Two new books celebrate the fun of Christmas and its South Pacific flavours

Just right for the stocking or under the tree come two delightful books that will entertain children this Christmas:

From our Moana Oceania Series comes the bilingual A Manulele in a Mango Tree/Le Manulele o nofo i le Mago, in English and Gagana Sāmoa — and for the fans of the best-selling New Bum series, the new hilarious seasonal adventure Santa needs a NEW BUM! 

Scroll down to read more.

A Manulele in a Mango Tree
Le Manulele o nofo i le Mago

Sarona Aiono-Iosefa 
Illustrated by Steven Dunn 
Translated by Le’autuli Sauvao

A partridge in a pear tree is something you won’t see at Christmas in New Zealand, let alone the South Pacific. But a colourful bird in a mango tree that’s more like it.

A Manulele in a Mango Tree brings the '12 Days of Christmas' to the South Pacific with gifts including frangipani, corned beef, drummers and fire dancers.

Strikingly illustrated with woodblock prints, this bilingual book gives a summery setting to Christmas while celebrating many aspects of Pacific culture, from weaving to drumming to dance.

In the vein of the classic A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree, this picture book will make a great gift or a fun read around the Christmas tree.

The authors

Sarona Aiono-Iosefa is a Samoan-New Zealand writer, senior manager and former journalist who has written several books for children. She lives in Wellington.

Steven Dunn is an artist and illustrator. He lives in Christchurch, where he works as a graphic designer.

Le’autuli Sauvao MNZM, JP was a distinguished educator and translator of Gagana Sāmoa (the Samoan language). Sadly, she passed away in August.

Publication: 5 November 2025  |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004292-8 |  RRP $21  

 PB, 230 mm x 215 mm portrait, 32 pp, colour

Santa needs a NEW BUM!

Dawn McMillan 
Illustrated by Ross Kinnaird

Who would believe it? Santa and Red Pants Boy are sitting together for tea. But as well as festive cheer, Santa brings a problem: his bum is ill-fitting from all of the sitting!

Can our hero and his family help Santa get his bum back in shape in time for Christmas present deliveries?

This festive and funny tale will spread Christmas joy to all the kids, parents and grandparents who can’t get enough of the New Bum! shenanigans.

Dawn McMillan’s playful rhymes and Ross Kinnaird’s vibrant drawings bring an exciting holiday adventure to New Bum! fans around the world, continuing the success of this globally bestselling series.

The authors

Dawn McMillan is the much-loved author of many children’s books, including I Need a New Bum!, I’ve Broken my Bum!, There’s a Moa in the Moonlight and Why Do Dogs Sniff Bottoms. A retired primary-school teacher with a love of reading, she lives in Waiomu, north of Thames. 

Ross Kinnaird is an illustrator and graphic designer whose books, many of them in collaboration with Dawn, have been published in many countries. After a career as a creative director, he now creates books from his home close to the water on Auckland’s North Shore.

Publication: 9 October 2025  |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004282-9  |  RRP $21  

 PB, 230 x 215 mm, 32 pp, colour

Finding a new bum and finding Easter eggs in hilarious new picture book

 

Easter Bunny Needs a New Bum!
Dawn McMillan
Illustrated by Ross Kinnaird

Easter egg-citement awaits in seasonal addition to the hit New Bum! series

 

As children are gearing up for Easter egg hunts and trying to spot the Easter Bunny, here comes the book to spark their egg-citement!

And when Dawn McMillan and Ross Kinnaird are in cahoots, you know there’ll be plenty of laughter (and probably some bums too)! 

Easter Bunny needs a New Bum! is the newest addition to the hilarious hit series that cracks up readers around the world. 

Early one morning, Red Pants Boy spots Easter Bunny in his garden – but something’s amiss: Easter Bunny is missing his tail! 

Well-versed in bum-related emergencies, our hero comes to Easter Bunny’s rescue with an egg-celent idea. 

He equips him with fashionable Easter undies and off they hop to hide the eggs: ‘Hoppity hoppity, cannot stoppity.’

But will they be able to sort out Easter Bunny’s bum issues or will he forever be wearing undies?

Number ten in the bestselling New Bum! series publishes on 13 March in New Zealand and Australia, and is already available in the UK and Ireland through Scholastic.

The author

Dawn McMillan is the much-loved author of many children’s books, including  I Need a New Bum!, My Bum is SO SPOOKY!, There’s a Crab in my Castle and Colour the Stars. She lives in Waiomu, north of Thames. 

The illustrator

Ross Kinnaird is an illustrator and graphic designer whose books have been published in many countries, many of them in collaboration with Dawn. He lives close to the water on Auckland’s North Shore.

