The Sampling

THE SAMPLING: Rain Fall

Fifteen-year-old Annie needs to get to her basketball match, but the police have cordoned off her road. Is her neighbour, who she grew up with, still alive? What has he done to have the police after him? A murder investigation brings new people to Annie’s wild West Coast town, including a dark-haired boy riding the most amazing horse she has ever seen.

THE SAMPLING: Catch Me When You Fall

A moving novel about learning to find happiness in the face of uncertainty and discovering a love that transcends the boundary between life and death. Seventeen-year-old Alex Byrd is about to have the worst day of her life, and the best. A routine blood test that will reveal her leukaemia has returned, but she also meets Jamie Orange. Both teenagers have big dreams, but also big obstacles to overcome.

THE SAMPLING: Time Twins

Eleven-year-old Astrid thinks she is imagining the quiet boy who appears in her room in the middle of the night and then vanishes as if by magic. Astrid lives in Sweden. She discovers the boy’s name is Tamati and he lives in New Zealand on the other side of the world.

THE SAMPLING: Lily Max: Sun, Surf, Action

Young fashionista Lily Max reunites with her long-lost BFF Greer at a beautiful surf beach, where the movie ‘Wave’ is being filmed. A perfect summer together stretches out before them … until local surfer-boy Ryder becomes an unwanted third wheel.

THE SAMPLING: How to Bee

A story about family, loyalty, kindness and bravery, set against an all-too-possible future where climate change has forever changed the way we live. Peony lives with her sister and grandfather on a fruit farm outside the city. In a world where real bees are extinct, the quickest, bravest kids climb the fruit trees and pollinate the flowers by hand. All Peony really wants is to be a bee.

THE SAMPLING: All Our Secrets

All Our Secrets is set in a small town called Coongahoola, with the dark Bagooli River running through it. After the Virgin Mary appears to the local check-out chick, the Bleeders set up on the banks of the river, and begin to buy up the town and win souls. Then the River Children begin to go missing, one after another.

THE SAMPLING: The Spaghetti Giraffe

The lovely Mina Cucina is a terrible cook! Unfortunately the Great Bonbon Confectionation, which every person in the town must enter, is coming up, and she doesn’t know what to make. Luckily, her kitchen holds a secret. You know how toys come alive when you aren’t watching? In Mina’s kitchen, it’s the forgotten food from beneath the cooker and fridge.

THE SAMPLING: That Stubborn Seed of Hope

Brian Falkner’s short story collection contains stories which are heartbreaking, inspirational, and eye-opening. You view the world as a bully, a brother and sister, a dementia sufferer and a person living in the world which is in the grip of a deadly pandemic. Most of all, you view the world as the person telling the story.

The Sampling: The New Zealand Art Activity Book

The New Zealand Art Activity Book is a 158-page activity book for children who love to draw, paint and otherwise express themselves. These spreads are of works from WH Hammond, Sylvia Siddell and Kerry-Ann Lee. Te Papa Press has allowed us to include PDF activity pages for two of them, plus a list of questions to start your activities based on Kerry-Ann Lee’s gorgeous spread.

The Sampling: How Not to Stop a Kidnap Plot

An excerpt from Suzanne Main’s How Not to Stop a Kidnap Plot, a Junior Fiction novel that tells the tale of how Michael’s desire to get revenge on rich kid bully Angus backfires. Chapter 3 recounts the germination of a plan, and the introduction of the marvellous Miss Munro.