Annual

Description

Gecko Press’s Annual is a game-changer, packing dynamic, irreverent, challenging, and timeless material into a beautiful package for 9- to 12-year-olds. Annual features a dictionary of crazy words that come in handy on car trips, a sophisticated "spot the similarity", a found poem from school newsletters, a maths-nerd's memoir full of tricky logic puzzles, comics that embrace other worlds, a very unlucky zebra, and top-class fiction that spans Christchurch Botanic Gardens in the 19th century, the loss of a brother, a Kiwi beach holiday, and a Fontanian boarding school. This is a book for readers who are hungry for sophisticated, wide-ranging, and challenging content. It aims to revitalize the reading experience for this age group and create lifetime readers.

Author description

Kate De Goldi is one of New Zealand's best-known commentators on children's literature, via her regular sessions with Kim Hill on National Radio and extensive visits to schools. She writes fiction for all ages and has published nine books. She has an extensive network of contacts throughout the New Zealand writing community and an in-depth understanding of New Zealand's writing and publishing culture.

Susan Paris has fifteen years' experience in publishing and nine years as editor of the School Journal. Under her stewardship, the School Journal has won Best Publication in New Zealand educational publishing three times. She has written more than forty chapter books for the educational market, both here and overseas.

Table of contents

The Tailor's Tale by Renata Hopkins 4

Star Gazing by Whiti Hereaka, illustrated by Rebecca ter Borg 24

Seeds by Joanna Orwin, illustrated by Karen Atherton 54

B.O.N.E. by Gavin Mouldey 72

The Glove by Damien Wilkins, illustrated by Sarah Wilkins 106

Tingirl and the Crying Time by Barbara Else, illustrated by Kieran Rynhart 124

A Box of Birds by Kristen McDougall, illustrated by Giselle Clarkson 66

Kill List by Tim Upperton, illustrated by Riccardo Scott 12

Spot the Similarities by Gavin Mouldey 10

What is Ugly? by Jo Randerson 85

Looking for Saner Climates by Kate Camp, illustrated by Richard Warnock 32

Race by Jenny Bornholdt 65

This is Not a Bottle by Fifi Colston 80

Every Picture Tells a Story by Paul Beavis 44

Naked Grandmother 134

Get Rid of Fetu Fotofoto Day by Gregory O'Brien 96

Lost Items by James Brown 51

Rhyme Ninja by Michael Petherick 43

Holiday by Jonathan King 15

Happy Birthday Nana by Coco Solid 34

Mother and Son by Catharina van Bohemen 22

Nervous Friends by Eve Armstrong 52

Bleeders by Dylan Owen 78

Bad Luck Zebra 43, 84, 91, 103

Parsley Magic by Sally Bollinger 114

Tatau by Edith Amituanai 122

Spray Can Renaissance by Karira Allen 104

Selfies by Steve Braunias, illustrated by Sarah Laing 92

A Wee Wait by Pablo Edmonds 84

Let Me Count the Ways by Bernard Beckett, illustrated by EllieMay Logan 36

Honky by Ben Brown, illustrated by Gavin Bishop 98

Always On Your Phone by Samuel Scott 70