Children's Books-Ideas for read-a-louds

Going back to University Scholastic were there to share some of the top trends in books at the moment and to remind us of the importance of the teacher reading to the class.
To begin with we were told how children who are read to each day are one whole year ahead of those who aren't regardless of socio-economic class or anything else.
Some good read-a-loud titles we were shown were the My New Zealand Story series
Emily Rodda's new series of The Golden Door, The Silver Door and one other Door.
Sally Sutton's Diary of a _____ there is a whole series with bat, pukeko and sea lion being three of them.
Picture books-On the road to Tuapeka
                     -Mind Your Gramma (good one for tense)
                     -Far Far From Home

We then looked at the top trends around books and some titles within those themes.
1. Bullying
          -Three Cheers for No Ears
          -Scrap, tale of a blonde puppy (This is a new series from Vince Ford with Scrap being on all of them)
          -Diary of a sea lion
          -Great Galloping Galoot
          -Payback
          -Ransomwood (intermediate plus)
          -The Great Orlando
          -Iris's Ukulele

2. Sci-Fi
          -The 4 Powers
          -Vitality Code
          -Extinction
          -Itch (series)

3. Non-Fiction
          -Bear Grylls (intermediate plus)
          -One Little Fantail
          -Eruption
          -Angry Birds (National Geographic)

4. Novels-in-Cartoons
              -Diary of a Whimpy Kid
              -Chickenhare
              -Captain Underpants
              -Dinosaur Rescue

5. Kid Lit on Screen
        She touched on how there is a growing demand for kindles etc but that people still enjoyed the choice between and book and a screen.

6. War
        -Here come the Marines (My NZ Story)
        -When Empire Calls  (Year 6 plus)
        -A medal for Leroy
        -My Brother's War
        -Caesar the war dog
        -Lest we Forget
        -The Red Poppy
        -Nice Day for a War

7. Touch Girls (resilient)
          -EJ12 (9+)
          -Gold (My NZ Story)
          -Wolf Princess
          -Torn

8. Survival
          -Saving Zasha
          -On two feet and wings
          -The Wahine Disaster (My NZ Story)
          -Castaway (My NZ Story)
          -A Winter's Day in 1939

9. Diversity
         -Old Huhu
         -Melu
         -Blue Gnu
        -Great Galloping Galoot
        -Seesaw Po
        -Colour the Stars (Describing colour to a blind boy-good for teaching description)

10. Nature runs Amok
            -My NZ Story - Earthquake
                                   -Tangiwai
                                   -Cyclone Bola

To end with we got a sneak peak at some new titles coming out in June
Luther and the Cloud Makers (conservation theme)
The Freedom Merchants
The Three Bears Sort Of - great humor two person narrative