's land. It might be cursed but that won't put her off. Then an unexpected encounter with a creature from the river reveals secrets lying beneath its surface... As Titch uncovers the truth about the hidden treasure, she learns about her own heritage, and what it's like to feel like an outsider in your own world"
Take me to Your Leader by Leonie Agnew
With their tiny rural school under threat of closure, Lucas and his friends hatch a zany scheme to revitalise their town and save their school: faking UFOs. The plan swiftly spirals out of control and chaos ensues. Themes of community, connection and activism are woven throughout this laugh-out-loud comic caper.
The Grimmelings by Rachael King
The same evening Josh Underhill went missing, the black horse appeared on the hill above the house. Ella knows that words are powerful. So she should have known better than to utter a wish and a curse on the same day. Who is Gus, the boy with the impish grin, who seems to appear in answer to her wish? And what does the black horse want? When Ella finds that her grandmother's warnings of creatures that dwell in the lake are more than just stories, she and her pony Magpie are drawn into a dangerous, life-saving mission
