9 books on Kete reviewers' holiday TBR stacks
Looking for recommendations for a book to take away to the beach? Four Kete reviewers share their TBR (to be read) lists and the titles they're most eager to jump into this summer.
16 December 2024
Reading ListsNgā Rārangi Pānui
Find your next great read. Browse Kete's curated reading lists.
Kimihia te pukapuka tino pai hei pānuitanga māu ā whai ake. Tirohia ngā rārangi pānui rauhī a Kete.
Five popular picture books that will make great gifts
Melinda Syzmanik reviews five popular picture books that would make excellent gifts.
12 December 2024
Reviewers' Favourites: Books from 2024
Who better to ask for their favourite books from Aotearoa now that 2024 has entered its final chapter? Kete reviewers give their thoughts.
11 December 2024
Best books for summer activities: travel, sport, lifestyle and cooking
All the lifestyle books you need for Christmas, New Year and beyond to make it a hot books summer!
13 December 2024
Hot books summer: reading for tamariki and rangatahi
Boredom begone! Here's an A+ list of reading recommendations for kids of all ages for the long summer holiday.
13 December 2024
Memoir and more for summer
Hot books summer! Take a look at this selection of biography and memoir straight from the pages of the New Zealand Summer Reading Guide.
9 December 2024
General non-fiction for lazy summer days
Hot books summer reading continues! This time with an epic collection of general non-fiction from the pages of the New Zealand Summer Reading Guide.
12 December 2024
Hot books summer: NZ fiction for holiday reading
Dive into this list of new and noteworthy local fiction direct from the pages of the New Zealand Summer Reading Guide.
20 November 2024
Storylines Notable Book Awards: A reading list of 2024's very best for kids
The annual Storylines Notable Books list, representing the very best books for children and young adult published in the last twelve months, has been released. Dive into the reading list of this year's Notable Books!
14 November 2024
A reading list for Verb Readers and Writers Festival
We’ve studied the programme and compared notes with Kete’s reviewers to create a reading list for some of this weekend's Verb events.
8 November 2024
The Aotearoa Junior Fiction and Young Adult Bestseller List — Oct/Nov 2024
Here they are! Ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (6 October to 2 November 2024).
8 November 2024
Trailblazers, icons and personal stories
New memoir and personal stories from some of Aotearoa's best known personalities, trailblazers, icons, sporting legends, writers and more.
25 October 2024
The Aotearoa Junior Fiction and Young Adult Bestseller List — Sept/Oct 2024
Browse ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (8 September to 5 October 2024).
19 August 2024
Aotearoa's most beautiful books: PANZ Book Design winners
Browse the list 2024 PANZ Book Design award winners.
20 September 2024
5 NZ audiobooks for your next road trip
Audiobooks are great for road trips! Listening to a story is an excellent way to break up your journey one chapter at a time, ideal for drivers, and passengers who get motion sickness reading in a moving vehicle. Audiobooks are one of the fastest-growing book formats internationally, and there's a growing appetite for local audio stories in Aotearoa too.
6 February 2024
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori
Rārangi pānui: Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2024.
19 September 2024
The Aotearoa Junior Fiction and Young Adult Bestseller List — Nov/Dec 2024
Dive into this exciting list of the ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (3 to 30 November 2024).
8 November 2024
Reviews: NZ picture books to let young imaginations take flight
Books about errant road cones, moving true-life stories and rugby-playing dogs star in the latest New Zealand children's picture books.
31 October 2023
Reading list: Enticing NZ picture books from May and June 2024
’When it was suggested I write some reviews of New Zealand picture books coming out over May/June I wasn’t expecting to receive over twenty books in the post, writes Melinda Szymanik.
11 June 2024
The Aotearoa Junior Fiction and Young Adult Bestseller List — September 2024
Browse ten bestselling books Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (11 August to 7 September 2024).
19 August 2024
Trailblazers and icons – the latest memoir and biography
Find memoir from some of Aotearoa's best known personalities, trailblazers and icons; personal essays, biography, travel stories and more.
4 June 2024
Seven of the best: Book Awards for Children and Young Adults winners
Need an epic children's book recommendation? Start with this reading list of the 2024 award-winning books named at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
14 August 2024
Yeah Noir: Ngaio Marsh prime suspects past and present
The twelve 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards longlisted books make a criminally good line-up.
18 July 2024
10 top junior, middle grade and YA books by NZ authors
Linda Jane Keegan shares her favourite junior fiction, middle grade fiction books by New Zealand authors from the past 10 years.
8 July 2024
10+ New Zealand romance books to heat up your winter
Romance author and Sir Julius Vogel Award-winner Marie Cardno shares books from her favourite New Zealand romance writers.
