Most Popular Books by Joy Cowley

My tiger loved cake, and I went with him to the cake shop. Then he got a bad tooth, so I went with him to the dentist. My tiger didn’t like sitting in the waiting room, climbing onto the dentist chair, or being told by the dentist what to eat. Especially when she said no more cake! What’s a tiger supposed to eat? A bossy adult is made to look silly and a charming tiger wins the reader’s heart in this subversively funny story about a love of cake and the pull of natural tiger instincts.

A small and cozy book leaving preschoolers snug as a bug, from award-winning author, Joy Cowley. The tiny woman makes a coat of leaves with the help of her animal friends. The trees, geese, porcupine, horse and plants all share something so the tiny woman can snip, snip, snip and stitch, stitch, stitch a coat to keep herself warm. Friendship and sharing are at the heart of this warm and simple rhythmic poem by one of the world’s best children’s writers. A perfectly cozy hardback storybook to read-aloud and share with babies, toddlers and preschoolers who will delight in everything tiny and small, including the fresh and funny illustrations by award-winning illustrator Giselle Clarkson. “Now I have a new favourite cosy read to add to my collection.” —The Times UK, Children’s Book of the Week Joy Cowley is one of New Zealand’s best-loved writers for children and adults, and her stories are loved around the world. She has won a multitude of awards and honors for her bestselling books, including the Prime Minister's Award for contribution to literature. She was shortlisted for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2018. Giselle Clarkson is an illustrator and comic artist based in New Zealand. She illustrated Egg and Spoon: An Illustrated Cookbook by Alexandra Tylee which won the Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and The Gobbledegook Book: A Joy Cowley Anthology. Praise for The Tiny Woman’s Coat "An inventive and delightful tale that evokes Thumbelina, The Borrowers, and other beloved wee characters."—Kirkus Reviews “Now I have a new favourite cozy read to add to my collection ... Giselle Clarkson’s evocative illustrations tell another story of the powers of collectivism.”—The Times

Marta Enos is having a bad day. It begins when the wind blows her homework out the window and the dogs chew it to pieces. Her grandmother consoles her with a tortilla as "big and pale as a rising full moon," along with ancient words of advice. This charming story, set on a Papago reservation in southern Arizona near the Mexican border, offers Native American wisdom that helps children--and adults as well--put their problems in perspective.

An evocative bedtime picture book that distills the essence of a family summer at the beach—skin sticky with salt, sandy feet, waves hush-hushing, and a shell under the pillow. Summer holidays by the sea have a rhythm all their own. With a few resonant images, Cowley takes us straight to the end of a long hot day with beach treasures under the pillow and the salty smell of the sea. The cadence of the final words echoes the shushing waves in a gentle signal of time for readers to sleep—"good day, good sea, good sand, good night." This simple poem by internationally renowned author Joy Cowley transports the reader to a childhood summer with language that asks to be read over and over. Hilary Jean Tapper's warm watercolor-and-ink illustrations add an inclusive cast of extended family, friends, and children of different ages.

The adventures of Annabel and her crocodile on a shopping trip may be sung to the tune of There Were Three Jolly Fishermen.

Uh-oh. Mrs. Wishy-Washy is at it again. Rubbing and scrubbing all the animals on the farm. But this time they aren't standing for it. Duck, Cow, and Pig are leaving mean old Mrs. Wishy-Washy for good! They run away to the big city. But they get lost, wander into a restaurant, and even stumble into a hardware store and get covered in paint! Where is Mrs. Wishy-Washy when they need her? Maybe her farm isn't so bad after all . . .

The war was all ready to begin when a duck was discovered nesting in the only cannon. So for want of a cannon, the war was avoided.

Two brothers try to help a sparrow trapped in a closed video store.

For teachers to read aloud to classes.

** Winner of the New Zealand Children's Book of the Year 1990** A classic junior fiction favourite from multi-award winning New Zealand children's author, Joy Cowley. Shadrach is a very old circus-trained Clydesdale horse, and the favourite family pet. When Hannah discovers that Shadrach has been sold to a dog food factory, she decides to mount a heroic rescue and enlists the help of her two younger brothers. From the beginning their plans go seriously wrong. By the time they've argued with the repulsive Wuff Stuff man, hidden Shadrach in a church and a caravan, and floated him on a mussel barge they're in desperate need of rescuing themselves.

File note: the advent of sickness is always accompanied by the arrival of a possible cure. There will be born, of human beauty, a child without fear, known as the Bright Star... Dr Jacob Tietz People all over Claircomb are succumbing to a strange illness, thought to be a deadly new virus. But this is no virus - it is a life form so advanced that its intelligence makes a computer look like counting beads. It knows the prophecy, too, and it is hunting down the Bright Star - to destroy her forever. Can Starbright Connor, the town's tomboy and giggly dare-devil, be the chosen one who will save her beloved family? A thriller from the award-winning author of The Silent One, the Shadrach trilogy and Ticket to the Sky Dance.

In Joy Starters, renowned children's author Joy Cowley brings her adventurous outlook and ear for children's language to early reading instruction.72 leveled books, 72 lap books, 12 rhyme charts, and audio CD's employ themes drawn from curriculum frameworks of the NAEYC, IRA, and National Head Start Literacy Initiatives.