October Kiwi Kids Books: Day 31.

Share a New Zealand book for children or teens you learned about during this challenge

Alice and the strange bird.

Written and illustrated by Isaac Du Toit.

Isaac du Toit, 2025.

In 1880, seven-year-old Alice McKenzie saw and interacted with a strange bird on the beach at Martins Bay, an isolated part of New Zealand's South Island. What did she see? Some well-known New Zealanders believed that Alice may have been one of the last people to have seen a moa.

Shared by Katie Furze.

Assemblage and collage.

Fascinating story – and one I hadn’t heard of before!

October Kiwi Kids Books: Day 30.

Share a New Zealand book for children or teens for older children or teens written in te reo Māori

Hineraukatauri me te ara pūoro

Written by Haumanu Collective and Elizabeth Gray.

Nā Rehua Wilson ngā pikitia.

Haumanu Collective / Huia Publishers, 2024.

Turuturua te taki o Tangaroa e paki Rūaumoko ka rū ki Tarawai a nuku nā tane te peka mataī tokitoki whakaniko whakairohia ngā hau kōtengitengi tumutumu pīwari taketake mataī werowero wenewene tōiriiri ki te nguru korokoru te kiri pāorooro oreore pūrōrino Waiwaiā atua tō ki te tangata.

Just stunning. I truly regret being monolingual. But, the QR codes are brilliant.

October Kiwi Kids Books: Day 29.

Share a New Zealand book for children or teens that has rhyming text

Pūkeko who-keko?

Written and illustrated by Toby Morris.  

Penguin Random House New Zealand, 2025.

Who spilled that blue paint? There's a messy mystery afoot, and Detective Clue-keko needs your help to solve it! Watch out for cartoonist Toby Morris's flying dad jokes in this delightful visual and verbal play on words that rhyme with pukeko, one of Aotearoa New Zealand's most iconic and personality-laden blue birds. Join the hunt and follow the paint trail with Detective Clue-keko as the pukeko chaos accumulates. And who-keko knew-keko that so many words rhyme with pukeko?

Increasingly ridiculous and fun! It’s great – and challenging – to read aloud, but worth it for the giggles.

October Kiwi Kids Books: Day 28.

Share a New Zealand book for children or teens that features an endemic species – animal, plant, etc. 

 

Old Blue: the rarest bird in the world.

Written and illustrated by Mary Taylor.

Scholastic, 1993.

The story of Old Blue, a black robin, who, aided by the New Zealand Wildlife Service, rescued her species from near extinction.

FINALLY, BIRD OF THE YEAR!

And, the lessons learnt with Old Blue help every day.

My other favourite bird is tara-iti – New Zealand’s current rarest bird. Currently nearly 50 birds over a year old in the wild.

October Kiwi Kids Books: Day 27.

Share a New Zealand book for children or teens by a Pasifika creator

 

Whose your name? / [authors Sean Amaama and 21 others] ; [edited by Tania Maka and Dahlia Malaeulu].

Mila's Books, 2024.

Every name has a story. The Whose Your Name? Book Project brings together pieces of writing from the Tamaiti o le Pasifika class, a Pasifika enrichment class at Wainuiomata Intermediate School. These young Pasifika writers explore the meanings of Pacific island names, the cultural history behind their own, and the experiences that have shaped their understanding of identity. 

Powerful kōrero, and it so hard to believe these are intermediate children.