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2017 SLANZA Reading Survey results

30/1/2018

0 Comments

 
There were a few new books popping up on our 2017 SLANZA survey of the most popular books in New Zealand school libraries. Take a look at the full list of results here... 
0 Comments

2016 Reading Survey results

23/1/2017

1 Comment

 
The results from the 2016 SLANZA Reading survey are out.  Are you surprised at the results? What book/books did you think would have been more popular last year?
1 Comment

Best books of 2014

9/12/2014

2 Comments

 
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This year 160 school librarians from across New Zealand have shared their borrowing statistics for 2014 so that we can compile this list of best books for New Zealand children, available here now. 
These titles have been voted the most popular in the way it really counts, by students borrowing and reading them from their school library. 
We have included the most popular New Zealand authors and titles. There are some old favourites, and some new favourites in these lists.  
Thank you to all school librarians who contributed to the survey.
2 Comments

Collected #14 available now - Summer Reading issue

7/12/2014

0 Comments

 
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The latest issue of Collected magazine is available today. This issue has Summer Reading as it's theme. Follow the link above, or click the cover image to read it now.

Many thanks to those who have contributed articles and reviews for this issue, and to those who have helped with proof-reading and editing - we couldn't do it without your help.

As the number of issues continues to grow, we've made some small changes to the website to accomodate them, so you will now find older issues of Collected on a separate page.

We send all our readers best wishes for the holiday season, and hope you enjoy your summer break - do make sure you find time to fit in plenty of reading!
0 Comments

Inner Fire by R.L. Stedman

28/11/2014

1 Comment

 
Reviewed by Bridget Schaumann, Kings High School, Dunedin

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R.L. Stedman has taken a departure from the fantasy world with her new novel.  Inner Fire is a contemporary young adult novel with plenty of tension and a fantastic premise.  Corinne Peterson, with a passion for fashion and desperate to do well in her fashion studies at school, has a genetic disorder, which means that she becomes full of raging heat and can, if sufficiently enraged or stressed, set things on fire!  This disorder has been passed down to her from her rather fabulous and bolshy grandmother.  She is basically a good kid but when a friend tries to drag her into being an accessory to a petty crime, all in aid of getting hold of the right fabric, it all goes horribly wrong.

The setting is London, where CCTV is all pervasive, where your every move is watched and where sometimes the people watching might not want the best for you.  Corrinne is spotted during an altercation in a shop and now it seems that she and her family are being spied upon by sinister men.  Corrinne is removed to her grandmothers house, something she is less than pleased about, but the situation is improved by the fact that the rather gorgeous Rowan is there.  Romance seems to be on the cards and this is new to Corrinne.  But of course it is complicated, tension rises and suspicions are ever present.


I really enjoyed this book, read it in an afternoon and was fascinated by the disorder Malignant hyperpyrexia, and how difficult that would be to live with during the turbulent teenage years.  Corrinne is an engaging character and Gran is someone I really wanted to meet.  This book will appeal to teens, there is some swearing which could possibly have been left out and some sexy stuff going on, but not enough to be challenged I don’t think.  It feels current, the language of the teenagers is spot on and the technology in the book is not going to date too quickly.  Overall a really good read by an up and coming New Zealand writer.

