This compelling novel will resonate for people everywhere who find their livelihood threatened by “Dollarmen” – property speculators advocating golf courses, high rises, shopping malls, and tourist attractions. In ‘Potiki’, one community’s response to attacks on their ancestral values and symbols provides moving affirmation of the relationship between land the the people who live on it.
When fourteen-year-old Jordan and her younger brothers learn they’ll have to ride a rickety plane home for the holidays, they’re a little scared. But when it crashes on a wild and deserted peninsula in New Zealand, they are completely terrified.
This picture book is about cousins’ holidays in a rural Maori community having adventures and fun together – playing in the bush, riding horses, fishing, eeling and swimming at the beach. During the holiday, a death leads to a rahui being placed on the beach. After a year, the rahui is lifted, and they return to the beach full of life and with their cousin in their hearts. The feeling of the book is joyous and wistful, and the illustrations richly evoke the atmosphere of the setting and people.
Featured in Volume VI, Issue 2 of WOW Review.
In this story a little girl, Roimata comes and stays with her grandmother. The grandmother tells her the story of a old tawa tree which was in front of their house. And how a storm comes and blows the tree down.
Created by well-known children’s writer and illustrator Gavin Bishop, this is the story of a little white kiwi. When he is born his mother doesn’t recognise him because he’s not brown. Little Kiwi looks to the moon as his mother instead because it is white and bright and round. In the background of this story we see the changing times of a nearby pa. Through illustrations only we see intertribal warfare, the death of the chief, English soldiers arriving and then the burning of the pa. This fire spreads and the two stories become one as the white kiwi’s habitat is razed to the ground.On the surface this is a very simple story but it also contains themes of intertribal warfare, European colonisation of New Zealand, Maori/Pakeha relations, and conservation. There is a lot to savour on each page – with Gavin’s stunning illustrations of the main kiwi story, the on-going images of the pa, plus close-ups of insects and plants.
Set in New Zealand, this compelling, romantic tale is about three teenagers, Paul, Simon, and Fiona, who are trying to understand their past, their place in the present, and what the future holds for them. “[Deborah Savage’s] story explores some of the most interesting territory of YA fiction: identity and heritage, prejudice and acceptance . . . Her protagonists have the depth, character and complexity that mark a very good writer indeed.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
Fishing along Jade Bay, part of an island off the coast of New Zealand, Charlie, Wiremu, and Charlie’s sister, Elizabeth, discover a long-lost ship–which takes them to a far-off land. By the Carnegie Medal-winning author of Drift.
Jessye has each foot in two very different worlds: her grandmother Nana’s rural village, rooted in Maori tradition, and her irresponsible mom’s city existence. Although she loves Nana fiercely, Jessye misses her flighty mom and decides to give living with her one more chance.
A little boy has made friends with the taniwha in his river, but no one believes him. The taniwha takes the boy on a journey through time and myth where he meets some amazing characters, gathering the earth’s treasures as he goes.
Brief episodes from a childhood spent in the Soviet Union in the 1960s reveal what life could be like behind the old Iron Curtain.