Author Information
Joy Cowley's Latest Book

Newest Release

  • Bibliography:
    107 Books
  • First Book:
    June 1987
  • Latest Book:
    July 2025
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Book List in Order: 107 titles






  • A story about self-acceptance finds a determined lady mouse who is searching for the strongest creature in the world to be her mate but who, after prospect after prospect disappoints her, discovers a special truth....






  • Let the Scholastic Bookshelf be your uide through the whole range of your child's experiences--laugh with them, learn with them, read with them!
    Category: Holiday

    When Papa sends a turkey to be fattened up for Thanksgiving, Miguel takes a l...





  • When he and his mother pick up a pair of hitchhikers who possess a strange talent--everything they say comes true--an old woman reveals her sinister identity, a haunted cottage brings summer chills, and more. Original....



  • Step into a town where all the children are friends, but a drought has made the adults so grumpy they can't stop arguing! Only a miracle can heal this divided town.Folks are so hopeless, they almost don't recognize that miracle when it appears as a w...











  • Delia and Bea were never close as sisters. When Delia comes home from New York for their father's funeral, there is an opportunity to spend some time with Bea, but they both recall grievances and hurts, and neither is prepared to confront their needs...



  • When his very proper parents go out of town, Michael gets to stay with his wildly unconventional Aunt Rosie and Uncle Leo West and their five children, and one weekend he even gets to go camping with them...




  • Mr. Hill of Hill's Tractor Sales is doing his best to sell a brand-new tractor to Micah's grandfather. He even wagers twenty jelly doughnuts that Granpappy's old tractor won't make it through haying season. As the days go by, Micah learns that the tr...



  • Another popular double-header about the adventures of the Wild Wests. Rain forces Michael and the Wests to shelter in Pong Castle, where they find someone has stripped the place of metal. When the staircase collapses, they are trapped upstairs. How c...








  • There is a new deadly illness on Earth.

    Starbright Connor is beginning to wonder why everyone in Claircomb has gone so wuzzling mad over some mysterious sickness that is probably just a media scare.

    Early sympt...



  • To Agapanthus, Major Bark is an all-around wonderful dog and so, despite the challenges that may lie ahead due to his breed, decides to enter him in the Champion Dog Show to give him a chance at the victory she believes he deserves....



  • A delicately layered story about a man remembering an amazing childhood adventure with three elderly nuns in an old car. It portrays Catholicism as it is rarely seen: mysterious, quirky, but ultimately nurturing....



  • Who is Mrs. Goodstory? Part explorer, part magician, she is a storyteller who takes a young friend on adventures where the unexpected is expected. "Stories should be full of surprises," she says, as they encounter rude crocodiles, cowboys who have g...



  • When she loses her first tooth, Agapanthus discovers her new talent of being able to hoot through the space in her teeth and so, with the accompaniment of her dog, Major Bark, she sets forth to show everyone her new skill....



  • 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 los...



  • She is the lead mare of a herd of wild horses that run the range. When people come to capture them, she leads the herd in a run for safety. But trucks and helicopters drive the horses into pens. Imprisoned behind barbed wire, the fire in the mare's h...



  • Over forty million children have begun the road to reading with Mrs. Wishy-Washy, and now we get to meet her lovable husband! He's just as quirky as his wife, and just as crazy about clean! Watch Mr. Wishy-Washy tackle the dirty dishes and . . . oh n...



  • Despite her obvious lack of natural talent, Biddy Malone ignores her critics as she dances and sings all around her small village, but when she encounters a fairy in the wood who offers to grant her wishes, Biddy Malone is excited at the prospect of ...



  • A Maori boy with the gift of sight in 1803--a slave to Maori warriors hunting for the Moa bird--and fourteen-year-old Jordan--a plane crash survivor marooned on a deserted New Zealand island in the present day--experience interconnecting visions....






  • 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 c...



  • Help children build their vocabulary with Joy Readers, a set of 80 lively, leveled titles covering a broad range of topics and cultures. Individual and group lesson plans highlight strategies for reading instruction, and additional activities help...



  • Help children build their vocabulary with Joy Readers, a set of 80 lively, leveled titles covering a broad range of topics and cultures. Individual and group lesson plans highlight strategies for reading instruction, and additional activities help...



  • These lively, vocabulary-based books help young students pronounce and remember words as they read. With 80 titles, covering a range of topics and cultures, Libros Alegria portray children in a positive, successful manner.

    ...



  • Help children build their vocabulary with Joy Readers, a set of 80 lively, leveled titles covering a broad range of topics and cultures. Individual and group lesson plans highlight strategies for reading instruction, and additional activities help...