Publication: 13 March 2025  |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004278-2 | RRP $21.00

Paperback, 230 x 215 mm portrait, 32 pages, colour

Activities galore in book that extends the fun of the hit New Bum! series

I Need a New Bum! Activity Book
Betsy Ochester and Dawn McMillan
Illustrated by Ross Kinnaird

The newest addition to the global phenomenon that is the New Bum! series aims to get young readers engaged and having fun.

Responding to demand from families around the world, the I Need a New Bum! Activity Book offers amazing mazes, word games, bum puzzles, drawing challenges, code crackers, jokes and more.

The cheeky young hero from the Bum books takes readers through an awesome bunch of activities to keep kids cracking up for hours. 

Open the pages to help him slide through a sand dune maze, blast into outer space in the best seat in the house, and figure out the punchlines to a load of bum jokes. There’s even a song to compose – ‘The Broken Bum Blues’!

Author and illustrator dream team Dawn McMillan and Ross Kinnaird partnered with US puzzle expert Betsy Ochester to bring this fun-packed book to bum fans around the world.

With the zany drawings and silly humour of the New Bum! series, this activity book will keep the kids — and the whole family — entertained for hours.

The authors

Dawn McMillan is the much-loved author of many children’s books, including  I Need a New Bum!, My Bum is SO SPOOKY!, There’s a Moa in the Moonlight and Colour the Stars. She lives in Waiomu, north of Thames. 

Betsy Ochester is an editor, writer and puzzle creator for children. Betsy has worked on more than 200 puzzle, activity and non-fiction books for children. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

The illustrator

Ross Kinnaird is an illustrator and graphic designer whose books have been published in many countries, many of them in collaboration with Dawn. He lives close to the water on Auckland’s North Shore.

Publication: 5 November 2024  |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004246-1 | RRP $21.00

Paperback, 230 x 215 mm portrait, 48 pages, black & white

There's a Crab in my Castle takes young readers to the rocky shore

There’s a Crab in my Castle / He Pāpaka kei taku Pā

Dawn McMillan

Illustrated by Nikki Slade Robinson

Translated by Stephanie Huriana Fong

Fourth book in bilingual nature story series takes young readers to meet seaside creatures 

Summer is coming and there’s plenty of action for young readers down at the seashore in the latest addition to the nature story series by bestselling author Dawn McMillan.

When an inquisitive girl goes to the rocky shore she builds a sandcastle and soon gets many visitors: crab and sandhoppers, snapper, kina, manta ray and more.

 

The fun ensemble of seaside creatures is brought to life across colourful pages with evocative pictures.

With an info page about the animals encountered, There’s a Crab in my Castle encourages young readers to explore the rocky shore and learn about the creatures of sand and sea.

 

A classy hardback edition with bilingual text in English and Māori, this is a book for the bach and for whānau to read together at the end of a long day at the beach.

A teacher resource will be available on the Oratia website.

The Authors

Dawn McMillan is an internationally bestselling writer of children’s books who lives north of Thames. Among her many popular works are I Need a New Bum! and Colour the Stars. She began her Nature Series of books in 2018.

Nikki Slade Robinson is an award-winning, globally successful illustrator and writer who lives in Ōpōtiki. Among her other works are the Muddle and Mo series and The Seven Stars of Matariki. She has also illustrated Dawn's nature book There's a Tui in our Teapot and There's a Moa in the Moonlight. 

Stephanie Huriana Fong is a translator and TV presenter who lives with her whānau in Auckland. She has translated other books by Dawn including Kia Hou Taku Tou! (the Māori edition of I Need a New Bum!).

Publication Date: 15 October 2024 |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004262-1 |  RRP $25.99

Hardback, 270 x 210 mm, 32 pages colour

Eighth of the New Bum! books continues 'runaway success' of the international series

My Dad’s Runaway Bum!
Dawn McMillan
Illustrated by Ross Kinnaird

From the humble beginnings of a boy wondering why his bum has a crack, the 2012 book I Need a New Bum! has built a fan base of millions around the world, with six subsequent adventures published along with a number of bind-ups, sticker books and even a board game. 

My Dad’s Runaway Bum extends this hit series in another crazy escapade. Our hero. red-pants boy, is off on another bum-venture, but this time it’s not him that causes the trouble!

 

After eating too much cabbage and peas, Dad’s bum has had enough and blasts off in a cloud of smelly smoke. It takes off through the door, rolls ‘past joggers in tights, past bikers with lights’.

 

But our hero and his bum-less Dad are hot on its tail, following its smelly trail. And soon, the police get in on the c(h)ase …

Will Dad get his bum back or will he stay forever bum-less, with his backside locked up in jail?

