KEY POINTS:
If you've left your Christmas shopping until the last moment there's no need to panic - you can pick up the entire haul in just the one shop and support the New Zealand publishing industry at the same time.
There's been a bumper crop of interesting home-grown titles this past year with children particularly richly served. So help fill the littlies' stockings with the gorgeously illustrated There Was An Old Woman by Gavin Bishop (Gecko, $19.99). In hard-wearing flexi-board, it's an appealing version of the old English nursery rhyme.
Or for a more New Zealand flavour there's The Seven Stars of Matariki by Toni Rolleston-Cummins (Huia, $18). Kids will love this telling of the Matariki legend and Nikki Slade-Robinson's spunky illustrations - plus it's a chance to teach the young ones a few essential Maori words, and for mum and dad to test their pronunciation skills.
If action-adventure is called for, then the latest Champ the Chopper picture book - Kids To The Rescue by Rebekah Palmer ($19.99) - is loads of fun. Illustrated by Daniel Falconer from Weta Workshop, there's a Champ the Chopper animated TV series in the works and in the meantime children can join the Champ the Chopper fan club.
A more unusual book for kids is Creatures Aotearoa by Dylan Owen (Gecko, $18.99). This showcases work from New Zealand artists along with words inspired by the kids of Karori Normal School's creative writing class. Definitely one for arty, creative children.
For older kids who love nature, All About New Zealand Birds by Dave Gunson (New Holland, $24.99) is a fun, educational book that provides a great introduction to our birds with information on where
to find them.
Once kids can read for themselves it means hours of peace for all
the family so it makes sense to furnish them with a pile of absorbing books.
For horse-mad girls there's the latest in Stacy Gregg's Pony Club Secrets series. Issie and the Christmas Pony (HarperCollins, $14.99) is the story of a little girl who has always wanted her own pony. Or kids can get a taste of what a Kiwi childhood used to be like with Piano Rock by Gavin Bishop (Random House, $34.99), a charming memoir of a 1950s boyhood near Lake Wakatipu.
There are Maori myths and legends on offer for older kids in Amazing Tales of Aotearoa, by Glenn Colquhoun (Puffin, $30). This is an intriguing, lively read about two girls and their family who live near the sea and love to listen to stories about Maui, Rata and Hinemoa. And from one of our best-loved authors, Margaret Mahy, comes an epic tale of love and treachery. The Magician of Hoad (HarperCollins, $39.99) is the coming-of-age story about a young farm boy with special powers. It is likely to enthral kids and adults alike.
Not that we adults don't have plenty of our own books to choose from. This time of year there is always a healthy crop of biographies to satisfy a diverse range of tastes. A real bloke's book, Willie
Apiata VC: The Reluctant Hero by Paul Little (Viking, $50) shot straight on to the best-seller list. It's a true-life action story that captures the harsh realities of war and gives a fascinating insight into the life of an SAS trooper. In a far gentler vein is Barbara Anderson's
autobiography Getting There (Victoria University Press, $50). Before having her first book published at age 63, Anderson led a rich and varied life, which she recounts with much humour.
Kiwis tend to love a triumph-over-tragedy tale and that's at the core of winemaker Jane Hunter's memoir Growing A Legacy, by Tessa Anderson (HarperCollins $49.99). The story of how Hunter steered her company forward after the death of her husband is inspiring reading for any businessperson facing uncertain times. Equally inspiring is the biography of windsurfer Barbara Kendall - Wind Driven by Barbara Kinney-Kendall (Random House, $36.99). Her fitness regime alone would be enough to get couch potatoes off the sofa.
I think fiction is a difficult thing to give as a gift. Tastes vary and it's impossible to know what people may have read before. But you can't go wrong if you give a classic and that's just what Owen Marshall's Selected Stories (Random House, $39.99) is destined to become. It's a chunky kit of 60 stories from work published by the enduringly popular Marshall over the past 30 years.
There are even books entirely suitable for non-booklovers.
Avid television watchers who tuned into Te Radar's top-rating TV One series Off the Radar will love his behind-the-scenes book of the same name (HarperCollins, $29.99), which tells how he was plied with fine wine before finding himself living in a tent and trying to be self-sufficient. Written as a series of yarns, the book does have some serious moments.
The volume my husband (who has only ever read one book from cover to cover: the Highway Code) stole from the review pile was Cars and Kiwis: The Golden Age of Motoring by John McCrystal (Penguin, $30). This is a colourful pictorial record of the cars many of us grew up with, matched with vehicular trivia.
Another pictorial nostalgia trip is Baches & Cribs by Jeff Grigor (Penguin, $25), which takes us on a journey from Northland to way down south and shows us some of New Zealand's quaintest fishing shacks and beach huts. Finally, if you're buying for somebody who's all hat and no horse and worried you might be up the boohai shooting pukeko with a popgun, try Justin Brown's Kiwi Speak (Random House, $19.99), a
collection of the funny stuff we tend to say.
