A young girl reads a book in a treehouse built in a flowering cherry tree – clouds of pink blossom around her.
(Photo: Donald Iain Smith / Tetra images via Getty)

BooksOctober 4, 2021

The Unity Books children’s bestseller chart for the month of September

A young girl reads a book in a treehouse built in a flowering cherry tree – clouds of pink blossom around her.
(Photo: Donald Iain Smith / Tetra images via Getty)

What’s the best way to get adults reading? Get them reading when they’re children – and there’s no better place to start than Unity’s bestseller chart of kids’ books.

AUCKLAND

1  Atua: Maori Gods & Heroes by Gavin Bishop (Puffin, $40, all ages)

We raved about this beautiful big hardback in our latest Book Report, calling it Bishop’s best book yet, a masterwork.

“My boy grabbed it the moment it arrived and gasped, ‘Is this for kids?’

“It is, but it’s also for adults, and it’ll make them gasp too.”

2  Big Ideas for Curious Minds: An Introduction to Philosophy by Alain de Botton and Anna Doherty (Affirm Press, $40, 8+)

Children love it when you take them seriously and this book really does. Recommended.

3  Kuwi & Friends Māori Picture Dictionary by Kat Merewether & Pania Papa (Illustrated Publishing, $35, 4+)

A resource that’ll grow with your kids – toddlers will endlessly play “find the tūī”, while older ones will use it when they’re stuck on a word – and it’ll look splendid on your bookshelf, too.

4  The Pōrangi Boy by Shilo Kino (Huia, $25, 10+)

Kino won the YA category of the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults with this debut. We very much hope she has another in the works.

5  Shadow and Bone Box Set by Leigh Bardugo (Hachette, $40, 13+)

A big boost thanks to the Netflix series.

6  Roald Dahl: Revolting things to Touch and Feel by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake (Puffin $21, 1+)

If you have a toddler you’ve touched many more revolting things. Still, this tactile board book is a nice change from the fluffy duck-tummies and shiny dog-noses that dominate the genre.

7  Rescuing Titanic: A Tale of Quiet Bravery in the North Atlantic by Flora Delargy (Wide Eyed Press, $23, 11+)

“This exquisitely illustrated story of quiet bravery tells in rich detail how the little ship Carpathia saved 705 passengers of the Titanic from the icy waters of the North Atlantic” – the publishers.

8  My First Words in Māori Flash Cards by Stacey Morrison (Puffin, $25, 3yrs – adults)

Please picture me holding up flashcards:

SUCH

A
GREAT

IDEA

9  In Our Own Backyard by Anne Kayes (Bateman, $22, 13+)

A new YA that ties in Covid-19, Black Lives Matter and the Springbok Tour. Selling its socks off.

10  Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 1, The Birth of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari and David Vandermeulen, and illustrator Daniel Casanave (Jonathon Cape, $48, 11+)

Graphic version of the mega-hit book Sapiens, which somehow was first published a whole decade ago.

WELLINGTON

1  Adventures of Mittens by Silvio Bruinsma & Phoebe Morris (Penguin, $20, 3+) 

Merry Christmas, all of the children of Wellington. 

2  Atua: Māori Gods & Heroes by Gavin Bishop (Puffin, $40, all ages)

3  Skinny Dip: Poetry edited by Susan Paris & Kate De Goldi (Annual Ink, $30, 10+) 

Warning to Aucklanders: these poems (about school) will make you extremely nostalgic for normality. 

4  The Tiny Woman’s Coat by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Giselle Clarkson (Gecko Press, $25, all ages) 

Enthusiastically recommended by a panel of expert judges – my six-year-old, my two-year-old, and me. The tiny woman has a huge snail friend and there are massive ploppy raindrops and a mushroom repurposed as an umbrella. 

3  The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charles Mackesy (Ebury Press, $40, all ages)

Wellington loves these wise little pen-and-ink critters almost as much as it loves Mittens.

