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..... ABACUS PICKS

Titles in this category are fiction and non-fiction titles, due to be published in December 2009, that Abacus Staff have identified as being 'most suitable for School Libraries' Our Library Salesperson, Carolyn Thompson, has added a personal comment, following the normal blurb on each title. We have copies on order with the various Publishers. Place your order now and we will forward your copy/copies at the publishing date......

Catalogue | Rep List | Back List

Showing 1 - 14 of 14 results
1

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ISBN / ISSN:

9781869694036

People of the Land

order quantity

NZ$ 35.00 each

Hardback

Author: Hirini Moko &June Te Rina Mead

Published by: Huia Publishers

He aha te mea nui o te Ao?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata
What is most precious and important in this world?
It is people, it is people, it is people.
A collection of poignant pepeha (Maori proverbs) explained in English with images of Maori that embody the messages. This precious gift book opens doors to a Maori world for everyone who is interested in the wisdom, values and advice of past generations.

Hardback 116pp h180mm x w180mm illustrations with dust jacket

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

This is a book of cherished Maori proverbs or Pepeha. Beautifully illustrated with wonderful photographic images. It is written by Hirini Moko Mead who is Emeritus Professor of Maori at Auckland University. and a strong advocate for the Maori Language.

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ISBN / ISSN:

9781869507916

Brave Bess and the ANZAC Horses

order quantity

NZ$ 20.00 each

Paperback

Author: Susan Brocker

Published by: HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand)

This is the true story of the courage and loyalty of the Kiwi war horses of the First World War.
Every ANZAC Day we celebrate our heroes. Until now the story of the loyal horses who carried our troops in the desert war of WWI has remained untold. This is their story - and the story of Bess, the only horse to return to New Zealand from the Middle East. Bess and her companions overcame their fear, standing by their masters in the battlefield, in harsh desert conditions. Brave Bess and the ANZAC Horses tells the tale of these valiant horses and the essential part they played in the war.

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

Illustrated with superb black and white photographs this is a poignant book published in time for ANZAC day. Bess has her own memorial at Flock House near Bulls in the Manawatu.

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ISBN / ISSN:

9781869404529

Towards a Promised Land

order quantity

NZ$ 80.00 each

Published by: Auckland University Press

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

Gordon Brown was a trusted friend of McCahon and drew on their personal relationship to offer a new insight into one of New Zealand’s most revered artists.

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ISBN / ISSN:

9781877517136

Dave Dobbyn : The Songbook

order quantity

NZ$ 60.00 each

Hardback

Author: Dave Dobbyn

Published by: Craig Potton Publishing

Be Mine Tonight, Outlook for Thursday, Loyal, Whaling, Slice of Heaven, Welcome Home - these are only some of the remarkable songs that have framed Dave Dobbyn's long career and made him one of New Zealand's most enduring and best-loved musicians. While generations of New Zealanders have grown up with his music, his songs have never been collected together and published in written form before. Produced to coincide with his new album of greatest hits (to be released in November by Sony Music), Dave Dobbyn: The Songbook will contain 40 of his most celebrated and loved songs. It will be a book of two halves; the first will contain writing about each song from Dobbyn, along with photographs and the lyrics (with guitar chords). The second half of the book will be the score for piano and guitar for every song. Dave Dobbyn: The Songbook is an innovative and substantial book, and in its dedication to the actual music, a significant tribute to ... more

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

Now you can actually know the words to some of New Zealand’s most iconic songs instead of just going La La La!!! Also has the musical score.

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ISBN / ISSN:

9781869621773

Where Your Left Hand Rests

order quantity

NZ$ 37.00 each

Hardback

Author: Fiona Kidman

Published by: Godwit

It's been 35 years since Dame Fiona Kidman's first book - of poems - was published, and now she is back
with another, perfectly timed for her 70th birthday in March 2010. There has been renewed interest in her
poetry since the recent publication of her memoirs, and this exquisitely packaged collection will not
disappoint. Ranging over wide territory, from imagining her Irish grandmothers' arrival in New Zealand, to
wearing Katherine Mansfield's shawl, to time spent in Greece and in her garden, the poems are by turns
tender and funny, candid and brave. They bear all the hallmarks of Kidman's writing: acute observation, a
telling eye for detail, a wry humour and great empathy.

