Picture Books > New Zealand Picture Books

Meet Cat... and his colourful collection of pyjamas. One pair for each night of the week. When he wears his space pyjamas, he dreams of Saturn, Mars and shooting stars. When he wears his road pyjamas, he dreams of big red rigs and diggers that dig. But what will happen when he wears his monster pyjamas?
The creator of this delightful new picture book was born and raised in Whangarei.

Shortlisted for NZ Post Children's Book Awards 2011 Little Baa Baa is bored. When Quirky Turkey arrives on the scene, the opportunity to make some mischief proves too hard to resist. With snappy dialogue and hilarious illustrations, Baa Baa Smart Sheep is a laugh-out-loud story that will leave you thinking sheep aren't as stupid as we might think.

When you take afternoon tea with Miss Tilly, there is no knowing where you will end up: from ancient Egypt to outer space, via Atlantis and Loch Ness... What is for sure is that you’ll have one amazing ride and a generous helping of fun! A feast of the imagination illustrated by award-winning, internationally acclaimed Philip Webb

Two friends whose passion is collecting buttons blame each other when their most precious and beautiful button disappears. Who is to blame? Can the mystery be solved and the quarrel between the two friends resolved? This little book is a delightful and whimsical rhyming tale about friendship and buttons, with a special surprise at the end of the book. Button Thief is written by Latesha Randall, and illustrated by Esther Griffiths, two talented young women from Northland, New Zealand. 10% of the purchase price of each book will... read more

Swing the ball. Swing the ball. Thump and smash and whack. Bring the top floors tumbling down. Bang! Clang! Crack! Load the trucks. Load the trucks. Lift and shift and heap. Drive away the piles of junk. Whump! Whop! Beep! Busy workers and noisy machines demolish an old building and build a new playground in this fun picture book from the award-winning team of Sally Sutton and Brian Lovelock. Ideal for machine-mad kids. Includes a pictorial glossary of all the machines with a short caption of what each machine does. A great bo... read more

Always be kind to others; you never know when it will pay off! A group of four animal friends go to the playground to have fun on the swing, the slide, the roundabout and the seesaw. Upon arriving at the swing, they notice an ant sitting on it. Shoo, ant! they say, but Po (the hippo) says no, he was there first and gives him a push. Then all the friends have a turn; but when Po gets on, the swing refuses to budge. Then he gets stuck on the slide, and stops the roundabout. And as for the seesaw!!! The other three friends head ... read more

A reassuring story about floods, machines and adventure from the author of Roadworks. Farmer John's rusty old tractor lies locked in the shed. Rusty yet trusty and orangey-red. When the rain comes and the river rises, will Farmer John's tractor be able to save the day?

A dinosaur follow-the-leader story! Follow Ruth Paul's colourful dinosaurs as they HOP, STOMP and ROAR their way through the pages of this beautifully illustrated book. On the outward journey the largest dinosaur leads, until they can go no further ...then on the way back, it's baby dinosaur who gets to lead the way!

Even though Nancy is big, one day she feels small. She asks her mum, brother, cousin, aunt and grandfather to play with her. They're all busy and inevitably reply, "Later." So Nancy climbs a tree in her backyard to wait for later, and imagines playing the games her family doesn't have time for. When later arrives, it's her family who wonder where Nancy's got to.

This picture book is about cousins' holidays in a rural Maori community having adventures and fun together - playing in the bush, riding horses, fishing, eeling and swimming at the beach. During the holiday, a death leads to a rahui being placed on the beach. After a year, the rahui is lifted, and they return to the beach full of life and with their cousin in their hearts. The feeling of the book is joyous and wistful, and the illustrations richly evoke the atmosphere of the setting and people.

Fantail is looking for Takahe but where can he be? Is he playing with Weka in the snow? Or maybe dancing with Kakapo in the glow of the moon? Perhaps he is splashing through puddles with long-legged Pukeko? Look carefully and you'll see that perhaps he has been right here, all along.

Rhyming children's picture book with full colour illustrations. "Everyone knows that kiwi birds always sleep in the day - all except Emily the Kiwi, who loves to play here ukulele." A story about the joy of music, and sharing. Also featuring Annie the Granny, Louie the Tui, Molly Morepork, Abigail Fantail, and others.

This attractive hardback anthology of the marvellous Margaret Mahy's stories brings together many classic childhood favourites. All eleven stories are presented with their original iconic illustrations and all will amuse, enthrall and delight. Finally The Man whose Mother was a Pirate, The Lion in the Meadow, The Great White Man Eating Shark, The Boy who was Followed Home, The Boy with two Shadows, The Three-Legged Cat, The Witch in the Cherry Tree, A Summery Saturday Morning, Jam and The Great Piratical Rumbustification are brou... read more

The collaborative storybook was created by Telecom customers in association with award-winning Kiwi children's author Kyle Mewburn, illustrator Donovan Bixley and Scholastic New Zealand.
Bo the sheep dreams of being an acrobat, even though he’s afraid of heights. He also lives in a dreary country where circuses were forbidden. His friends offer to take him away to a land where circuses are allowed, but he decides to stay and start a circus in disguise, where extraordinary things happen in the most ordinary of places!

Nick has lost his best friend, Scraps. Luckily there are plenty of people happy to reunite the two, and with a little help from the whole town, Scraps goes on a whirlwind journey all the way home. Full of zany characters and fun, expressive language, this is an entertaining and energetic picture book.

Kiwi is having trouble sleeping. When day dawns and he comes home to snooze all the other birds are wide awake and making a ruckus! The kokako chime, the fantails chatter and the kaka chortle their way through the day, when all Kiwi wants to do is sleep. Finally, when night falls, Kiwi is able to get his own back on all the other noisy birds. Vibrantly illustrated, Time to Sleep is a perfect bed-time read for under-fives.

It's night time and Phoebe needs to go to the toilet. As she ventures down the hall she thinks she is being followed by monsters. But is she?

Roadworks is made with machine-mad pre-school boys in mind, though girls will also love the exciting noise - words, rhythms and rhymes. Roadworks aims to differ from other machine books in that it shows an actual project being completed from start to finish, in this case, the building of a road. The format is simple and would lend itself to further books in a series.

Piggity-Wiggity Jiggity Jig is back in a festive tale of Christmas calamity! The Jig household is bustling with preparations for Christmas and the arrival of the grandparents. And when Piggity-Wiggity is told that he is to be the star in the family play, he is very excited. But his festive role in the celebrations is not quite what Piggity-Wiggity expected …

Old Macdonald had a farm - e-i-e-i-o ..." Everyone knows the song. But now the farm and animals are in New Zealand and old Macdonald has a Swanndri and gumboots. Donovan Bixley's illustrations depict the beautiful New Zealand landscape - with farm animals! But what are those crazy animals up to? For pre-schoolers.About the author:Donovan Bixley is an illustrator and designer. His design company, Magma Design, is based in Taupo. Donovan has illustrated more than 100 stories and book covers as well as over 50 books, including Harry ... read more