Ideas for Christmas gifts...

Some recommendations that would make good Christmas presents…I include three good books I have read this year and my all-time favourite childhood book!

Yes, I admit this means clearly the last book must be absolutely ancient (I won’t say when it was originally published as that would give the game away!) but it has been re-published this year to celebrate its 40^th anniversary (Oh well, I guess you can now make an educated guess at my age) so I am delighted that it will be readily available in the shops for Christmas, giving me a legitimate excuse to talk about it.

Please click here to hear me talk to Jesse Mulligan about these books on Radio New Zealand on Tuesday 18 November 2025.

For Ages 10-12+

The Grimmelings

By Rachael King

(Aotearoa Author)

Published in 2024

In her author’s note Rachael King name checks Susan Cooper as her childhood inspiration and this story does have the same atmospheric tone of Cooper’s seminal, extremely British, middle grade ‘The Dark is Rising’ series, despite the fact King’s story is set in New Zealand.

While the location for the story is never explicitly stated, 13-year-old protagonist Ella’s family’s horse trekking business is on the outskirts of a small, largely agricultural township somewhere in the High Country, where Ella’s grandmother settled from Scotland as a young woman. The men in the family seem to have been cursed, and the three generations of women are now left on their own to look after one another, their horses and the family business. But, as her life nears its end, Ella’s grandmother realises she didn’t leave her past behind in the wild Scottish Highlands after all and a dark spirit has been haunting her family.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book – King is a very talented word-smith. Her writing is evocative and tangible, the story is well paced and perfectly formed. The horses, the landscape and the language are as an important part of the story as the strong, appealing characters.

The only slightly disappointing thing about the story was the lost opportunity to use the New Zealand setting – there was nothing kiwi about this book, so it would have been just as good if King had put the action in the Scottish Highland loch where the Kelpie belonged. Not to include the unique spirits and guardians of the land of New Zealand to see off the interloper seems a shame.  

Wolf Road (#1 in series)

By Alice Roberts

Published in 2023

This book is set in the prehistoric era – a time when small hunter gather groups, alongside herds of mammoth and solitary smilodons, walked through the landscape following the seasons. Tuuli is a young adolescent girl, travelling with her small family clan, but, like all teenagers, she thinks there must be more to life and dreams of bigger adventures.

I enjoyed this book because, while (believe it or not) it is not the only tween series out there with a prehistoric setting, the beautifully described setting is unusual enough to make the story interesting, enjoyable and engaging. The author, Dr Alice Roberts, is an archaeologist (as well as being a medical doctor, artist, TV presenter and author – she is one of my heroes!), and she takes great pleasure in using her knowledge of how humans lived at this time. She describes the intricate details of what her stone age characters ate, how they hunted, made their tools, what they wore and lived in and how they interacted with their landscape. She has chosen to set it at a time when homo sapiens were taking advantage of low sea levels and spreading out further than ever before across the frozen landscape, and clashes between Neanderthals and the new interlopers were inevitable.

I was surprised by how sad the story was, Roberts certainly doesn’t simplify or romanticise this life, her characters fight and separate, die, ostracise and murder, but it is necessary to give a full picture of life at the time and is clearly important for the future books to come.

For Ages 13/14+

Best of all Worlds

By Kenneth Oppel

Published in 2025

This is a clever, psychologically twisty and dark book. 12-year-old Xavier only agrees to spend a week away with his father and pregnant step-mum to keep the peace in their recently fractured family and stop anyone from being upset. His older brother certainly wouldn’t come.

But their little group wakes up one morning and discovers, though everything in the house is the same, the world outside seems to have changed significantly! They have been provided everything they need to survive – animals, farm equipment, land – but they learn very quickly, they are trapped in this seemingly idyllic place which is not as natural as it should be, and they realise have no idea where they actually are. Their little group grows by one as Xavier’s new brother is born and they adapt and learn but three years later, out of the blue, another family arrive, with very different views on how they should deal with the situation.

The unknown and unanswered creates a constant underlying tension throughout the story that leaves the reader constantly on edge and that ever present question – ‘what would I do in this situation?’ – makes the book engaging and enthralling. It’s well paced, tense and a thought-provoking representation of how the increasingly extreme ideologies in our current society cause tension and clashes.

For Everyone and Anyone

(...over the age of 11/12 depending on their reading maturity!)

Alanna: The First Adventure

(Book 1 in the Song of the Lioness Quartet – only the best series ever written)

By Tamora Pierce

Anniversary Edition published 2025

I first read this book when I was 8 – it was the school holidays, my mum was working and I was hanging out with a friend who was with her grandparents for the holidays. She greeted me at the door with a book she had just finished (I hasten to point out, it was NOT newly published at the time!) and told me I had to start reading it immediately. She spent the day sitting on the floor beside me, watching me read and asking me what part I was up to so we could discuss it. It should have been annoying, but it is one of my warmest childhood memories. I read the first two books in the series (again and again) and it was another highlight of my childhood to discover, more than a year later, there were two more books in Alanna’s story. I still have my childhood copies of this book (falling apart and tatty) and I re-read the series every couple of years. Nowadays it only takes me a weekend to read all 4 – but I enjoy them just as much.

The publication of the new anniversary edition (for the first time ever with an appealing cover!) has already been added to my Christmas list.

This is set in a fantasy world that feels a lot like a medieval world with a hint of magic thrown in. Alanna of Trebond is a girl from a noble family, whose only option in life is to learn her manners and marry well, but Alanna dreams of becoming a knight, despite the fact female knights are banned in the realm of Tortall where she lives. Alanna's twin brother, Thom, is due to leave for palace to begin his path to knighthood, but all he dreams about is studying sorcery. To get what they both want they come up with a plan: Alanna will disguise herself as a boy and take Thom's place, while he goes to the convent to develop his magic.

This was Pierce’s first series in this fantasy world – she has written many others based in this world since– but her world building in this is already intricate and rich. This really is an ensemble piece, the characters around Alanna, make the story, especially her faithful animal companions. The action doesn’t stop; Alanna finds herself in the middle of everything happening in the royal court and has to prove herself over and over again. The story has truly evil men, conspiracies, war, sorcery, rivalry, friendships, romance and animals … what more could anyone want??    

Click here to access some of my past chats with Jesse on Radio New Zealand.