John Joe’s Tune
Tania Atkinson, ill. Christine Ross Duck Creek Press $30
This is a topical picture book for all New Zealanders. John
Joe is John Joseph Woods, the Lawrence teacher who created the music for our
second national anthem. Tania Atkinson has written a lively verse account of
the dramatic night of 8 July 1876 when Woods first read of the contest to write
an ‘Air’ for Thomas Bracken’s ‘National Hymn,’ God Defend New Zealand. We see
Woods, hatted and scarfed against the Central Otago winter, enthusiastically rushing
to compose.
“He ran to the piano
And he played three notes or four.”
Triumph follows, with Woods winning the competition and later
conducting a choir of 600 children singing the future anthem for Premier Sir
George Grey – in a woolshed!
Christine Ross’s witty, colourful illustrations of these
events are a delight, with Woods’ Lipp upright piano cheerfully immortalised as
a national icon.
This review first appeared in Your Weekend magazine, The
Press (Christchurch, NZ), on 22 Aug 2015.
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