1 Comment

The Martian by Andy Weir

28/11/2014

 
Reviewed by Bridget Schaumann, Kings High School, Dunedin

It started with the cover, I walked into a bookshop and grabbed it immediately. Not only is the cover uber cool, when you turn it over and see the words on the blurb: 
I’m stranded on Mars. I have no way to communicate with Earth. I’m in a Habitat designed to last 31 days. If the Oxygenator breaks down, I’ll suffocate. If the Water Reclaimer breaks down, I’ll die of thirst. If the Hab breaches, I’ll just kind of explode. If none of these things happen, I’ll eventually run out of food and starve to death. So yeah. I’m screwed.
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I didn’t even make it to the end of the blurb before I was standing in front of the counter and passing over an order number. Mark Whatney has been abandoned by his mission who thought he was dead, he wasn’t, he was knocked out and now he has come to, and realises that he is all alone on the red planet with very limited resources and the knowledge that the world thinks he has met his demise. Mark is resilient, he has the skills to help himself survive and how he does this is the crux of the story. It is exciting, had me often on the edge of my seat while I waited for disaster to befall him at every turn. I couldn’t put it down. Yes, there are better written books, this one was a self published Amazon hit but it is totally engaging. If you have senior boys in your school you may well want to supply them with this book. It has a bit of ‘language’ in it but it is perfectly placed and entirely appropriate for the story. 

There will be a movie made by Ridley Scott out next year, and I can’t wait.

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  • Home
  • News and reviews
  • Years 0-8
    • Class sets Y6
    • Class sets Y7-8
    • Antarctica
    • Anxiety or Worry
    • Bullying
    • Confidence
    • Conflict Resolution
    • Deafness / Hearing Impairment
    • Environmental Protection
    • Fabric, textile, fibre - fiction
    • Family Relationships (Yr 7-8)
    • Graphic Novels (Primary)
    • Getting along with others
    • Grief and Death
    • Honesty and Truthfulness
    • Immigration
    • Memory
    • Participation
  • Years 9-13
    • Set texts >
      • Set texts Y9-10
      • Set texts Y11-13
    • Graphic Novels for High Schools
    • Abandonment
    • Addiction
    • Ageism and Ageing
    • Altruism
    • Ambition
    • American dream
    • Asian Theme
    • Beauty or Ugliness
    • Betrayal
    • Between Muchamore and Child
    • Between Two Worlds
    • Black Civil Rights Fiction
    • Challenges facing women
    • Characters reinventing themselves
    • Characters who inspire
    • Child abuse
    • Childhood Innocence
    • Coming of age
    • Conformity
    • Consumerism
    • Courage
    • Dance
    • Death
    • Deception
    • Discrimination and Prejudice
    • Displacement
    • Domestic Violence
    • Dysfunctional Families
    • Dystopia
    • Eating Disorders
    • Emasculation
    • Epistolary
    • Euthanasia
    • Family confict
    • Fate
    • Fear
    • Forbidden Love
    • Forgiveness
    • Freedom
    • Friendship gone wrong
    • Good v Evil
    • Grief and loss
    • Growing Up
    • Human Trafficking
    • Ideal man
    • Identity
    • Imprisonment
    • Individualism
    • Injustice
    • Innocence
    • Insanity / Sanity
    • Intimacy and/or Closeness
    • Jealousy
    • Journeys
    • Loss of Innocence
    • Loyalty
    • Love lost and rediscovered
    • Male role in society
    • Man's inhumanity to man
    • Media and celebrities
    • Mental health issues
    • Mental Illness / Paranoia
    • Modern Gothic
    • Money
    • Mothers and daughters
    • Natural enviroment
    • Non-linear story line
    • Nuclear War
    • Outsiders in Society
    • Overcoming Challenges
    • Paedophiles
    • Pandemics, Viruses and Plagues
    • Perfection
    • Persecution
    • Personal Responsibility
    • Post-apocalyptic Zombies
    • Power and Control
    • Psychiatric Illness
    • Racism
    • Rags to Riches
    • Reading around I am not Esther
    • Reflecting on own Mortality
    • Regret
    • Religious Puritanism
    • Revenge
    • Role of Women
    • Romance - Male Perspective
    • Sexuality
    • Substance Abuse
    • Suppression of Women in NZ
    • Teenage pregnancy
    • Teenage Rebel
    • Time and its inescapable nature
    • Tolerance
    • Unexpected friendship
    • Violence
    • Violence as entertainment
    • War
    • Women restricted by culture
    • Zombies
  • Forms
    • Graphic novels
    • Non fiction
    • Plays
    • Poetry
    • Short stories
  • Research
  • Summer Reading
  • SLANZA website