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

This is an important addition to any poetry collection. The 2006 Katherine Mansfield Fellow is one of NZ’s living literary treasures.

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ISBN / ISSN:

9781921656071

Zero Hour: The Anzacs on the Western Front

order quantity

NZ$ 25.00 each

Paperback

Author: Leon Davidson

Published by: The Text Publishing Company

The First World War was only meant to last six months.
When the Australians and New Zealanders arrived at the Western Front in 1916, the fighting had been going for a year and a half and there was no end in sight.
The men took their places in a line of trenches dug throughout Belgium and France from the North Sea to the Swiss Alps.
Beyond the trenches was no-man's-land, and beyond that was the German Army.
The Anzacs had sailed for France to fight a war the whole world was talking about. Few who came home ever spoke of it again.

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

This is the 3rd book from this award winning author who is also a primary school teacher, so he knows what works when writing for kids.

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ISBN / ISSN:

9781869793074

Inheritance

order quantity

NZ$ 30.00 each

Paperback

Author: Jenny Pattrick

Published by: Random House New Zealand Ltd

Elena catches a glimpse of her friend Jeanie Roper in a New Zealand art gallery. But why should Jeanie
avoid her after twenty-four years apart? They had been so close when they were young women, when Jeanie
had turned up in Samoa with her bullying husband and gentle father, who had unexpectedly inherited a
plantation there. Elena's confusion turns to intrigue when she discovers the gallery is exhibiting the work of
Jeanie's daughter, a daughter Elena had been unaware even existed but who shows definite hints of Samoan
ancestry. Was there more to Jeanie's flirtation with Elena's brother than Elena had realised, or are there other
secrets to uncover?

A compelling novel that takes us to Samoa in the 1960s and NZ in the 1990s.

First published March 2010.

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

Quite a different setting for this book to her previous novels, with this being 1960’s Samoa. This book will be reviewed on National Radio at 10. 30am 11th March. Also piece of useless gossip, Jenny Pattrick is also a well known jeweller and she made the necklace featured on the cover of “Heart of Coal”

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ISBN / ISSN:

9780143203650

Lola

order quantity

NZ$ 30.00 each

Paperback

Author: Elizabeth Smither

Published by: Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd.

On the day Lola Dearborn vowed to never attend another funeral, she was deliberately present at three ...Lola Dearborn marries into Dearborn & Zander, a family of funeral directors, when she falls for Sam Dearborn at a dance. But when Sam, and her friend Alice Zander, injured in a freak accident, die, Lola devotes the rest of her life to exploration. She takes up residence in an art-deco hotel, she befriends the members of the Sylvester Quartet after gate-crashing a rehearsal. She reflects on the different kinds of love offered by men: Luigi the Italian undertaker who buries a dog with its owner, and Charles the retired surgeon with his disruptive daughter, Brandy. Lola's themes underpin an exploration of love and death (including pet cemeteries), music and friendship. Set between Australia and New Zealand, it is a story both acute and amusing, knowledgeable and questing - much like Lola herself.

First published march 2010.

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

Also being reviewed on radio 18th March, this is only the 3rd novel from this librarian turned author. She is mostly known for her poetry however this is getting good pre-reviews.

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ISBN / ISSN:

9781869508524

The Haystack

order quantity

NZ$ 20.00 each

Paperback

Author: Jack Lasenby

Published by: HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand)

It's the 1930s Depression, and Maggie is growing up without a mother in the little Waikato dairying township of Waharoa. Maggie has to make do with her father's friends, neighbours, and an old biddy who should know better but can't help herself. Maggie torments the boy down the road, sets fire to the dunny, helps with half the district to build a haystack, and sees the tragedy of unemployment. Along the way, Maggie makes new friends and receives kindness and help in learning what a girl needs to know.

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

For your younger readers, 9-12 this is a must include NZ Book from a venerable NZ author.

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ISBN / ISSN:

9780143008422

Best of Both Worlds : The: Story of Elsdon Best and Tutakangahau

order quantity

NZ$ 40.00 each

Paperback

Author: Jeffrey Paparoa Holman

Published by: Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd.

