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?

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.

Reviewed by Bridget Schaumann, Kings High School, Dunedin

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.

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: