Reo Pepi Rua (2): Colours, Counting, Shapes

Reo Pepi Rua (2) (2017):

Nga Tae - Colours   
Te Kaute – Counting
Nga Ahua - Shapes   
Kitty Brown & Kirsten Parkinson
Board books, each 22 pages
NZ$18 each

978-0-473-37744-1

978-0-473-37743-4
978-0-473-37742-7
Contact Details:
info@reopepi.co.nz

One of the pleasures of the reviewing life is seeing self-publishers achieve success. Back in 2015 two cousins from the Otago Peninsula, artist Kitty Brown and writer Kirsten Parkinson, saw a need for Maori language resources for the very young. What made them special was that they had the determination, skills and drive to get three delightful board books published.

The three - Kanohi - My Face, Kararehe – Animals, and Kakahu – Getting Dressed – are bilingual books offering a set of familiar images, each with appropriate sentences (‘Put on your socks.’ ‘Where are your ears?’) in both Maori and English. [More information at the publishers’ website www.reopepi.co.nz]

The cousins’ publishing operation is called Reo Pepi, which can be translated formally as Baby Language, but can also be rendered as baby talk, which is what their books encourage.

Those first three books have sold well and two reprints and 5000 copies later, three new volumes have also been published.  Given the series title of Reo Pepi-Rua [2], these new books are in the same easy-to-handle, round-cornered, board-book format. Their titles are:

Nga Tae - Colours   
Te Kaute - Counting
Nga Ahua - Shapes   

 Parents themselves, Kitty and Kirsten have created books which encourage interaction between adult and child.  Nga Tae – Colours uses a series of familiar insects to pose questions about their colour.   

He aha te tae o te huhu?  He ma.

What colour is the huhu grub?  White.

Ten colours later – from whero to parauri – the book offers a very clear phonetic pronunciation guide, as well as a glossary and translations. On the facing page there is an easy-to-point-at set of labelled colours. These books are well-designed and easy to hold in tiny hands. The board book format is sturdy and resists chewing.

The same well-thought-out design is followed in the other two books

Te Kaute – Counting presents familiar toys to be counted

E hia nga karetao?  E ono.
How many robots?  Six.
The pictures show toys that real kids have obviously owned and inflicted loving wear-and tear on.

There is a comfortable sense of recognition at each turn of the page.

 Nga Ahua - Shapes has the trickiest set of concepts to illustrate but it rises to the challenge by offering familiar shapes concealed in familiar settings or objects. I particularly appreciated this entry:

Rapua nga tapaono.
Find the hexagons.
The illustration shows a toolbox with plenty of six-sided items. Needless to say, the usual services are offered at the back of these two books.

Of all the illustrations the one I liked best was the picture of two Toroa (royal albatrosses) on Taiaroa Head. They depict the manawa (heart) shape but you’ll have to read the book to see why.

Or get a three-year-old to read it to you.

Trevor Agnew

15 April 2017

 

Flight Path David Hill

Flight Path
David Hill
Puffin NZ$20
Reviewed by Trevor Agnew

 

Some of David Hill’s best writing has been seen in his recent military history series of YA novels.  Brave Company (2013) showed young readers what navy life in a war zone was like and taught a lesson about real courage. Enemy Camp (2016) cast light on a little-known tragedy in New Zealand’s history, where misunderstandings and conflicting cultural attitudes in a prisoner-of-war camp had fatal results. The strongest of these novels, My Brother’s War (2012) vividly reflected the split in New Zealand society created by the controversy over conscientious objectors in the Great War.

With the Navy, the Home Front and the Army taken care of, that only leaves the Air Force.

In Flight Path, Hill has taken one of the war’s most long-running controversies – the role of Bomber Command.
Like many New Zealanders joining the RAF, Jack Sinclair has done his flight training in Canada and he arrives in Britain as preparations begin for D-Day. He and his fellow Lancaster crewmen are amazingly young – Jack is only 18 and the oldest is 21. They are also a cosmopolitan bunch, with an English pilot, a Free Polish co-pilot, an Australian radio operator and three New Zealanders (including twins from Christchurch) manning the guns and doing the navigation. Jack is the bomb-aimer, which means he has a bird’s eye view of the destruction 489 Squadron sows nightly over occupied Europe. Here, their plane takes part in a raid on the battleship Tirpitz: “Flak curved upwards out of the whiteness. Ahead of them, the left wing of a Wellington disintegrated.  The bomber staggered, then cartwheeled down, smashing into the fjord’s rocky sides. Flames from ruptured fuel tanks hurtled towards the water in a fiery sheet. No parachutes; no survivors.”
His experiences and the scenes he witnesses force Jack to think hard about the conflict and the deaths that constantly surround them. The novel provides a good range of attitudes to the war and its effect on people. There is a gentle romantic thread as jack learns about girls. Jack also learns a lot about how people behave (and misbehave) under stress. Booze and the black market become facts of life.
Then there is the mental strain of mission after mission.  A temporary replacement gunner cracks under the stress. “Colin stood, head down, still shaking.” Colin is dishonourably discharged. Nightmares of being trapped in a burning plane begin to haunt Jack.
Hill has researched well and raises his narrative far above the old war-comic level. There are moments of bravery – Jack booting at a stuck bomb-load to clear the bomb bay – but he merely reflects, “We have jobs and we have to do what we’re told in those jobs…”
Another strong feature of this story is the trust the flight crew have in each other; they rely on the combination of all their specialist skills to survive. (Hill has always excelled at stories about team-work.)
The concluding chapters, where death seems likely are particularly exciting and contain an unexpected insight into wartime attitudes. Flight Path is a well-written and exciting story with a strong message.
- Trevor Agnew

