Purpose of Collection

The creation of the New Zealand Pacific Picture Book Collection is primarily motivated by a strong belief in the power of picturebooks, and their ability to carry knowledge and world views which validate the home culture of some children, and introduce knowledge to others.

The New Zealand Pacific Picture Book Collection is a collection of 36 picture books nominated by nine librarians based in New Zealand with specific responsibility for providing library services for Pasifika communities in New Zealand. It was created in order to make the limited number of books representing Pasifika stories and knowledge easily accessible to classroom teachers, and to provide suggestions for classroom activities linked to the New Zealand curriculum in order to integrate this knowledge into New Zealand classrooms.

The New Zealand Pacific Picture Book Collection books are not available as a unit, but most will be found in school libraries or through the National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa.

Kia Ora

Thanks for using this website. You may notice that some of the books mentioned have gone out of print or are difficult to locate, and we apologise for that. The collection was created in 2012 and as time passes more books will go out of print. We hope you may be able to access some of the books through libraries nonetheless, or at least make use of the ideas in the resources. If you wish to find out more about the work of the Waikato Picturebook Research Unit (WaiPRU), please go to our site

Ngā Mihi