Kiwi titles make big impact in Whitcoulls Kids' Top 50 list

It should come as no surprise to parents that Harry Potter, Hairy Maclary, Wimpy Kid, David Walliams and the Treehouse series are still top of the tree when it comes to this year’s Whitcoulls Kids’ Top 50 Books list.

It’s the number of Kiwi titles that’s the real surprise.

“Interestingly, the number of New Zealand titles in the Kids’ Top 50 is significantly more than for the adult Top 100 Books list, which Whitcoulls also compiles annually,” said Whitcoulls book buyer Joan Mackenzie.

Local titles represent 14 out of 50 in the children’s list, as voted by children, compared with just three in the Whitcoulls Top 100 last year.

Moo and Moo and the Little Calf Too, the tale of three cows stuck on a mound of dirt after the Kaikoura earthquake, is a newcomer to the kids’ list, along with Tu Meke Tui.

These and the perennial favourite series Kuwi the Kiwi, The Wonky Donkey, the gross-out Baa Baa Smart Sheep and Stacy Gregg’s horse tales make for a strong New Zealand showing. Voting was up by a massive 45 per cent on last year.

“I think that the popularity of Kiwi writers with our children reflects the importance of stories that mirror a recognisable landscape, and an environment to which they can easily relate,” Mackenzie said.

Despite the ongoing success of any picture book with a kiwi in it, publishers have long been mystified as to why that changes as soon as children hit puberty.

“It’s like black and white, the difference between the New Zealand