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 the Unity Children’s Bestseller Chart.
These lists of the bestselling children’s books at Unity Wellington and Little Unity in Auckland cover the four weeks to September 26 2019.
AUCKLAND
1 My First Words in Māori by Stacey Morrison with Ali Teo and John O’Reilly (Puffin, $20, 5+)
Includes, necessarily, Ipad/Ipapa and Marmite/Ihipani.
2 No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg (Penguin, $8, all ages)
A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.
3 Te Tiriti o Waitangi: The Treaty of Waitangi by Toby Morris with Ross Calman, Mark Derby, and Piripi Walker (Lift Education, $20)
Toby rulz!
4 The Bomb by Sacha Cotter & Josh Morgan (Huia, $23, 5+)
Tūī and sunshine and baggy board shorts and some sweet-as manus.
5 Who Stole the Rainbow? by Unka Vasanti (Puffin, $20, 3+)
“Our very serious pink detective traipses across a landscape of saturated green grass and indigo skies, interviewing key suspects: the cloud, the wind, the rain. Small, understatedly charming moments abound” – us, when this was a finalist in the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
6 The Adventures of Tupaia by Courtney Sina Meredith & Mat Tait (Allen & Unwin, $35,10+)
See also the Voyage to Aotearoa exhibition at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum, on until March.
7 Noisy Book by Bravi Soledad (Gecko Press, $25, board book, 0+)
Friends, my baby LAUGHED FOR THE FIRST TIME when I read her this one.
8 The Kitchen Science Cookbook by Michelle Dickinson (Particular Books, $50, 6+)
A classic of the “buy with great intentions and then the school holidays come and you hide it under the bed because you just cannot” genre.
9 Hello, New Zealand! by Megan McKean (Thames & Hudson, $25, 4+)
The fourth after Hellos Sydney, Melbourne and Australia. McKean also sells bangles marked with city landmarks. And a keyring shaped like a giant shrimp.
10 I Thought I Saw An … Elephant! by Lydia Nichols (Templar Publishing, $15, 0+)
Author bio: “Lydia Nichols is an illustrator and designer. By day she doodles for Google and by night she draws anthropomorphic objects and animals.”
WELLINGTON
1 Little Ghost Who Lost Her Boo! by Elaine Bickell & Raymond McGrath (Scholastic, $19, 5+)
A nice one for the run-up to Halloween, if your kids are getting a bit spooked by the dark.
2 No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg (Penguin, $8, all ages)
3 My First Words in Māori by Stacey Morrison with Ali Teo and John O’Reilly (Puffin, $20, 5+)
4 The Bomb by Sacha Cotter & Josh Morgan (Huia, $23, 5+)
5 The Adventures of Tupaia by Courtney Sina Meredith & Mat Tait (Allen & Unwin, $35,10+)
6 Gobbledegook Book: A Joy Cowley Anthology by Joy Cowley & Giselle Clarkson (Gecko Press, $40, 5+)
Big and bright and delightful. Obviously! There’s a good amount of bouncy poems about cats.
7 The 117-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton (Macmillan, $19, 6+)
“Each year the duo release a new Treehouse book, each with another 13 storeys … [new storeys include] a tiny-horse level, a pyjama-party room, an underpants museum, a door of doom …” – NZ Booklovers.
8 Dinosaur Hunter: Joan Wiffen’s Awesome Fossil Discoveries by Phoebe Morris & David Hill (Puffin, $25, 6+)
“In 1975, Wiffen, a housewife who was “not bad at making jam”, packed the family into the Hillman and went looking for fossils … Using rock hammers, saws, explosives and acid baths, Wiffen and friends discovered toe bones, vertebrae and other remnants of meat and plant-eating dinosaurs and marine reptiles.” – Kim Knight for the Sunday Star-Times, in 2009.
9 Aroha’s Way by Craig Phillips (Tikitibu NZ, $20, 4+)
“A book about a young girl with nerves, fears and worrying thoughts. The story shows her battling with these feelings and then explores her practical skills in self grounding and calming.” – thesapling.co.nz
10 Press Here by Herve Tullet (Penguin, $13, board book, 3+)
Interactive reading made ultra-easy (and legitimately fun).