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.
TREATY OF WAITANGI , by Ross Calman, takes out the top award at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2025. Read the full article for all the winners and use our handy reading list to buy the books!
Saraid de Silva curates a selection of recent books by Aotearoa’s South Asian writers.
Twenty books on the 2025 Whitcoulls Top 100, released 28 July, are by writers from Aotearoa New Zealand. Check out our reading list of these titles!
Behold these books of beauty! It's time to gaze admiringly at the PANZ Book Design Awards finalists.
Here they are! Ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (15 June to 12 July 2025).
Read about Enamoured Books, Auckland's new romance-only bookstore, and check out the five romance books by authors from Aotearoa that founder Ruby Wallace recommends.
Take a look at this selection of some of the best new books by authors from Aotearoa for tamariki and rangatahi.
Take a look at the brilliant words and pictures in this selection of new picture books by authors and illustrators from Aotearoa.
Take a look at the very latest fiction by authors from Aotearoa, from contemporary fiction to thrilling crime, fantasy to historical fiction and poetry.
Featuring brand new biographies and titles on nature and the environment, sports, history, economics, geography, and more!
Here they are! Ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (18 May to 14 June 2025).
When did you know you wanted to write for kids? Kete asked some of the Children's Awards shortlisted authors, illustrators and translators to tell us about the moment they knew.
The ten authors chosen for the New Voices for Aotearoa initiative each have a unique perspective that draws a reader into their books. Kete’s gathered together reviews and commentary on these books for you to explore, and find your next exciting read.
Isla Huia reviews two recently published poetry books by kaituhi Māori, E Kō, Nō Hea Koe by Matariki Bennett, and In the Cracks of Light by Apirana Taylor, and muses on the kaupapa the books bring to the tēpu.
Here they are! Ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (20 April to 17 May 2025).
Where did their ideas come from? Kete asked the authors of the sixteen books shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2025 to answer one question ('What inspired you to write your Ockham-shortlisted book?') in under 100 words. This is what they said...
Here they are! Ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (23 March to 19 April 2025).
Heading to the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards ceremony? Grab a ticket, brush up on the shortlists for the four categories, and head along to hear the authors read and the winners revealed. All the books are below in our handy reading list, plus links to reviews.
Here they are! Ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (23 February to 22 March 2025).
A reading list of the titles shortlisted for the NZ Booklovers Awards 2025! Explore here to see the books that were chosen as the best in their category for 2025.
Nine recent plays written by Pasifika authors as featured in the Coalition for Books 2025 Pasifika Books Catalogue.
Dahlia Malaeulu created Mila’s Books to ‘produce accessible and culturally rich Pasifika stories that reflect our Pasifika values, languages, cultures, and most importantly – our tamaiti.’
Seven recent poetry collections by Pasifika authors from the 2025 Pasifika Books Catalogue.
Fourteen recent children's books by Pasifika authors as featured in the Coalition for Books 2025 Pasifika Books Catalogue.
Sixteen recent non-fiction books by Pasifika authors as featured in the Coalition for Books Pasifika Books catalogue.
Recent fiction by Pasifika authors as featured in the Coalition for Books Pasifika Books catalogue.
Here they are! Ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (26 January to 22 February 2025).
Critics and reviewers reflect on the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Non-fiction and Illustrated Non-fiction long lists. We've pulled together reviews and commentary in this handy list.
Critics and reviewers reflect on the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Fiction and Poetry long lists. We've pulled together reviews and commentary in this handy list.
Here they are! Ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (29 December 2024 to 25 January 2025).
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.
Here they are! Ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (1 December to 28 December 2024).
Melinda Syzmanik reviews five popular picture books that would make excellent gifts.
Who better to ask for their favourite books from Aotearoa now that 2024 has entered its final chapter? Kete reviewers give their thoughts.
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!
Non-fiction pictures books to let the imaginations of young readers take flight.
New memoir and personal stories from some of Aotearoa's best known personalities, trailblazers, icons, sporting legends, writers and more.
Browse ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (8 September to 5 October 2024).
Browse the list 2024 PANZ Book Design award winners.
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.
Rārangi pānui: Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2024.
Dive into this exciting list of the ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (3 to 30 November 2024).
Books about errant road cones, moving true-life stories and rugby-playing dogs star in the latest New Zealand children's picture books.
’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.
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.
All the lifestyle books you need for Christmas, New Year and beyond to make it a hot books summer!
Boredom begone! Here's an A+ list of reading recommendations for kids of all ages for the long summer holiday.
Hot books summer! Take a look at this selection of biography and memoir straight from the pages of the New Zealand Summer Reading Guide.
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.
Dive into this list of new and noteworthy local fiction direct from the pages of the New Zealand Summer Reading Guide.
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!
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.
Here they are! Ten bestselling Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (6 October to 2 November 2024).
Browse ten bestselling books Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (11 August to 7 September 2024).
Find memoir from some of Aotearoa's best known personalities, trailblazers and icons; personal essays, biography, travel stories and more.
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.
The twelve 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards longlisted books make a criminally good line-up.
Linda Jane Keegan shares her favourite junior fiction, middle grade fiction books by New Zealand authors from the past 10 years.
Romance author and Sir Julius Vogel Award-winner Marie Cardno shares books from her favourite New Zealand romance writers.
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.
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.
Browse ten bestselling books Aotearoa NZ books for tamariki and rangatahi (14 July to 10 August 2024).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Kiran Dass has a shelf of excellent books for the long (or any) weekend! Read on for book-inspiratation.
Finalists in the 2024 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults discuss the local children’s books that inspire them.
Take a look at the July list. Browse ten excellent books for tamariki and rangatahi (16 June to 13 July 2024).
Take a look at this selection of some of the best new books by authors from Aotearoa for tamariki and rangatahi this winter.
History, nature and the environment, sports, economics, entomology, and more!
Take a look at the brilliant words and pictures in this selection of new picture books by authors and illustrators from Aotearoa.
Eight fiction titles by Māori writers from the 2024 Ngā Pukapuka Māori | Māori Books catalogue.
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).
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.
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.
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!