  • When Mrs. Wishy-Washy tells her animals to clean up and ready themselves for Christmas, she causes quite a stir in the icy cold barn, but with Mrs. Wishy-Washy out shopping for the holiday, the adventurous animals decide there may be a bubbly solutio...




























  • Her words got faster, louder, until she could hear herself screaming things about bodies, and kids getting their brains electrocuted.' Shog and his twin sister, Jancie, are orphans who live on the streets. They know every free food place in the city ...



  • Feather-flapping fun by one of the best-loved storytellers of our time. A talking chicken! Josh knows it sounds ridiculous, but that?s just what Semolina is. And she?s not just a talking chicken . . . she?s a spirited, sarcastic, sassytalking chicke...



  • A bedtime book for dads to share. When it's hard to go to sleep, watch out for Brad (who looks a lot like Dad!), engineer of the Bedtime Train. He'll take you to places wild (filled with bears and wolves and alligators) and full of adventures. Will t...






  • From award-winning author Joy Cowley comes an engaging story of two unlikely, but inseparable friends. Snake is elegant, calm and a little self-centered, while Lizard is exuberant and irrepressible. Through a series of small (and not so small) advent...



  • Two very different creatures learn about the give-and-take of friendship in this warm and funny story set in the desert. Snake is elegant and calm, and a little self-centered; Lizard is exuberant and irrepressible. With its wisdom, acceptance and goo...



  • This omnibus volume of stories is destined to become a family read-aloud favorite. This is not the "wild west" we're used to hearing about -- this is the West family whose adventures have both inventiveness and innocence. The Wests are everything cou...



  • Agapanthus Hum is a whirlwind. She hums, she cartwheels, and she is always running around. Now that Agapanthus has eyeglasses, her parents want her to be careful. Agapanthus tries to slow down; she even wears a bag on her head so her glasses won't ge...




































































  • Help Buzzy Bee learn to count as he prepares for his birthday party
    Buzzy has to learn to count how many friends are coming to his party. The perfect gift for a young child or an addition to the classroom -- be prepared to read it over and...



  • Help Buzzy teach his friend Oscar all about different shapes
    Oscar doesn't know his shapes until Buzzy and Mary Lou come to the rescue! The perfect gift for a young child or an addition to the classroom -- be prepared to read it over and...



  • 3D clay models are the perfect medium to bring this simple and fun tale to life. This traditional story is excellent for use as a literary text for schools as well as homes due to its repetition and rhythm. Follow the gingerbread man across the pa...



  • Recreated with 3D modeling, there has never been a Goldilocks and the Three Bears quite like this. The timeless story leaps off the page, as the Three Bears' orderly and peaceful existence is thrown into chaos when Goldilocks stumbles into their e...





  • ** 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...





  • In this resonant story, Cam the mountain boy follows the river from its trickling source in the mountain snow all the way to the coast. The river leads him through forest, farms, and towns to the salty wind of the sea. Dramatic landscape illustrat...



  • Bert wants nothing more than to be old enough to fight in the war -- to handle weapons, defend his country, and have a life filled with adventure. Little does he know that the secrets and danger of war don't always stay at the front line, and that on...



  • Two very different creatures learn about the give-and-take of friendship in this warm and funny story set in the desert. Snake is elegant and calm, and a little self-centered; Lizard is exuberant and irrepressible. With its wisdom, acceptance and goo...



  • A family of rats is forced to leave their home, so sets out to find the fabled city of Ratenburg. Along the way they outwit vicious dogs, tricky rat traps, and sharp-beaked hawks, and make some very dangerous crossings. The rat family's adventures te...



  • With a father more interested in money than family, a brother in prison, a sister with a secret, and a mother in denial, it's no wonder Jeff buries himself in the safe world of mathematics. When a storm hits Wellington, a strange old woman is blown i...



  • Micah's grandfather is convinced that his rusty, trusty, fifty-year-old tractor will make it through another haying season.  But Mr. Hill of Hill's Tractor Sales is doing his best to sell him a brand-new tractor. He even wagers twenty ...





  • Snake and Lizard live together in a burrow in the desert. They are such good friends that Lizard decides to display their names above the burrow entrance.But three small words can cause trouble between friends. They must decide whose name should appe...



  • This enduring tale of independence and family is an unconventional love story with a strong female lead and a pirate with a sensitive side, written by New Zealand’s leading children’s writer and illustrated by one of Japan’s foremos...


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Joy Cowley has published 107 books.

The next book by Joy Cowley, The Fierce Little Woman and the Wicked Pirate, 2nd Edition, will be published in July 2025.

The first book by Joy Cowley, Salmagundi, was published in June 1987.

No. Joy Cowley does not write books in series.