Tania Roxborogh

Bastion Point:
507 Days on Takaparawha,
Auckland 1977-78
Tania Roxborogh 

                                                                                            
                                                                             

Bastion Point:
507 Days on Takaparawha,
Auckland 1977-78
Tania Roxborogh 
My New Zealand series
Scholastic (2017)
Historical novel
206 pages, paperback
Historical notes, booklist, photographs
ISBN 978 1 77543 479 5

 

 

‘Dad, this is so stupid. We are nobody and nobody cares what we think.’

This novel, the latest in the respected My New Zealand Story series, is told as the diary of a 12-year-old Māori girl, Erica Tito, who unexpectedly finds her plans for a relaxing summer holiday of training her pony completely upset. Today the Bastion Point protest is seen as a turning-point in New Zealand’s history but Erica, at first, has no idea of what is involved. The reader learns along with her as she writes about each day’s developments in her diary.
Told to pack for a ‘short holiday down south,’ Erica finds herself part of a large group camped on an Auckland headland. On the first morning, Erica doesn’t even know where she is.

‘But, Dad… Where are we? Are we in Auckland?’
‘Yes, and this place here, my people call Takaparawha but on the maps it’s Bastion Point.’

Erica’s father has brought his family to join a protest against the selling-off of Bastion Point, an area of land the Ngati Whatua people claimed had been illegally taken from them. The protestors – who preferred not to be called occupiers – set up an encampment and, amid increasing national controversy, remained there for 507 days. Tania Roxborogh has done her research well and provided the tiny details that make her story so convincingly genuine. For example a garden hose was the only supply of drinking water in the early days.

Another striking aspect is that, throughout the protest, the young people involved attended the local schools. Erica is thus faced with all the problems of being a new student in a strange city but also of being perceived as a disruptive element. All the issues of the complex and controversial national dispute are mirrored in the tensions Erica encounters at school. Thus, when the truckloads of police suddenly arrive, at Bastion Point, the reader is fully aware of what is at stake.
A clever framing device helps put the diary into its historical context and also gives a hint of Erica’s future. This is a simply-told but powerful historical novel, a reminder that governments can be obtuse and autocratic and that sometimes people have to take a stand.

As usual in this highly-regarded series, there is a Timeline, Historical Note, Glossary, Bibliography and a set of contemporary photographs.

Trevor Agnew, 7 January 2017
[Review 2998]

 Helpful notes and questions, discussion topics and activities, are in the Teacher Notes on the Scholastic NZ website: mnzs-bastion-point.pdf

Review for Magpies magazine, April 2017 issue

By Trevor Agnew

 

Bastion Point: 507 Days on Takaparawha,
Auckland 1978-79 

Tania Roxborogh 
Scholastic (2017)   (My New Zealand Story series)
206 pages, pb, NZ$18
978 1 77543 479 5

 “What is this place?” I asked.

“This is where I was born,” he said…”It’s gone now. All the homes were destroyed when I was a kid.”

The fortieth anniversary of the confrontation over Bastion Point is a sobering reminder of just how far race relations and Maori land issues have come since the 1970s. Those who lived through that period have vivid memories of the conflict and the attitudes, but how can children growing up today understand the way things were back then?

The answer is to be found in Tania Roxborogh’s excellent novel, Bastion Point: 507 Days on Takaparawha, the latest in Scholastic’s superb My New Zealand Story series. Roxborogh has created a young girl, Erica Tito, who lives in a rural area north of Auckland and has no knowledge of her father’s childhood or of Ngati Whatua’s land confiscation protests. All Erica is interested in is training her pony Silver. We know this because Erica’s diary entries for 1977 and 1978 form the narrative.

 The reader learns along with Erica as her life suddenly changes forever. Told to pack for a “short holiday down south,” Erica finds herself part of a large group camped on an Auckland headland. Her father has brought his family to join a sit-in protest against the selling-off of Bastion Point, an area of land the Ngati Whatua people claimed had been illegally taken from them.

The protestors – who prefer not to be called occupiers – settle down in their encampment and, amid increasing national controversy, remain there for 507 days.