28 June 2024
Celebrating LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa
Simie Simpson crafts a reading list of recent books by Aotearoa’s LGBTQIA writers to mark Auckland Pride and her final year as Chair of samesame but different the LGBTQIA+ literary festival.
12 February 2024
Ten must-read poetry collections from the last ten years
Ten (or eleven) poetry books, in no particular order, from the last ten years. Collections that ought to be read, that ought to rock your world, and which say something important.
23 August 2024
The Aotearoa Junior Fiction and Young Adult Bestseller List — August 2024
Browse ten bestselling books Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (14 July to 10 August 2024).
19 August 2024
Brand new fiction to curl up with on a cold winter's day
Take a look at the very latest fiction by authors from Aotearoa. Dive into everything from contemporary fiction to thrilling crime, fantasy to historical fiction, to poetry.
4 June 2024
25 new, New Zealand classics published since 2000
When thinking of classic fiction from Aotearoa, works by Janet Frame and Keri Hulme, published last century might come to mind. But what about New Zealand fiction published in the last 20 or 25 years? Book lover Tilly Lloyd trawls her bookshelf to explore the best NZ fiction published since 2000.
1 July 2024
10 thrilling crime novels by New Zealand authors to add to your e-reader or bookshelf
If crime novels and thrillers are your favourite flavour of fiction, why not add some of these whodunnits by New Zealand authors to your reading list? Greg Fleming shares some of his most-loved crime novels from Aotearoa — great for adding to your bookshelf or loading to your tablet, e-reader or phone.
3 June 2024
How to be well read in a year of dragons
Poet Laureate Chris Tse has curated a reading list of books by East Asian and South East Asian authors from Aotearoa, for Lunar New Year.
19 February 2024
Foraging for brilliant books for the long weekend
Kiran Dass has a shelf of excellent books for the long (or any) weekend! Read on for book-inspiratation.
31 May 2024
'The Aotearoa New Zealand children’s book that inspired me'
Finalists in the 2024 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults discuss the local children’s books that inspire them.
1 July 2024
The Aotearoa Junior Fiction and Young Adult Bestseller List — July 2024
Take a look at the July list. Browse ten excellent books for tamariki and rangatahi (16 June to 13 July 2024).
19 July 2024
The latest junior, middle and young adult reading for winter
Take a look at this selection of some of the best new books by authors from Aotearoa for tamariki and rangatahi this winter.
4 June 2024
New non-fiction to intrigue and entertain over the cold months to come
History, nature and the environment, sports, economics, entomology, and more!
4 June 2024
New picture books for tamariki this winter
Take a look at the brilliant words and pictures in this selection of new picture books by authors and illustrators from Aotearoa.
4 June 2024
Eight recent fiction and short story books by Māori authors
Eight fiction titles by Māori writers from the 2024 Ngā Pukapuka Māori | Māori Books catalogue.
31 March 2024
Starry cluster of new pukapuka give a bigger picture on Matariki
Maatakiwi Wakefield (Kāi Tahu whānui, Te Ati Awa, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Maniapoto) and Ngapiu Tainui Maclure (Kāi Tahu whānui, Te Rarawa), Māori Library Services at Christchurch City Libraries shine a light on the kaupapa behind the Matariki selection in this year’s Winter Reading catalogue.
14 June 2024
The Aotearoa Junior Fiction and Young Adult Bestseller List — June 2024
The June list has landed! Here are ten incredible (and bestselling) books for tamariki and rangatahi. Take a look (19 May to 15 June 2024).
25 June 2024
3 picture books for tree-loving young readers
Arbor Day is a day of observance where we’re encouraged to plant trees. Here’s three picture books about trees to share with young people.
4 June 2021
Best of the year: Aotearoa’s YA class of 2023
In 2023 a cohort of excellent, world-class authors from Aotearoa penned novels for young adults. Here is Kete’s pick of the year based on our reviewers’ insights.
18 December 2023
Intriguing plant books published in 2023
Leafy green inspiration must have been floating, spore-like in the air, in 2023. From art books to more whimsical first-person narrative natural history to the illustrative work of Donovan Bixley, it was definitely the year of the intriguing plant book!
16 December 2023
Review: Five picture books to make young ones laugh
Five picture books to make young ones laugh: Nanas With No Manners, Dreams of a Moa, There Was a Farmer Who Swallowed A Fly, Tulip and Sprout, You Don't Know How Lucky You Are/ Me i Mōhio Koe ki tō Waimarietanga!
1 June 2023
Non fiction picture books for the young and young at heart promise bountiful adventures
Non-fiction pictures books to let the imaginations of young readers take flight.
1 October 2023