New Books
These are some of the latest audio books produced in the Blind & Low Vision NZ studios. You can find them in BookLink, or you can ask Alexa for them by author, title, or book number. To request a particular book on Daisy Direct or CD, please call us on 0800 24 33 33.
A torch against the night by Sabaa Tahir
Laia and Elias fight their way north to liberate Laia’s brother from the horrors of Kauf Prison. Hunted by Empire soldiers, manipulated by the Commandant, and haunted by their pasts, Laia and Elias must outfox their enemies and confront the treacherousness of their own hearts. On the other side, Helene finds herself taking on a mission to prove herself – a mission that might destroy her, instead.
Young adult reading level
Book number 129302
Yvette Williams: Leaping into history by David Riley
In the final of the 1952 Olympic long jump competition, Yvette Williams is trying win an Olympic gold medal – something no New Zealand woman has done before.
Primary reading level
Book number 129306
Captain Underpants and the revolting revenge of the radioactive robo-boxers by Dav Pilkey
George and Harold are forced to contemplate a world without Captain Underpants.
Primary reading level
Book number 102111
The Nazi and the Luftgangster by D.B. Williamson and Lutz Dille
An account of the lives of and friendship between two young men who were on the opposite sides during the Second World War. One, a British teenager who became a flight engineer flying in a Lancaster bomber in 75 NZ squadron and later, after the war, immigrated first to Canada and then to New Zealand. The other, a German lad from the Hitler Youth who could not escape to Britain; later lived in Germany under the Russian occupation; learned to become a professional photographer and eventually immigrated to Canada.
Adult reading level
Book number 129866
The way it was: A farming, shearing, hunting life by Tom Brough
A down-to-earth account of the author’s life. After a challenging childhood in the King Country backblocks and minimal schooling, Tom Brough became a champion shearer, successful farmer (turning unproductive country into a model farm) and noted hunter of pigs, deer and more exotic animals on several continents.
Adult reading level
Book number 119460
Ghost wall by Sarah Moss
A teenage girl living in a remote Northumberland camp as an exercise in experimental archaeology with an abusive father obsessed with recreating the discomfort, brutality and harshness of Iron Age life. And a bog girl, a young woman sacrificed by those closest to her. The landscape both keeps and reveals the secrets of past violence and ritual and as the hot summer builds to its harrowing climax, the stories of the two girls move terrifyingly closer.
Adult reading level
Book number 130001
Smelly Louie by Catherine Rayner
Louie the dog has just had a bath – and he is NOT happy about it. He thinks he smells all wrong and is determined to get his Special Smell back. Will he succeed and more importantly, will he be able to keep it this time?
Primary reading level
Book number 128828
The price of integrity: Memories of Stephen O’Connell by Phaline Keenan
The story of Stephen Doran, who grew up in India, joined the British Army, and served in the Calcutta Fire Brigade for many years, then emigrated to New Zealand after India became independent.
Adult reading level
Book number 119720
Sing no sad songs: Losing a daughter to cancer by Sandra Arnold
The author’s daughter was diagnosed with a rare and vicious cancer and dies in thirteen months at a very young age. This memoir is a haunting story of bereavement, survival, courage and acceptance, as well as a tender account of a close mother-daughter relationship cut far too short.
Adult reading level
Book number 120884
Becoming by Michelle Obama
An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States of America and one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As America’s First Lady – the first African-American to serve in that role – she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. An inspiring and deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations.
Adult reading level
Book number 128521
Bread and roses: Sonja Davies – her story by Sonja Davies
Elected NZ Federation of Labour Vice-President in 1983 Davies writes of some of the major events and personalities from the 1950s to 1990s.
Adult reading level
Book number 129999
Photos of you by Tammy Robinson
Ava Green is told that her twenty-eighth birthday will be her last. The cancer is back, and this time she won’t be able to beat it. As her friends and family rally to help deliver her dying wish for a party to end all parties, the media get involved and her story spreads around the country. But when photographer James Gable arrives, Ava has to decide whether she is brave enough to let love in and strong enough to say goodbye when it is time.
Adult reading level
Book number 126136
Uncommon enemy by John Reynolds
An imaginary story of what life in New Zealand would be like if it had been occupied by Nazi Germany. The novel paints a chilling picture of what so easily might have been.
Adult reading level
Book number 126477
Listen to me!: Taking the conflict out of child discipline by Anna Martin
If you are confused by all the different parenting advice on how to discipline your child, here is a guide to parenting that will change the way you think about discipline altogether. The author has turned traditional methods on their head to come up with effective strategies that put listening and the well-being of children before lecturing. Whatever your child’s age, the clear step-by-step methods in this book will help minimise conflict in the family and encourage a secure relationship between you and your child.
Adult reading level
Book number 126825
Women now: The legacy of female suffrage by
A collection of twelve dynamic essays by leading New Zealand thinkers to mark 125 years since New Zealand won the right to vote and the legacy of female suffrage.
Adult reading level
Book number 128517
Bullseye Bella by James T. Guthrie
A twelve-year-old darts prodigy secretly enters a darts competition at the local pub when she finds out that her little brothers special schooling is at risk because of lack of money. The old boys network of darts players are not happy and some will do anything to stop her from qualifying for nationals.
Primary & Intermediate reading level
Book number 129287
Brian’s return by Gary Paulsen
As millions of readers of Hatchet, The River, and Brian’s Winter know, Brian Robeson survived alone in the wilderness by finding solutions to extraordinary challenges. However now that he’s back in civilization, he can’t make sense of high school life. Brian feels disconnected, more isolated than he did alone in the North. The only answer is to return to the wilderness for only there can Brian discover his true path in life, and where he belongs.
Young adult reading level
Book number 120048
Home child: A child migrant in New Zealand by Dawn McMillan
True story of a young girl and her three siblings whose father had to make the heart-wrenching decision to send his children from London to New Zealand for a better life. The four siblings enjoy their ship voyage from Britain – not knowing they will never be going home again – nor that they would be fostered by Kiwi families. Told in the voice of that young girl, now a grandmother, telling her granddaughter about the experience of coming to a strange but welcoming country and making a new life in New Zealand.
Primary reading level
Book number 129304