Fiction Age 6 up

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NZ Writer & Illustrator

Sally Sutton, illustrated by Dave Gunson

Diary of a Sea Lion

Scholastic   2013   $16.50pb    50 pages

ISBN 978 1 7754 3153 4

Themes: Auckland Islands/ Fish nets/ Hooker’s sea lions/ Sealers

She’s a cry baby, a bit of a wimp, scared to go into the water – even a rock pool – but this young sea lion pup can tell amazing stories to her cousins and to all the other pups gathered on the beach on one of the Auckland Islands. This is such an endearing and entertaining story

(I’ve woken five minutes early every morning for the past four days just to finish it) and while the readers are laughing and sympathising they are also taking on board much about the life of sea lions living around the Auckland Islands back to the hunted days of the 1800s. This is a book that will make adults laugh just as much as the children at whom it is aimed – often for quite different reasons.

We need more New Zealand books like this for this age group.

Also just recently published (and written in the same format and in the same breezy style) is Diary of a Frog ISBN 978 1 7754 3152 7

And in 2011 Diary of a Pukeko ISBN 978 1 8694 3975 0 and last year (2012) Diary of a Bat ISBN 978 1 7754 3101 5  

Year 2 up/ Age 6 up