In 1895 a meeting took place in the rugged Urewera ranges - Tuhoe country - that would have lasting effects on our views of traditional Maori society. Elsden Best, a self-taught anthropologist and quartermaster on the road past Lake Waikaremoana, was sought out by a leading Tuhoe chief, Tutakangahau of Maungapohatu. The stories he gave to Best to be recorded for future generations are with us today. Best went on to become a noted Pakeha authority on a people he would style as the last of 'the oldtime Maori'. How much did the old man tell him? Was it freely given? Can Best's writings - so pervasive today in our understanding of Maori culture - be truly relied upon? In his unique examination of this historically significant relationship, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman poses such searching questions, further informing a vital national debate on the shared identity - and destiny - of Maori and Pakeha.

First published March 2010.

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

Well known as the author of numerous books on early Maori people and culture, Elsdon Best is hugely respected. Now the spotlight is put on the man himself in this very readable book.

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ISBN / ISSN:

9781869791889

The Kiwi Fossil Hunter's Handbook

order quantity

NZ$ 40.00 each

Paperback

Author: James Crampton & Marianna Terezow

Published by: Random House New Zealand Ltd

Kids are fascinated by dinosaurs, and love the idea of the fossils they have left behind. New Zealand has a rich fossil record which is accessible to the amateur fossil-hunter in locations around New Zealand, including shells and plant remains as well as the bones, teeth and other remnants of ancient reptiles, birds and fish. This handy pack-sized guide contains more than 30 accessible locations around the country where kids and their families can find fossils. Each location contains specific information on where to look and what to look for, as well as the geological background and other details of each site, and colour images of fossils that could be found there. What the sites look like now is supplemented by colourful reconstructions of New Zealand in the past by well-known artist Dave Gunson.
The book's February release coincides with the opening of the 'Dead Precious' touring exhibition at Te Papa, which will run until the ... more

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

Just to remind ourselves that we did have once have dinosaurs in New Zealand.

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ISBN / ISSN:

9780224090506

Solar

order quantity

NZ$ 39.00 each

Paperback

Author: Ian McEwan

Published by: jonathan cape

Michael Beard is in his late fifties; bald, overweight, unprepossessing – a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. An inveterate philanderer, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. When Beard’s professional and personal worlds are entwined in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself, a chance for Beard to extricate himself from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career and very possibly save the world from environmental disaster.

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

LOVE, LOVE LOVE Ian McEwen so had to include this. It is about climate change, a serious subject, but it is also very funny. Only a great author could pull that off.

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ISBN / ISSN:

9781921656064

When You Reach Me

order quantity

NZ$ 20.00 each

Paperback

Author: Rebecca Stead

Published by: The Text Publishing Company

Winner of the ALA's Newberry Medal 2010

Four mysterious letters change Miranda's world.
Miranda and Sal are best friends, but when Sal gets punched by a new kid for no apparent reason, he shuts Miranda out of his life. Then she finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of paper - "I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own. I ask two favours. First, you must write me a letter".
Miranda finds other notes left for her in strange places and she realises that whoever is leaving them knows all about her, including things that haven't even happened yet.
This complex urban mystery, narrated by a sixth-grader, is a story about friendship and time.
It's an intriguing story, and as it unfolds the pieces of the puzzle come together in unexpected ways.

First published 2009.

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

This was reviewed in the States in April 2009 by a veteran reviewer and described as “pretty much one of the best children’s books I have read”.
Now having just won the Newberry Medal, her faith in it has been justified.

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ISBN / ISSN:

9780670074235

The Piper's Son

order quantity

NZ$ 29.00 each

Paperback

Author: Melina Marchetta

Published by: Viking (Penguin)

Melina Marchetta's brilliant, heart-wrenching new novel takes up the story of the group of friends from her best-selling, much-loved book Saving Francesca - only this time it's five years later and Thomas Mackee is the one who needs saving.

Thomas Mackee wants oblivion. Wants to forget parents who leave and friends he used to care about and a string of one-night stands, and favourite uncles being blown to smithereens on their way to work on the other side of the world.

But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, Georgie. And starts working at the Union pub with his former friends. And winds up living with his grieving father again. And remembers how he abandoned Tara Finke two years ago, after his uncle's death.

And in a year when everything's broken, Tom realises that his family and friends need him to help put the pieces back together as much as he needs them.

Notes:
ABACUS COMMENT:

Following on from Saving Francesca, this book follows the fortunes of Tom, who was one of the best characters in the previous novel. Great to revisit him.

Open Printable

Showing 1 - 14 of 14 results
1

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