New Zealand Fish of the Week: Ngā Ika o Te Wiki Gillian & Adrian Torckler

New Zealand Fish of the Week: Ngā Ika o Te Wiki Author: Gillian Torckler Photographs: Adrian Torckler Bateman (2025)32 pages, paperback ISBN 978 1 77689 137 5

New Zealand Fish of the Week is an original and attractive reader. It deftly uses the days of the week to introduce six prominent sea-dwellers before concluding with a Sunday rollcall of nine more. Gillian Torckler’s text is a delight to read aloud, because it is based on the familiar nursery rhyme, Monday’s child. ‘Monday’s fish glides over the weed. Tuesday’s fish swims past at great speed.’ Each day’s fish is given its name in both Māori and English. Simple factual material is given in a text box, so young readers learn that Monday’s fish, shown cruising through the seaweed, is the whai keo or eagle ray, which swims by flapping its ‘wings’ like a bird. Tuesday’s fish is the famously fast-moving takeketonga or striped marlin. The days of the week are given in both Māori and English. The photos by Adrian Torckler are stunning, each one a double-page, underwater, colour portrait of a fish. Of course, several popular marine animals which are not technically fish are included, so a shark, dolphin and lobster duly make an appearance. Manaia or seahorse turns up as a pregnant father clinging to some kelp: 'Wednesday’s fish holds on very tight.' There is always a delight in learning something new and New Zealand Fish of the Week is full of factual surprises. Petipeti, also known as comb jelly, is an unexpected entry but I now know that it is not a jellyfish and that it doesn’t sting. It does, however, take a good photograph. Appropriately for bedtime reading, the book concludes with its fifteenth creature, the koura or crayfish, having a rest. Trevor Agnew 3 July 2025 First published in The Source (3784).