Roxborogh’s master stroke in this story reflects her careful research. The Bastion Point children went to school locally. It sound simple but it creates a perfect microcosm of New Zealand as Erica encounters various responses to the land dispute. Pining for her pony, and labelled a troublemaker  at school, Erica gradually learns more about the history of the area. The most moving testimony comes from her father, describing how his childhood home was bulldozed, “They told us to get our gear and leave because they were going to remove the houses…Then they set them all on fire. They killed my dog.”

 Always, the author maintains a young girl’s viewpoint, drawing us in to Erica’s experiences and emotions.  “According to Father Shirres at the church service last Sunday, we’ve been protesting on the Point longer than Noah and his family were in their Ark. That story will never be the same to me again – I think I know how they must have felt.” Finally, Erica stands with the others as the police convoy arrives.

 A lovely feature of this dramatic story is the framing device, set in the present day, which enables the reader to work out what became of Erica and her dreams. This is a gripping and powerful historical novel, a reminder that governments can be obtuse and autocratic and that sometimes people have to take a stand.

As always with this series, there is an informative Timeline, Historical Note, Glossary, Bibliography and a set of contemporary photographs.

 Trevor Agnew

30 March 2017

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Author Tania Roxborogh’s rich creative life ‘rewrites the narrative’ of a troubled childhood

As told to Joanna Davis|Homed

Photos by Peter Meecham, The Press, Christchurch [Stuff]

Your weekend magazine, 25 July 2026

July 25, 2026 • 4:00am

Copy Link

Writer and educator Tania Roxborogh at home in Lincoln, Canterbury, in front of her much loved book collection.Photo: Peter Meecham / The Press

 

Told as a teenager that she’d never amount to anything, Tania Roxborogh has gone on to be a multi-award winning author and educator, perhaps best known for her Charlie Tangaroa series of books for young readers.

Roxborogh (60, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri, Scottish, German, and Irish descent) lives in Lincoln, Canterbury.

TANIA: This is probably the longest I’ve been in one house in my entire life, 10 years.

I was born in Christchurch and just before I turned four we moved to the Bay of Plenty. But we moved around a lot: In one year I went to seven different primary schools.

When I was 15 I left home, tried to find my father, found him, that was a disaster. He was in a drunken rage and kicked me out.

I spent 18 months in foster care. I’m incredibly grateful for their generosity and their kindness. They were so patient with me, even though I would nick her cigarettes. They even got a horse for me.

As hard as I was on them, they showed me what good families are like.

Sixteen was the beginning of my depression and anxiety. I went to fill out one of those personality questionnaires, the psychologist and the social worker said to me: ‘Tania, you will never amount to anything. You’ve set yourself up to fail.’

My uncle had dropped me off. He said, Let’s prove the bastards wrong. Let’s show them.

I have a BA in humanities, a post-graduate diploma, first class honours in Māori knowledge and I’m working on my PhD.

And my books have won awards. One of them I really love, Charlie Tangaroa, won the Ibby award [a prestigious international children’s book award].

Roxborogh loves the old Imperial typewriter, and likes to see the old numberplate from the family car (a Honda Odyssey), as it took her family on many adventures.Photo: Peter Meecham / The Press

I started writing at high school. Bless my teachers. This is why I became a teacher. I wanted to become for other kids what mine were to me.

I started teaching at Macleans College in Auckland, and then moved to Westlake Girls High school to become head of drama. I found it difficult to find plays the girls could perform in, so I wrote some.

I joined writing groups, read a lot. I don’t see myself as especially talented. I’m a good storyteller but I’m willing to improve and make changes when people make suggestions.

I was in Auckland nearly 20 years, then got a writer-in-residence position in Dunedin, so we stayed in the South Island.

Roxborogh treasures these lettters she received from celebrated poet Alistair Te Ariki Campbell after she sent him her poems in 1986. At first he told her she needed to work much harder, and then congratulated her, including for recognising that her future lay in prose rather than poetry. - Photo: Peter Meecham / The Press

 

My husband, Phillip, is a lecturer in technology and computing. When we moved to Dunedin, he arranged it so he could work from home. The time he saved in commuting, he did a masters and then got a job at ARA [Institute of Canterbury].