March 2017

Helper and Helper

Helper and Helper (2017)
Joy Cowley
Ill. Gavin Bishop
Gecko Press
114 pages
Paperback: NZ$23  ISBN 978 1 77657 105 5
Hardback: NZ$30 ISBN 978 1 77657 147 5

PROLOGUE:

In December 2016, Gavin Bishop was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Canterbury: Doctor of Education (honoris causa). Citing his “over 70 books, 40 non-fiction stories and 30 educational readers,” the encomium continued, “Mr Bishop has made a significant, long-term contribution to his own field and to New Zealand’s cultural development and understanding. In doing so, he has made a major contribution to the wider national and international community. His endeavours have brought credit to himself, his family and the University. His achievements in children’s literature are particularly relevant to the teaching and research in the fields of teacher education and educational studies and leadership within the College of Education, Health and Human Development.”

Not only that, but at the ceremony Gavin looked extremely dignified in his red gown and medieval cap, adding considerable gravitas to the already dignified proceedings.

Afterwards, I asked him about his latest book, Helper and Helper (written by Joy Cowley and illustrated by Gavin) and discovered that, although I had just received my review copy, he still hadn’t seen the finished book. He did, however, tell me the story of how Helper and Helper came into being.

 Joy Cowley and Gavin Bishop were at the Taipei Book Fair, where they were both astonished to meet hundreds of young fans of the Snake and Lizard books. The publisher of the Chinese-language editions made a subtle suggestion that the series really needed a third book. “We find that sets of three are very popular.”

That night, Joy Cowley started writing in her hotel room and by the next day, she had completed the framework of what was to become Helper and Helper.

 

REVIEW:

Helper and Helper reunites the animal world’s oddest couple. Snake and Lizard (2007) and Friends: Snake and Lizard (2009) introduced the ill-matched pair of reptilian social workers who give advice to other desert creatures. Of course, Snake and Lizard have their own constant disagreements and misunderstandings, which are a source of great amusement for young readers. Along the way everyone learns something about life. This is Aesop’s Fables for the internet generation.

Joy Cowley has acknowledged that the personalities of the two unlikely companions, Snake and Lizard, are lightly based on herself and her husband. Snake is the clever, controlled one, thoughtful and caring, while Lizard is kind, full of ideas, and exuberantly enthusiastic. Together they make an irrepressible team.

Their patch of the southwestern desert has so many customers with problems that Snake and Lizard have to expand their underground premises. Along the way they have arguments about everything from why their clients should be called patients to whose name should go first on their new signboard.

My favourite story, The Aunts, concerns Lizard’s fifteen aunts who decide to take up residence in the newly-expanded burrow, and Snake’s interesting method of dealing with them. It is a subtle and witty tale, one where the reader sees slightly more than the characters do. This is truly skilful writing, Joy Cowley at her best.

The colour illustrations represent Gavin Bishop at his best. His pictures are an important element of each story, matching the mood and offering extra insights. A good example occurs when a misunderstanding leads Snake to fear that disaster has befallen Lizard. “Snake was helpless with grief.” The accompanying picture shows Snake coiled up tightly in the darkness, mouth open in a wail of despair.

The illustrations also show the various desert creatures sympathetically. Even the menacing turkey buzzard appears, or at least its head does. Its eye is alarming, while the eye of the ancient tortoise, shown in another illustration, is wise and compelling. The rugged desert scenery is beautifully portrayed and the striking endpapers depict the wide range of desert birdlife.

Helper and Helper is continually enlivened – even in the serious moments – by Joy Cowley’s sense of humour and down-to-earth wisdom. She even enables Snake to solve the age-old mystery of the difference between telling lies and telling stories.

Snake says, “Lizard, there is something you should know about stories. They are just a different kind of real.”

Trevor Agnew