Collection of poems inspired by a poetry trail and workshop for children held at Auckland Zoo. Includes poems written by children. Suggested level: primary, intermediate.

Since 2000, the online anthology Best New Zealand Poems has showcased the most exciting and memorable poetry produced in this country. Here, for the first time, is a selection of this work in book form. Edited by founding publisher Bill Manhire, and writer Damien Wilkins, this anthology is an indispensable guide to the richness, strangeness, and liveliness of contemporary poetry. With over sixty poets appearing, there's classic work by some of the best-known figures in our writing, including Sam Hunt, Allen Curnow, Jenny Bornholdt, Cilla McQueen, Elizabeth Smither, and Ian Wedde; there are also compelling poems from new writers. Each poet's own note on the selection illuminates the work and takes us inside the writer’s personal workshop. The first decade of the new century comes into view as a vibrant, argumentative, restless period, with our poets unafraid of either political engagement or strong personal feeling.

A delightful illustrated novel for children about a goat and a hedgehog who meet in a farm field and become best friends. Goat has a tiny pink shed in a rolling paddock. She likes to stand on top of the little shed and dream of meeting other goats in other paddocks. Sometimes she looks at the sky and imagines the clouds are her friends, especially when they look like goats bouncing and bounding in their sky paddocks. Most of the time Goat is lonely. She wishes the family in the pink house at the top of the hill would find another goat for the paddock. A best friend goat. Goat is looking at the sky and dreaming of a best friend when she hears a strange squeaking coming from a ball of prickles. It's Hedgehog, and she is crying. This is the beginning of a most unexpected friendship. Though Goat is a creature of the day and Hedgehog hunts at night, life in their rolling paddock will never be lonely or boring again. Chock-full of adventure and wisdom, tall stories and tiny poems, Little Tales of Hedgehog and Goat is a charming novel about friendship and finding the magic in the every day. It's the perfect bedtime chapter book that will be enjoyed by child and adult, and all fans of Winnie the Pooh, Wind in the Willows and Snake and Lizard.

Moving and uplifting, this compilation of mostly short poems conveys the author's personal battle with breast cancer, from the initial mammogram through biopsy, several operations, radiotherapy treatment, and recovery. The poems express the reality of balancing a challenging, life-threatening disease with one's daily routine, proposing small distractions and coping mechanisms while charting the passage of time by procedures done, books read, appointments made, food cooked, and dreams dreamed.

'One minute there you are cruising along just fine and the next minute everything's changed forever.' Feisty, strong-willed and plucky: that's how friends describe jockey Christine Lawn. Drawn by her love of horses to first work as a stable-hand and later as an apprentice jockey, Christine rode nineteen winners - until 2002. That year she fell from a horse during a race at Wingatui. The accident brought her riding career to an abrupt end and left her confined to a wheelchair. She was told she'd never walk again. This is the story of Christine's courageous struggle in the Burwood spinal unit, her determination to find a new independence, and her spirited resolve to walk again. She is an inspiration to us all. Christine's story is told here by writer Sandy McKay. Sandy cleverly weaves Christine's own words into the fabric of this remarkable biography. From the very start there's a compelling expressiveness and urgency to Christine's determined struggle. 'The thing about Burwood hospital is that you didn't have to look far to find someone worse off than yourselfa Some of them thought they'd won Lotto if they managed to feed themselves.' McKay brings the full drama of Christine's life to her readers. There's the buzz of excitement at the start of a race, but this is one rough ride. And this is one stroppy jockey!

A moving account in poetry of one woman's pathway through violence and addiction. "at six, my mother's boyfriend forced his fat hairy hand inside my heart-shaped face for eating too many Fruit Bursts we bought a tube of them at BP wrapped individually in pastel wax papers which littered the backseat like sweet-smelling confetti his hand tasted of salt a metallic tang of rust the hot edge of petrol from the pump still lingering on his fingers" My Honest Poem is a moving and powerful poetry collection that follows recovery from a life fractured by family violence and addiction. It is a coming-of-age story of a young New Zealand woman rebuilding strength and hope in the spaces left by trauma.

On a blue day a rainbow wraps the sky with bright ribbons. 'The Rainbow' Well-known poet and author Paula Green combines with the talents of Myles Lawford to create a unique poetry book for children.

By 1972, when James K. Baxter died aged just 46, his colourful life and distinctive poetry had captured the imagination of New Zealanders as no literary figure before him. Selected Poems of James K. Baxter is a new generous and authoritative selection of Baxter's verse for general readers and students by New Zealand's leading Baxter scholar, Paul Millar. With a range of poems from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and the Jerusalem period, full texts of major sequences 'Pig Island Letters' and the 'Jerusalem Sonnets', and key new poems directly from manuscript, Millar's selection reveals the breadth of Baxter's achievement, not merely its peaks - from the comic and bawdy to the political and devotional. Selected Poems of James K. Baxter also includes an insightful introduction by Millar and short prefaces to the four parts, plus four Baxter photos, useful notes, a glossary of Maori words and index.

A collection of poems by Anne French. Five poems are attributed to William Butler ('Bill') Smith (her pseudonym). Also includes five translations of poems by Korean poet Han Yong-un.

"Poems by all the big names in both children's and adult writing, from Margaret Mahy and Hone Tuwhare to Denis Glover as well as some fresh new poets"--Publisher's information.