In 2023 I moved from my job which I loved to the Ministry of Education. And that was important. My PhD is in helping teachers teach Shakespeare through a te ao Māori lens - basically decolonising Shakespeare. I’d only just started and the new Government came in and I lost my job.

They’ve undone all the good stuff that was being done. I feel embarrassed to say but I lost my mojo. I can’t be the teacher I want to be any more. I’m just so over the changes and the politics.

I have two daughters, Mackenna, 34; she’s a vet, and she and her social worker husband live in Brisbane. I think they’ll come home. And my pōtiki Brianna is 30, and she lives in Christchurch. She comes to visit and goes on Dad dates which means he takes her to the petrol station and fills it up with petrol.

Roxborogh says Macbeth is her favourite Shakespeare play, and a trip to Glamis Castle in Scotland was “a trip of a lifetime” as that is where the king was killed. Roxborogh has written a trilogy sequel to Macbeth.Photo: Peter Meecham / The Press

 

I spend a lot of time avoiding doing my work. The third draft of my latest novel has been to the editor and come back full of annotations. So I watched 15 seasons of Call the Midwife. I’d do a bit of work and then go and watch an episode.

I’m lucky I have good support networks who help me navigate past trauma. I’ve been diagnosed with complex PTSD. I didn’t realise I spent my life disassociating.

That’s how I managed my whole life, I saw it as a story rather than as a reality of my upbringing.

But I can re-write my narrative the way I want it to be.

 

Your Weekend [Stuff] 25 July 2026, pages 14-15.

 

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Bill Nagelkerke's Emily

 

Emily’s Penny Dreadful 
Bill Nagelkerke

 

Emily’s Penny Dreadful (2016)                
Bill Nagelkerke
Paperback, 146 pages

Penny Dreadfuls were cheap and disreputable fiction magazines, offering lively stories of highwaymen, murderers and other desperadoes, popular among boys and young men in the Victorian times. When the home of Emily’s Uncle Raymond burns to the ground, the only thing the grumpy writer manages to save is a single, 150-year-old Penny Dreadful.
Emily (9) is precocious; she knows this because Uncle Raymond has not only told her so but taught her how to spell it. Emily is also resentful, because she has only had her own bedroom for two weeks. Now she has to move in with her sister Sibbie, to make room for her homeless aunt and uncle. Tensions rise. Emily and Uncle Raymond are soon sparring over grammar, spelling and metaphors. 

“People who write books are always grumpy,” concludes Emily, “They can’t help it. They suffer from brain-strain, Dad says.”

Gradually Emily realises how serious a matter it is for a writer to lose his computer, back-up discs, notes and drafts. Uncle Raymond, of course, is full of self-pity, “I shall very likely never write another word,” he moans.

After Emily borrows the Penny Dreadful, she is inspired to try writing her own. Her first attempts – reproduced in full as a story within a story – are the highlight of this book. Emily calls it The Devil’s Element – a reference to the phosphorus once used for matches – and her first sentence reads, “It was a dark and story night.” Naturally Emily has her own Thurberish justification, “Reading a book in bed means it’s a story night. So there.”

Young readers will enjoy seeing how some of the characters in the tear-jerking saga resemble Emily’s family. The plucky heroine Miley is particularly thinly-disguised. Sibbie is furious when she recognises her own words. The astute reader will also spot that Emily has learned from Raymond’s grudgingly-given advice. In her story, the villainous kidnapper, known only as Pork Pie, pauses to write down new words in his vocabulary notebook. 

It’s all great fun, and Emily is about to rescue Miley from slave labour in a match factory, when writer’s block strikes. Both Emily and Raymond have run out of ideas. Now they are forced to swallow their differences and co-operate to get Miley to freedom and Emily’s book to a happy ending.
The result confirms Raymond’s admission that “All writers are liars and thieves,” (a line possibly purloined from Jack Lasenby) and brings events to a satisfactory conclusion.

Emily’s Penny Dreadful may indeed be dreadful but it is dreadful in a very enjoyable way. Bill Nagelkerke has created a light-hearted book which not only contains a guilty secret and an adventure but also provides a practical guide to young writers who want to tell a story of their own. This book is, in the very best sense, dreadful fun.

