Pukapuka Vasanti Unka

Pukapuka Vasanti Unka

Pukapuka Author-Illustrator: Vasanti Unka. Māori text is by Justin Kereama. Beatnik (2025) 28 pages, hardback. ISBN 978 1 0670368 6 7 Puka means books and pukapuka means lots of books. This bilingual picture book, Pukapuka, follows some children as they explore a good place for books – their library. The collages on Pukapuka’s endpapers neatly sum up this book, displaying all the joys of libraries in pictures and words: ‘Mīharo Amazing.’ ‘Pātaka Kōrero. Library. Storehouse of Stories. Information storehouse.’ Vasanti Unka is the author, illustrator and designer of Pukapuka, and she begins her story with the children declaring, ‘Kai te haere tatou ki to tatou wahi makau it te rā nei! We’re going to our favourite place today!’ What follows is an enchanting vision of everything that a modern library has to offer a young reader. (Old ones too.) ‘Eharai i te mea he whare noa, hou ma kia kitea nga mea a roto!’ ‘It’s not just a building, come see what’s inside!’ The illustrations, done in Vasanti Unka’s distinctive style, mix pictures, symbols and cut-up pages to create a kaleidoscope of reading and readers. People seeking information are holding books that erupt butterflies, ideas, plants, architectural plans and more butterflies. Lots of butterflies. In the world of fiction and picture books, the children are surrounded by evocative images: dragons, dinosaurs, distant lands, unicorns, maps, mermaids, spaceships, pirates and taniwha. Tiny books can be spotted on shelves, call-outs for such reader favourites as Dazzle Hands, Maui, The Whale Rider and I Am the Universe. Some familiar characters are glimpsed including Red Riding Hood, a lion from a meadow and that small dog from Donaldson’s Dairy. Reminders of the work of Peter Gossage Donovan Bixley and Gavin Bishop flit among the images. Sharp-eyed young readers will enjoy every corner of each page. Best of all every page shows people reading or being read to. These delightful little cameos each depict the joys of reading, magnificently. A tattooed tough guy is revealed to be deep in a romantic novel. An Indian shopkeeper is using a Māori dictionary to practice saying, ‘Kia ora. Mōrena,’ to her customers. A fishmonger dips into Moby Dick. A boy leans how to knit while a girl reads up on football. Every one of them needs the library to develop their interest. And the library has a welcome for them all. The little boy who asked, ‘Eee, he aha te whare pukapuka? What’s a library?’ at the beginning of this book, has blossomed among the books and book-people, so he leaves clutching a library membership card and, of course, a book. Trevor Agnew, 1 Oct 2025 (Review 3807)