Bill Nagelkerke
Location: Christchurch
Preferred audience: Any
Bill Nagelkerke has written short stories, poems, plays and books for all ages, as well as translating other people’s books from Dutch into English.
Three of his novels have been Storylines Notable Books: Old bones, The ghosts on the hill and The ghost house. Sitting on the fence, set at the time of the controversial Springbok rugby tour of 1981, was a finalist in the 2008 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. In 2013 Bill was awarded the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award for a distinguished contribution to New Zealand children’s literature and literacy.
Selected bibliography
Junior Fiction, including educational titles
Dream Boat (Shortland Publications 1997).
Going Bananas, illustrated by Ant Sang [Kiwi Bites] (Puffin 2003).
A Good Idea [Ready to Read series] (Learning Media 2005).
Egg Head (Oxford University Press 2006).
The Paint Job (Oxford University Press 2006).
Old Bones (Scholastic 2006).
Hot Money [Nitty Gritty series] (Pearson 2009).
Hippo Ears and the Stargazer [Nitty Gritty series] (Pearson 2011).
Easy Peasy [Ready to Read series] (Ministry of Education 2018).
The Night the Moon Fell Down, and Other Poems (Self-published 2019. Many poems previously published in magazines and anthologies.)
The Ghosts on the Hill (The Cuba Press 2020)
Stop the Tour! The Diary of Martin Daly, Christchurch, 1981 [My New Zealand Story series] (Scholastic 2021) (New edition of Sitting on the Fence: The Diary of Martin Daly, originally published 2007 by Scholastic)
The Ghost House (The Cuba Press 2022)
Work in anthologies
The Hutchinson Treasury of Children’s Poetry (Hutchinson UK 1997).
Kids’ Night In (Penguin 2003).
Claws & Jaws (Random House 2004).
Down to the Sea Again (HarperCollins 2005).
Mischief & Mayhem (Random House 2005).
Like Wallpaper (Random House 2005).
Pick ‘n’ Mix: Assorted Kiwi Stories, Vol. 1 (Scholastic 2010).
Read Me Another One, Please! (Whitcoulls 2012).
A Treasury of New Zealand Poems For Children (Random House 2015)
Es War Einmal: Grim(m) Fairy Tales From Aotearoa/New Zealand (Goethe Institut 2015)
Road Squeak Purr: A New Zealand Treasury of Animal Poems (Penguin Random House, 2022)
A Whale of a Time: A Funny Poem For Every Day Of The Year (Nosy Crow, 2023)
Translations
Who’s Driving by Leo Timmers (Gecko Press 2006).
I Am The King by Leo Timmers (Gecko Press 2006).
Sheep With Boots by Martigen Matter, illustrated by Jan Jutte (Gecko Press 2009).
Eep! by Joke van Leeuwen (Gecko Press 2010).
The Magical Life of Mr Renny by Leo Trimmers (Gecko Press 2012).
The Day My Father Became a Bush by Joke Van Leeuwan (Gecko Press 2013).
Wolf and Dog by Sylvia Vanden Heede (Gecko Press 2013).
The Day No-One Was Angry by Toon Tellegen (Gecko Press 2014)
Timeline by Peter Goes (Gecko Press 2015, updated edition 2025)
Dog Knows Everything and Wolf Knows Nothing by Sylvia Vanden Heede (Gecko Press 2016)
Rivers by Peter Goes (Gecko Press, 2018)
My Mama by Annemarie van Haeringen (Gecko Press 2020)
Timeline: Science and Technology by Peter Goes (Gecko Press 2020)
What Ollie Saw by Joukje Akveld (Levine Querido 2021)
I’ll Keep You Close By Jeska Verstegen (Levine Querido 2021; Allen & Unwin, 2022)
Kind Crocodile by Leo Timmers (Gecko Press, 2023)
The Curse of Madame Petrova by Marjolijn Hof (Levine Querido 2024)
The Monster in the Lake by Leo Timmers (Gecko Press 2025)
Awards
Nada Beardsley Literacy Award 2006
Junior Fiction Finalist New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards 2008 for Sitting on the Fence (Scholastic)
Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award 2013
Storylines What Now Kids’ Pick Award 2021 for The Ghosts on the Hill (Joint winner) (The Cuba Press)
Junior Fiction Finalist NZ Booklovers Award 2023 for The Ghost House (The Cuba Press)
Storylines Notable Book Awards for Old Bones (Scholastic), The Ghosts on the Hill (The Cuba Press), and The Ghost House (The Cuba Press)
