Children's books

Gerry has a terrifying encounter with a shark while he's happily body-surfing in the waves of Bondi Bay.

With nowhere to go, the shark suggests he and Gerry could have a wrestle to see who's boss.

Will Gerry be able to defeat Hank the mighty wrestling shark and win the title of the "Ocean Wrestling Champ"?

Children and adults alike will adore the fun and madness of this extremely entertaining picture book and musical CD.

This is absolutely exceptional!

Tom Armstrong's cartoon drawings are incredibly captivating and hilarious, and the musical story has a real richness of wonderful language, great theatrics and fabulous music.

This won the Grand Prize for the 2010 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. It's easy to see why.

Suitable for children aged 0-8, and adults of all ages!

• Bo dreams of being an acrobat but he must first overcome a few challenges - he's a sheep, he's afraid of heights, and, where he lives, circuses are banned. Will Bo ever be able to live his dream?

This book was part of a Telecom campaign in which customers could contribute a line to the story if they switched to online billing.

The best 12 sentences were then selected.

All royalties go to the Telecom Foundation.

This was a nice idea but I think Telecom should stick to making money.

Suitable age: none.

• Grandpa Ngata has a favourite bench near a big pohutukawa tree where he often takes his grandchildren for lunch.

As they all sit and eat, Grandpa feeds bread to the birds and shares his knowledge about them with his mokopuna.

And when a dog injures one of the birds, Grandpa Ngata and the children have to take care of it. This sweet story introduces the natural world of New Zealand's coastal birds, using both their English and Maori names.

This is a brightly illustrated book with a simple engaging tale to encourage children's curiosity about the birds and wildlife around them.

The book contains a helpful bird identification section and a short glossary of Maori words, and explains how to help an injured bird.

Suitable for children aged 2-10.

• This gorgeous counting book (from one to 10) is suitable for toddlers and young children. It pairs up some of Aotearoa New Zealand's native animals with a number and some wonderfully written descriptive text.

This is a new edition of the author's original book that was published in 1991 and went on to win the Russell Clark Award for illustration. This book contains a simple quiz page so children can look back and hunt for various creatures.

Hopefully, next time, the author will add some smaller creatures so older children can still be challenged.

I do love the simplicity of this counting book, though, and the endless opportunities for discussion about so many different topics.

Suitable for children aged 0-5.

• Every day, a little girl goes to her neighbour's house after school to stay with Miss Tilly until her father finishes work, and while they eat afternoon tea, Miss Tilly always tells the most amazing stories.

Her words are painted with vivid colours, rich smells and funny sights, and she always dreams up faraway places and all sorts of weird creatures. The best part of the wee girl's day is having tea with Miss Tilly.

She loves her so much that she wants to be just like her when she grows up.

This is one of those fabulous tales that authors create to encourage children to use their imaginations.

The illustrations in this book are superb, while the text is simple yet interesting and informative.

A delightful book for girls aged 2-7.

• This is a bizarre story about a "gingerbread woman" biscuit and a snowman. A gingerbread woman biscuit is baked and left to cool.

During the night, she peers through a window and falls in love with a snowman outside, so she hops on to a cat's back and rides him through the cat door.

The gingerbread woman biscuit and the snowman then sing all night long, as they know they don't have long to live. As the first rain clouds roll up, they sit close together and hug.

In the morning, the snowman has melted and the gingerbread woman has gone.

I'm sure this must be symbolic on some level but whatever that is, it completely escapes me.

I wouldn't choose to read this book to children.

- Paula Benson-Gamble