6  Te Tuna Wātakirihi Me Ngā Tamariki o Te Tiriti o Toa (Watercress Tuna and the Children of Champion Street) by Patricia Grace, illustrated by Robyn Kahukiwa (Pengun, $20, all ages) 

Twenty bucks has never bought you a better picture book. Get amongst. 

7  Charlie Tangaroa & the Creature from the Sea by TK Roxborogh, illustrated by Phoebe Morris (Huia, $25, 9+) 

Newly-crowned winner of the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year; a very good story about a boy who lives in a tiny coastal town and has a big (supernatural) adventure. 

8  Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (St Martin’s Griffin, $33, 16+) 

Is there a movie of this? There must be one in the works (indeed there is – ed.). Plot: the hot son of the US President falls in love with the hot prince of England, politics and angst and lots of hot pashing ensue. 

9  The Hug Blanket by Chris Gurney, illustrated by Lael Chisholm (Scholastic, $22, all ages) 

An earnest, sweet and rather long picture book about a grandmother who adores her grandchildren, takes them on lovely low-key adventures, and knits special blankets for them. When she dies, the children are disoriented and sad, but the blankets are a huge comfort. 

10  One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston (Piatkus, $35, 16+) 

Not as good as Red, White & Royal Blue but still really really good! This one’s about a teenage girl who falls for another girl on the subway. Involves time travel, pancakes and an amazing cast of flatmates.

Keep going!
Cakes on display at a gender reveal party
Getty Images

BooksOctober 1, 2021

The Friday Poem: Gender, no. Woman, hot: A Dialectic Executed to Reveal the Nonbinary Lesbian, by Dani Yourukova

Cakes on display at a gender reveal party
Getty Images

A new poem from Wellington poet Dani Yourukova.

Gender, no. Woman, hot: A Dialectic Executed to Reveal the Nonbinary Lesbian

When we begin, we do not exactly begin at the beginning. Instead we begin with a question:

“What is the nonbinary lesbian, and how do we articulate how our diverse experiences with gender intersect with our queer sexuality”

The esteemed flock of Trans Philosophers deliberate. But it is only after many hours of discord
that any sense of consensus is reached. The founding principle is articulated thus:

 

Gender, no. Woman, hot.

At last, Socrates speaks: “Have you considered making fewer quibbles and simply choosing to be sexy?”

His eighteen-months-on-testosterone stubble bristles with wisdom and
I ignore him in pursuit of self-knowledge.

“Oh fine, we’ll do a dialectic then. Let’s consider the antithetical.”

 

Gender, yes! Woman, cold.

I like to perform my gender with great specificity
and enthusiasm. I confess my sins kneeling before
the door of a single-sex public bathroom, and draw
secondary sexual characteristics on images
of cartoon mice. Nearby,
a woman is slowly succumbing to
the onset of hypothermia. I cannot give
her my potentially-life-saving puffer jacket
because I got it from Hallensteins.

 

Gender, hot! Woman? No. 

We like to throw a gender reveal party
every Friday night…. if you know what I mean.
No ladies allowed! Leave your wives at home!!
We sun ourselves like lizards in the heat and get ready
to fuck in the rhythms of our societally dictated sexual roles.
Then we usually go home because
no one will surrender their grip on hegemonic masculinity
for long enough to have an orgasm.

 

Gender? Maybe. Woman, of indeterminate temperature.

The doctor hefts the newborn in their gore-covered,
latex-gloved hands, and peers at the genital configuration.
“Yeah, I guess?” they shrug. The baby’s mother
unhinges her jaw and devours the medical professional
for their impudence.

 

Anti-gender? No. Man, Hot.

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams
she found herself transformed in her bed into a cisgender heterosexual.
“What has happened to me?” she thought. This was no dream.

 

Gender, not-no. Woman, not-hot.

The woman loses track of herself inside the negatives.
“Am I here?” she asks.
“Am I here?”
“Am I here?” the nonbinary lesbian echoes like a call disconnecting.
Socrates emerges from the sea,
and opens his arms to the
undulating spill of the skies.
“Have you ever considered asking fewer questions?”

 

The Friday Poem is edited by Chris Tse. Submissions are currently closed and will open again soon.