The hilarious rhymes of Dawn McMillan and comical drawings of Ross Kinnaird crack up readers once more in this wild bum-chase. 

 

This eighth in the bestselling New Bum! series will be in bookstores from 5 March in New Zealand and Australia, with publication also in the US and Canada, the UK and Ireland.

The authors

Dawn McMillan is the much-loved author of many children’s books, including  I Need a New Bum!, My Bum is SO SPOOKY!, There’s a Moa in the Moonlight and Colour the Stars. She lives in Waiomu, north of Thames. 

Ross Kinnaird is an illustrator and graphic designer whose books have been published in many countries, many of them in collaboration with Dawn. He lives close to the water on Auckland’s North Shore.

Publication: 5 March 2024  |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004254-6 | RRP $21.00

Paperback, 230 x 215 mm portrait, 32 pages, colour

Seasonal fun awaits with the latest New Bum books

My Bum is SO SPOOKY! and My Bum is SO CHRISTMASSY!

Dawn McMillan

Illustrated by Ross Kinnaird

With trick or treating and Christmas shopping just around the corner, the hero of the New Bum! books is going all seasonal!

 

And when bestselling team Dawn McMillan and Ross Kinnaird get in on the act, fun takes over from Halloween frights and being polite to the rellies over Christmas lunch. 

In My Bum is SO SPOOKY!, a special pumpkin uniform gives Red Pants Boy what it takes to scare some lollies out of the neighbours. Then he and his vampire-costumed cousins round off the night with a ghostly surprise (no spoiler!). 

Meanwhile something isn’t right at Christmas. Our boy’s bum is too plain, and he imagines all the ways he could decorate it — with Christmas stockings, a tree, or snowflakes that glow in the night? 

Then he thinks again. Is having a decorated bum the most important thing at Christmas time? Santa may just have the answer in My Bum is SO CHRISTMASSY!

 

These seasonal specials hit the bookstores simultaneously in New Zealand, Australia, the US and the UK from this Monday 2 October. 

And in New Zealand they are available only via booksellers, as demand has exceeded our print runs already so there are none left at our distributors. Happy Halloween everyone!

The author

Dawn McMillan is the much-loved author of numerous children’s books including the previous books in the New Bum! series, Doctor Grundy’s Undies and the latest in her nature series, There’s a Moa in the Moonlight. She lives in Waiomu, north of Thames. 

The illustrator

Ross Kinnaird is an illustrator and designer whose books have been published around the world, many of them in collaboration with Dawn. He lives close to the water on Auckland’s North Shore. 

Publication: 2 October 2023  |  RRP $19.99

ISBN: (Spooky) 978-1-99-004243-0  (Christmassy) 978-1-99-004227-0

 Paperback, 230 x 215 mm portrait, 32 pages, colour

My Bum's on THE RUN! – fit, fast and funny new book in the Bum series publishes internationally

My Bum's on THE RUN!                       

Dawn McMillan
Illustrated by Ross Kinnaird

 New book in the laugh-out-loud ‘Bum Series’ of picture  

 books by NZ author and illustrator in international release 

Everyone would like to run faster, right? But some things just hold us back — like a bum that won’t keep pace

In this newest book in the global bestselling New Bum series the hero of I Need a New Bum! , I’ve Broken my Bum!  and My Bum is SO NOISY!  finds a range of crack-up solutions to his slow-bum problem, in a new adventure for 2023. 

The options go from attaching a kite and balloons or eating cabbage and peas for some wind power. But then he and his cousin figure out they need bum-strengthening exercises — some squats, kicks, steps and lunges.

 

And while he’s working out, a whole lot of other folk join him. After some training he’s off — on a cross-country race near home.

Think our red pants boy is set up to win? There’ll be a twist at the end of this tale once his dog gets involved.

 

Fittingly for a book that features running in different locales around the world, My Bum's on THE RUN!  will publish in March 2023 simultaneously in New Zealand and Australia (Oratia), the US and Canada (Dover) and the UK and Ireland (Scholastic UK). 

Get ready for the fastest bum book yet!

The authors

Dawn McMillan is the much-loved author of numerous children’s books including the five previous books in the New Bum! series, Doctor Grundy’s Undies and the latest in her nature series, There’s a Moa in the Moonlight. She lives in Waiomu, north of Thames.

Ross Kinnaird is an illustrator and designer whose books have been published around the world, many of them in collaboration with Dawn. He lives close to the water on Auckland’s North Shore.

Publication Date: 2 March 2023 |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004241-6 |  RRP $19.99

Paperback, 230 x 215 mm portrait, 32 pages, colour