1. (3) Toot the Tow Truck by Deano Yipadee & Bruce Potter (Scholastic)
Back to the top of the bestsellers’ list is this new book in the Nee Naw and Friends series for kids. “There’s another emergency vehicle in singer-songwriter Dean O’Brien’s garage and this time it’s a tow truck called Toot! Those goats of Granny’s have been joy-riding on Farmer Tom’s tractor and have got themselves in a bit of a pickle, with the tractor stuck in a pond, and themselves up a tree! Nee Naw quickly appraises the situation he can rescue the goats and he calls upon his friend Toot to come and pull out the tractor.”
2. (4) The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Uunwin)
The incredible story of Kiwi spy Pippa Latour. Latour, who died in West Auckland in 2023, aged 102, helped lay the groundwork for the D-Day’s success and the end of World War II by acting as a secret agent in France for Britain.
“I was not a James Bond-style spy,” said Latour. “I was a secret agent whose job it was to blend into the background and cause quiet chaos.” It was exhausting work; she was unable to trust anyone, had several code names, and was often hungry. It was desperately perilous, too. Many of the 13,000 SOEs were killed, including 14 women out of 39 in France. The average life expectancy of male wireless operators in France when she served was six weeks. Latour’s was a truly remarkable life all around, and The Last Secret Agent, co-written with Jude Dobson, is a clear and fluent account that continues to attract new readers. Read the review here.
Dobson is working on turning the book into a screenplay.
3. (2) Unveiled by Theophila Pratt (David Bateman)
“I didn’t choose the cult life. The cult life chose me,” writes Theophila Pratt in Unveiled. Life was only going to get better when she died, Pratt was told in Gloriavale. It was the only life she knew until she left, aged 18. People who left, their lives were ruined, she was taught. Pratt writes of regular life in the community, including the ever-present violence (and the regular criminal charges against its men), until her eventual escape and finding a new life. It includes droll details such as that days and months are only known as “First Day” and “Fifth Month”, because the standard ones are named after “heathen” Roman gods.
4. (NEW) Retirement Ready by Martin Hawes (Upstart Press)
From the publisher: “Join acclaimed financial expert Martin Hawes as he shares the behind-the-scenes strategies that transformed his own retirement planning. With over 35 years of experience, Martin navigates the complex maze of decisions you face as you approach this pivotal life stage. From choosing who should manage your money to deciding on your investment approach, to determining how much you’ll need to sustain your lifestyle, Retirement Ready tackles the critical questions that will shape your future. Should you downsize your home? How do you balance current spending with leaving a legacy for your children? What insurance options should you consider, and is a family trust still right for you.”
5. (5) The Secrets of Maiden’s Cove by Erin Palmisano (Moa Press)
In her second novel, American-Kiwi Erin Palmisano takes readers to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. After the death of owner Tommy Cleary, who could never make the financial decisions necessary to keep Cleary’s Crab Shack in Maiden’s Cove in the black, his daughter Grace has a mountain to climb when she returns to her hometown from Phoenix, Arizona, with her 8-year-old daughter, leaving behind her controlling estranged husband Richard.
The Listener’s review reckons Palmisano, a restaurant owner herself, again cleverly pairs delicious food and small-town romance, well-drawn colourful characters, drama and intrigue, and explores the life paths people take, why some can’t get out of a small town fast enough and why others never want to leave.
6. (NEW) The New Zealand Easter Activity Book by Sarina Dickson & Hilary Jean Tapper (Little Moa)
Is it Easter already?
From the publisher: “In The Fairies’ Easter Egg Surprise, we joined a group of curious forest fairies as they spread Easter excitement around their fairy village and got into mischief along the way. Now, join the fairies in The New Zealand Easter Activity Book and get creative with loads of mazes, dot-to-dots, games and activities to complete and colour in! Featuring two pages of full-colour, Easter-themed stickers.”
7. (1) Hastings: A Boy’s Own Adventure by Dick Frizzell (Massey University Press)
Dropping its No 1 debut spot is painter Dick Frizzell’s memoir, “a love song to a small New Zealand town”. The book “recalls a well-spent childhood of digging tunnels, unsupervised adventures in the freezing works, motorbikes, guns and, at the centre, his adored parents and a local community rich with character”. Find out more about what’s influenced Dick Frizzell in his art here.
8. (8) Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
From the Listener’s review: “Wilkins confronts the much-promoted glow of retirement and reveals some harder-edged truths, both personal and general. The distinction between expectation and reality is telling. Delirious has suspense and pace.
“Mary and Pete live in a large two-storeyed house with a view of Kāpiti Island over the beach dunes. Both are in their late 70s and the future now looms in their thoughts. The expectations of others are clear: the couple will downsize and move into a retirement village.
“But this is no ordinary novel. While the pace of life seems easy and pleasant, the past has a way of returning. Events seldom run to plan. Mary’s and Pete’s son died in an accident 40 years before, at the age of 11. A sudden call comes from the Wellington CIB with the possibility of new information.”
9. (10) Aroha by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin)
The wisdom of 52 Māori proverbs explained by psychiatrist Hinemoa Elder in this bestselling book first released in 2020. An extract:
“Ko te mauri, he mea huna ki te moana – The life force is hidden in the sea.
“Powerful aspects of life are hidden in plain sight.
“This whakataukī stems from one of our famous ancestors from the north, Nukutawhiti. He cast his kura, his feathered cloak, into the Hokianga Harbour to calm the waters for safe passage. And this treasure remains there, out of sight, yet signifies the ancient presence of those that have gone before.
“This saying has given me strength so many times. I have always found it comforting because it speaks to the hidden magic of life.
“It reminds me of those things we feel intuitively but often ignore – we can choose to tune in to our gut instinct, for example, or wait until the messages become clearer and more obvious.
And it reminds me that we all have hidden powers inside us that we can too easily forget.”
10. (NEW) The Tractor Has a Wobbly Wheel by Tim Saunders & Carla Martell (A&U Children’s)
“What to do with a tractor that keeps breaking down? Call in the farm animals: they will sort it! How do you fix a wobbly tractor wheel? Goat and pig and horse and friends have some ideas! Which one will work?”
Tim Saunders farms sheep and beef near Palmerston North. He has written two adult non-fiction titles, This Farming Life and Under a Big Sky. Carla Martell trained in design in Wellington and Melbourne. She is currently working on her 11th book.
Source: Nielsen Bookscan NZ – week ending March 22.