Trevor Agnew, 23 December 2015

Emily, the Dreadfuls, and the Dead Skin Gang
Bill Nagelkerke

 

Emily, the Dreadfuls, 
and the Dead Skin Gang                Bill Nagelkerke (2017)
Novel, Paperback, 168 pages

 

“I can read my stories to you,” said Emily…“They’re Penny Dreadful type stories, full of heroes and villains and exciting getaways and things like that.”

Emily is back!
This novel, Emily, the Dreadfuls, and the Dead Skin Gang, sees the return of would-be writers Emily (9) and her grumpy Uncle Raymond, a comical couple, who first appeared in Emily’s Penny Dreadful (2015). Having lost his computer in a fire, Uncle Raymond is still trying to re-start his writing career, while Emily has been inspired by one of his old Penny Dreadfuls (popular Victorian magazines, full of lurid crimes and dramatic escapades) to write her own story, Dead Skin.

Although Dead Skin is supposed to be a co-operative effort by Raymond and Emily, it is Emily who does most of the work. This adds to the fun because both writers are strong-minded and thin-skinned. Chapters of Dead Skin form a story within the story.
“Another audacious burglary!”

The Emily series is constantly amusing as the reader moves from one narrative to another, especially when Emily adapts events around her (and ‘borrows’ ideas from Uncle Raymond and her friends).
Events in the main story quickly turn up in a similar but funnier form in Emily’s hand-written manuscript. After Emily and her three best friends try to form a gang called the Dreadfuls, we see the Dead Skin gang vowing to capture the burglars who “use dust as a weapon as well as dangerous and threatening words.”
The various authors all play fair with their readers. The clues are all present, although craftily concealed, red herrings are seen, and shivers run down spines. Somebody even gets to say, “Beware, this is a trap.”

This story is a cheerful adventure, which gently spoofs both the Penny Dreadful style of adventure and the later efforts of Enid Blyton. It also provides positive encouragement and a good example for young people with writing potential.

Trevor Agnew
31 August 2017

 

 

Books about Matariki

15 books about Matariki

Chosen and described by Trevor Agnew, 24th June 2022

1. Matariki, Melanie Drewery, Bruce Potter (ill) Reed (2003) Puffin (2016) 

The whole family go down to the beach for a bonfire before dawn. They cook kumara (sweet potato) and wait for the Matariki star-cluster to rise over the horizon. Nanny tells the children several stories and legends of Matariki. ’Some people say that Matariki is made up 

of the seven houses of the gods, 

and that people’s spirits go there when they die’ said Nanny, wiping tears from her face. They eat their kumara and bread by the fire on the first morning of the Maori New Year.

This is a good story for showing celebrations within different cultures. The children ask their mother which of the many Matariki legends they should believe. ‘Well,’ said Mum, ‘Think of the story that feels right in your heart. That is the story for you.’

Bruce Potter’s pictures of the stars and the family on the beach are dramatic.

Note: Matariki is also known as the Pleaides, a small cluster of stars. From a New Zealand viewpoint, Matariki vanishes in the east about mid-April, then reappears about the end of May or later, above the north-east horizon, before dawn. The return of Matariki marks the beginning of the Maori New Year. Traditionally the Maori counted seven stars, sometimes described as Matariki and her six daughters. The smell of the food prepared by the watching people was said to revive Matariki, who was weak and hungry after her journey in the darkness.



2. Celebrating Matariki Libby Hakaria, Reed (2006)

This splendidly readable book uses the Matariki constellation as a framework for a range of information about the stars, Maori seasons, fishing, hunting, gardening and legends.

Matariki, known to the Greeks as the Pleiades, marks the beginning

 of the Maori year, when it rises above the horizon in early June. Traditionally the first full moon after the rising of Matariki was a time for feasts and celebrations and the hunting and preserving of birds. A wide range of activities, including telescope-making, kite-flying and cooking are included. (The recipe for Kumara Chowder is excellent.) The book’s design is attractive, with clear double-page spreads, and good use of colour and fact-boxes. The text is well laid-out and very readable.

In a nice touch, the Japanese name for Matariki, Subaru, is noted with a picture of a New Zealand rally team in their Subaru. Several songs about Matariki are included in an accompanying CD, and the lyrics are printed in the book in both English and Maori.

