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When Mum Went Funny
It's war-time and Dad's away, so Mum has to run the farm. Sometimes the stress of it all gives her funny ideas, in this hilarious tale by a much-loved, award-winning junior fiction author. ‘You wait till Constable Cuff hears about this ... We’re going to tell everybody in the district you sold your children for sixpence.’ In When Mum Went Funny, the cry of mothers everywhere is heard loud and clear. Ideas like trying to sell off the children, making nail soup and sleeping out in a haystack to catch whoever’s ‘bandicooting’ the potatoes. When Mum gets that look in her eye, the children go on high alert. They watch Kate, to see how worried they should be, because Kate, the eldest, ...
The Haystack
Maggie torments the boy down the road, sets fire to the dunny, helps with half the district to build a haystack, and sees the tragedy of unemployment. Along the way, Maggie makes new friends, and receives kindness and help in learning what a girl needs to know. Vintage Jack Lasenby tale set in Waharoa, the same town and Depression years as the setting for Old Drumble, and featuring some of the same characters. this time the protagonist is Maggie, a young girl being raised by her widowed father, with the help of the whole village. the whole of Waharoa is also banding together to beat the weather and bring in the harvest and build the haystack. Warm, witty, delightfully poignant story with fun, mischief, the burning down of a dunny, and ultimately a tragedy as seen through the eyes of a child.
Travellers #2
A powerful award-winning young adult fantasy — the second novel in the excellent Travellers series. Pursued by the hateful Salt Men, Ish flees south with his friend Taur, the mute Bull Man. But nowhere is there refuge from the brutal Squint-face, who wants his greenstone god back, and wants Ish's life. Across the ice of Cook Strait lies the South Land. Can Ish and Taur find peace there? 'Taur', winner of the 1999 Senior Fiction category in the NZ Post Children's Book Awards, is the riveting sequel to 'Because We Were the Travellers', winner of a 1998 NZ Post Honour Award and shortlisted for the 1998 Esther Glen Medal. Lasenby writes impeccably...with an uncommon preciseness, a poetic flow. His language is poignant, profound, yet held back from sentimentality, each word weighted for relevance.
Grandad's Wheelies
When Jack visits his grandparents, they tell him stories - each outdoing the other with a tale taller and wilder than the last. When Jack visits his grandparents, there's no television to entertain him. No internet, no mobile phone, no tablets. In fact, there's no technology or modern distractions at all. But he still likes to visit, because Grandad and Granny tell him stories - each trying to outdo the other with a tale taller and wilder than the last. Did you ever hear about the dragon of Waitemata harbour? Or the bridge between the North and South islands? Or why the Beehive is round in shape - and who REALLY made the Marlborough Sounds? And then there's the pumpkin larger than a garden s...
Uncle Trev and His Whistling Bull
It's the 1930s. Our storyteller is crook in bed trying to get over a long sickness and wanting to go back to school, when Uncle Trev arrives to let Mum go out and do the shopping. Uncle Trev tells one story after another about the animals out on his farm, and about his neighbour Gotta Henry. He also goes through Mum's cupboards and helps himself to all her gingernut biscuits and Louise cake. If you think Mum should be grateful to get out of the house, she's not. When she comes home, she chases Uncle Trev and his dog, Old Tip, with her broom and threatens what she'll do to 'that man' next time he comes in.
Travellers #4
The fourth and final volume in Jack Lasenby's award-winning Travellers fantasy series for young adult readers. Ish is introduced to Lutha's society; a cruel and primitive society driven by fear and superstition. He quickly distrusts a quality in Lutha and her beautiful, elegant friend and lieutenant, Kalik. Ish wishes to escape but realises he cannot go alone - he cannot leave behind a group of terrorised Children. In Kalik, Ish uses all the skills and knowledge he has gained thus far: from Hagar and their travelling, from Taur and from the Shaman. He challenges superstition, he questions leadership and the use of violence, he sees what ignorance and fear brings. He in turn becomes the teacher to his group of Children. In this novel, Jack Lasenby weaves threads of ancient myths, religions and folk tales from cultures as diverse as Ancient Persia and old Russia. His inventiveness reminds us how vital the power of story-telling is, and how it creates a sense of history, community and identity for all. This magnificent, powerful YA fantasy novel concludes the award-wiining series by one of New Zealand's finest writers for younger readers.
Aunt Effie and Mrs Grizzle
Wonderful, funny junior fiction for children from talented storyteller Jack Lasenby. Ideal for reading aloud, this deliciously wicked romp with Aunt Effie and her crew is guaranteed to entertain and astonish. At every opportunity, the capricious Aunt Effie takes to her beloved bed, and enchants her twenty-six nieces and nephews and six enormous pig dogs with tall tales of beguiling proportions. Enter Mrs Grizzle, a red-haired, doublejointed magician. Nothing is as it seems, and we encounter edible gunpowder, monster pukekos, Pookackodiles and Krockapooks, and is this a removable glass eye? How will Aunt Effie wrap up the captivating story of Mrs Grizzle? And where is the lost treasure?
Old Drumble
Set in the small Waikato town of Waharoa in the 1930's. Jack Jackman is a young boy who wants to be a stock drover and has a special relationship with an old family friend, Andy the Drover. Andy shares yarns and adventures with Jack each week when he drives a mob of sheep or cattle through the main street with the help of his dog, Old Drumble and his horse, Nosy. Suggested level: primary, intermediate.
Aunt Effie's Ark
The second book in the hilarious and outrageous 'Aunt Effie' series for junior readers. Aunt Effie, dressed in her green canvas invalid's pyjamas, hibernates all winter, leaving her 26 resourceful nieces and nephews to deal with snowstorm and flood, ravening monsters, a barnful of hungry animals and a wild ark-ride over the Vast Untrodden Ureweras. Among the comic cast of cousins are Daisy, whose primness puckers the mouth, Alwyn, who echoes and 'backwardises' the most emphatic statements, and Jack, a junior version of Jack-the-deer-culler Lasenby. There's a horse who acts as a dubiously qualified doctor, a gander who causes the ark to roll, and cows with insomnia - snoring in tune. With his trademark embellishments and wonderful blend of humour, excitement and wacky fun, award-winning writer Jack Lasenby has created another story of mayhem and delight.
Mr Bluenose
A charming novel for young readers by an award-winning writer, based on a young boy's summer in the countryside and the characters — real and imagined — that he meets. Dad has to go to work, so you go down to see Mr Bluenose; there's always something to do there. He tells you stories while you give him a hand to sort apples, feed the pigs, teach Horse how to push the wheelbarrow, and terrify boys who plan to raid the apple trees. On the way home, you look for empty bottles and sell them for boiled lollies to Mr Bryce at the store. He pays you more boiled lollies for telling him stories about how Mr Bluenose got his name, how he rode a whale to London, and was so seasick for so long in the crow's nest that he ran away from sea to Waharoa and planted his orchard. And then there's always Freddy Jones and the other kids to scare with stories about vampires, moreporks, and the White Woman of Waharoa who has a face as smooth as an egg... Think Spike Milligan meets Roald Dhhal, this is the captivating and amusing, rich and fun-filled story of a country summer, seen through a child's eye and created by a master story-teller.
