5 Kiwi Children's Authors to Check Out

I adore everything Claire Mabey writes, from her book reviews on The Spinoff to her beautiful children's book that just came out and is already a firm favourite - Cass and the Beast. Illustrated by Jill Calder, this picture book is a work of art but also has the most poetic story about a young girl called Cass who is brave enough to try and find the 'beast'. 

Claire not only writes amazing children's picture books, she has an amazing series you should check out if you have a child who loves adventure/fantasy novels! The Raven Eye Runaways is book one and is perfect middle grade fiction, a little spooky and stressful, but rich with imagery about the world and about friendship. It's dystopian but with a unique magical system, and a fascinating premise where reading and writing are restricted to the elite and it's up to a group of friends and a one-eyed raven to discover the truth about their world.

I first learned to love David Hill's books with his amazing non-fiction that we would use constantly in the classroom. David Hill writes excellent books about Kiwi heroes, illustrated by the amazing Phoebe Morris. Mother of the Nation is a stunning picture book about Whina Cooper and the hīkoi she led, plus there's a te reo version as well which is awesome. I also love Dinosaur Hunter which is about Joan Wiffen, and First to the Top which is a great book about Sir Edmund Hillary!

More recently I've been recommending his novel Stepping Up to kids and teachers - it's a hard to put down story about a boy who loses a limb after a tragic acccident and has to learn how to adapt to his new life and his new body. It's an excellent novel about resilience and recovery, perfect especially for boys! 

I will now buy any picture book that these two humans make and publish thanks to the awesome folks over at Gecko Press. The combination of incredibly unique and vibrant illustrations, and excellent storytelling, have made all of their picture books absolute favourites in our whare. Dazzlehands is a delightful tale about shining bright rather than fitting in, but my personal fave is A Guide to Rocks - a story about a dad and his son learning about how to process emotions together rather than stuffing them away where no one can see them. These books are all incredible and it seems the pair can do no wrong. 

A superstar in the world of NZ Non Fiction for kids, you cannot go past one of Ned Barraud's amazing books about birds or Kiwi wildlife. If I was still teaching I would have his whole collection in my classroom library, and I'm slowly building the collection up at home too! A perfect combination of realistic illustrations, amazing animal facts about our local taonga, and often really great storylines or interactive elements that add a sense of drama and plot to the natural world for tamariki to get engaged with. 

Out in the Bay is a depiction of life at the coast on one day where a storm unfolds, showing the impact of this weather on the creatures above and below the water. Incredible Journeys is an amazing depiction of the perilous tasks of migration many of our NZ animals undertake as part of their everyday lives and I'll always remember going on a deep dive with my class about longfin eels (Tuna) and their incredible life cycle. Most recently, Tākapu the Lone Hunter is an example of Ned bringing nature and narrative together so expertly - telling the story of a gannet searching to find food for her chick, full of drama and action that will keep kids engaged as they learn more about this amazing bird. 

Rachael King is an award winning writer who brings my favourite folky feel to her fantasy novels, and also writes amazing neurodivergent representation in Violet and the Velvets series about a young rock star and her band. The Grimmelings is a wonderful novel about a horse appearing after a disappearance, a perfect middle grade fantasy with a 13 year old girl who accidentally creates a curse. My personal favourite at the moment is Song of the Saltings, a story that adults will love just as much as younger readers about an isolated island where people live by an ancient bargain and a sacrifice that is made to the creature haunting the marshes. It's spooky and wonderfully imaginative.