This book fills a gap in libraries and schools, providing background material for fictional books on Matariki. At the same time Celebrating Matariki is so attractively presented that it can be read for simple enjoyment.



3. Glow Worm Night Don Long, Tracy Duncan (ill.) Reed (2004)

This book is about a family observing the Maori traditional New Year, marked by the first appearance of the group of stars, Matariki. A young girl tells how she goes with her father and brother into the nearby bush late at night. They switch off their torches and look at the stars. 

Dad points out Matariki the Pleaides).

After that, everyone looks for glow-worms. 

Then, there they are – glowing along the stream. Glow-worms! Puratoke. They see some nocturnal creatures, such as the morepork (native owl) and freshwater crayfish. 
Later Mum gives everyone Milo and tucks them into bed. ‘Sweet glow-worm dreams,’ she whispers as she switches off the light.
As Tracy Duncan’s handsome colour illustrations make clear, Dad is Maori and Mum is Pakeha (non-Maori). Some of the dialogue is in Maori, as when Dad says, Tino makariri before everyone puts coats on to keep out the cold (makariri). The context and the illustrations always make the meaning clear to non-Maori speakers.
Tracy Duncan’s illustrations always reward careful study. There are creatures, such as the Puriri moth to be spotted in the bush scenes, and books in the house. The young girl is reading Taniwha, by Robyn Kahukiwa.

Note: Matariki, also known as the Pleaides, is a small cluster of stars. From a New Zealand viewpoint, Matariki vanishes in the east about mid-April, and then reappears about the end of May or in June, above the north-east horizon, before dawn. The return of Matariki marks the beginning of the Maori New Year. Traditionally the Maori counted seven stars, sometimes described as Matariki and her six daughters.



4. Scoop and Scribe Search for the Seven Stars of Matariki  
Tommy Kapai Wilson,  Rob Turvey (ill)  Random House (2009)

Tommy Kapai Wilson was a newspaper columnist and children’s author who, in 2008, wrote a children’s action serial for the NiE (Newspapers in Education) newspaper educational supplement. It was revised and reprinted as a book in 2009. Scoop and Scribe search for the Seven Stars of Matariki is slim on characterisation but is certainly a fast-moving fantasy adventure. 

After a tip-off by a mysterious tohunga named Koro Whetu, ace junior reporters 

Scoop and Scribe are commissioned to seek the seven lost stars which form the constellation Matariki (also known as the Pleiades or Subaru).

Whetu guides the intrepid news-crew as they travel around New Zealand collecting the stars, which have been stolen by a kea (mountain parrot). A prominent local feature plays an important part in each chapter, so that the stolen statue of Pania of the Reef is recovered in Tauranga, while at Katikati, Donald Paterson’s sculpture Barry, (the only NZ statue to feature a newspaper) assists in the search.
With its many Maori characters and references, the story is accompanied by a Maori-English glossary and some factual material about Matariki and the Maori New Year.

Rob Turvey’s colour illustrations help make this an attractive presentation of a light-hearted fantasy quest, with an appeal for young male readers.



5. The Seven Stars of Matariki Toni Rolleston-Cummins Nikki Slade-Robinson (ill.) Huia (2008)

The Maori New Year is traditionally marked by the rising of the star cluster Matariki (also known as Subaru and the Pleiades). There are many Maori legends about Matariki.
This picture book retells a Maori tradition of Matariki’s origins, from the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island, and introduces some associated customs and rituals.

Mitai, who lived at Maketu (near modern Whakatane) had the power

 to change himself into a bird.

When his seven elder brothers were entranced by seven beautiful golden-haired women, they ignored Mitai’s warning that the seven women were really patuparaeihe (fairy folk).
Mitai overheard these women (who could turn themselves into fantails) plotting to starve their new husbands to death. He persuaded his brothers – now gaunt with hunger – to weave nets so they could capture their seven murderous wives while they were still in fantail form. Then Mitai flew up and handed the captive fairies over to Urutengangana, god of the stars, who placed them far from Earth. Once a year, the god allows their golden beauty to shine out. So at each winter solstice, the seven stars of Matariki appear above the horizon.



