Children's Books for Christmas - the best gift

Sarah Forster, Web Editor - Booksellers NZ

I am probably not alone in this industry in saying the single most exciting present I unwrapped from beneath the Christmas tree each year as a child was the rectangular one: especially if it looked like it had more than one book in it. Mum was a bit iffy with her clothes choices for my Christmas gifts, but she was pretty spot on with books that would appeal to me. My very first Terry Pratchett was a Christmas present, age 14, which made me aware of a whole different branch of publishing. Imagine how excited I was when I realised that Maskerade was book 18 of a long, ongoing series.

So the Christmas Children’s Book list is something I look forward to, almost as much as booksellers and publishers. Publishers have been preparing these lists for between 9 and 18 months, which indicates just how important this time of year really is. I have asked publishers what they are excited about publishing for this Christmas, and what makes a good children’s Christmas book.

For this article, I have had responses from Penguin Random House NZ, Upstart Press, Hachette NZ, Gecko Press, Scholastic NZ and Harper Collins NZ. I have included titles from Kapiti publisher Book Island.