Leyla Araus (aged 12) recommends Tūī Street Heroes by Anne Kayes - Wildling Books, 2019
In 2014, Anne Kayes did a Masters in Creative Writing at AUT. This was where Tūī Street Tales began to take shape. In 2016 Tūī Street Tales won the Storylines' Tom Fitzgibbon Award competition.
Anne loves visiting schools and doing animated, dramatic readings for students. She also runs writing workshops for teachers and students.
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This book follows Anne Kayes' Tūī Street Tales and stars many of the same children. This group of school friends (Jack, Terry, Ella, twins Gemma and Harry, and Louie with his pet tui) go on dangerous adventures to get material for their writing assignments.
The book is made up of three separate stories. In the first story it's a long climb up a large tree to find Ella's lost kitten. At the top of the tree they find a whole town of fierce giants. In the second story the children and their new friend go on an adventure in the forest and discover Gemma and Harry's stepmother and father have an evil plot involving an endangered, mysterious creature.
I like this book because it was exciting and really pulled me in. I didn't want to stop reading it.
I would recommend this book as a read aloud book for 6-8 year olds and read alone for 8 years and up. Even my grandma enjoyed it!
Tūī Street Heroes is available in paperback at local bookshops.