Having some good books for children on holiday gives them something interesting and fun to broaden their minds, and lets you sink into your favourite work in peace.
Girls in their early teens will welcome the new novel by Anne Fine. The Tulip Touch (Puffin, $84), winner of the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year, is a tale about just how bad children can be.
Both the star and the anti-hero are girls, so this will probably appeal more to female readers.
And those parents who worry about books that focus on misdeeds should bear in mind that children need to learn about the world and Tulip's need of help.
The True Stories series published by Robinson provides plenty of intriguing entertainment for children over nine.
Titles include Mystery, by Finn Bevan; Sea by Paul Ashton and the more ghoulish Horror by Terrance Dicks ($85 each). Of course, many young teens will be packing the first biographies of their screen idols.