6. Little Kiwi’s Matariki 

Nikki Slade Robinson (text and ill) Duck Creek Press (2016)

The little Kiwi and her friends discover the joy of Matariki in this charming picture book. A beam of moonlight wakens little kiwi. The tiny kiwi realises the time has come and runs through the bush in the darkness. One by one, she wakens her sleeping friends and tells them to come and see something exciting. ‘Can you feel it coming?’

Before long she has a procession of creatures (including 

katipo spider, tui, weka and a family of ruru (owls)) trailing
behind her. Young readers will enjoy the parallel to Chicken-Licken.
Finally they all arrive at the beach and stand in the moonlight, as Matariki rises. They celebrate the New Year in the traditional Maori ways. For example, the katipo weaves a silken kite and flies it as part of the fun and games.
‘Matariki?’ said Tui, ‘Time for music and dance!’ He sang to the stars.
The author’s illustrations are stylised and streamlined representations of New Zealand plants and birds. They are also witty. The tiny owlets are all eyes and the weka (woodhen) is a speedster.

Little Kiwi’s Matariki also includes an explanation of Matariki – it's origins, traditions and how it is celebrated today. The constellation is shown, with the Māori names for each star. The story also offers what Nikki Slade Robinson describes as ‘a gentle introduction to te reo within the English text.’

Winner Best Picture Book of 2016 in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children.

Shayne's reading of Little Kiwi’s Matariki is available on YouTube  



7. The Seven Kites Of Matariki  Calico McClintock, Dominique Ford (ill.) Scholastic (2016)

The Seven Kites of Matariki is a modern tale about Matariki. It explains why the star cluster known as Matariki can be seen in an early morning winter sky, low on the eastern horizon.

In a Maori village, seven sisters are making kites to celebrate the arrival of the new year, just as their mothers and grandmothers had before them.
Each girl makes a different kite using local materials; 

the youngest sister, Ururangi makes ‘a many-

coloured kite with eyes of paua shell’.
The seven girls climb a hill to fly their kites and argue with each other about whose kite will fly highest.
‘My kite is the best.’
Unfortuately there is no wind on the hilltop and so the seven girls wrap themselves in their cloaks and wait beneath a giant puriri tree. Exhausted, they soon fall asleep. When the wind blows from the east, crying ‘Wake up. Wake up’ they don’t hear it. But their kites lift up in the wind, which carries them fluttering up into the sky.

Much later, Ururangi wakes up, sees her kite gone and awakens her sisters to tell them of their loss. Her six sisters look out into the morning sky and see their six kites flying there like the new year stars. The six head back to the village for kai (food).
Ururangi remains behind searching the skies for her kite. She is rewarded by being the first to see the seven stars of Matariki appear.

Dominique Ford’s beautiful illustrations capture the symbolism of the story well. Each kite is based on a traditional design and the colours are matched to the appropriate plants and shells used in making them.

Note: Ururangi is the Matariki star traditionally associated with the wind.

Shayne's reading of The Seven Kites of Matariki is on YouTube.



8. Tawhirimatea: A Song for Matariki June Pitman-Hayes, Kay Merewether (ill.) Scholastic (2017)

''Tāwhirimātea, blow winds, blow.’
This picture book (which doubles as a song book) shows the world through the eyes of a Maori family. As they gather shellfish, plant a tree, and have a family picnic, their words are reminders of the importance of the natural world about them. The seasons pass by, until the rising of the stars of Matariki signal the beginning of a new year.
‘Our universe is an amazing nature show.’

The second part of the book consists of the same lyrics, this time in Maori. 

‘Now, let’s sing it in Maori.’ 

The Maori words are by Ngaere Roberts.
‘Ko te ao nui, he Whakaari, miharo.’

The watercolour illustrations by Kat Merewether perform a double service. They show the family along with the birds, fish and plants in their natural surroundings but they also illustrate the traditional Maori pantheon of supernatural beings. Tāwhirimātea is the god of the winds, and his face appears, cheeks puffed, among the clouds, while Ra provides the sunshine and Ua the rain.

Each picture has its secret for young readers to spot.

On an accompanying CD, both versions of the song are performed by June Pitman-Hayes with her own ukulele accompaniment. There is also an instrumental track for young vocalists to sing along to.



9. Stolen Stars of Matariki Miriama Kamo, Zac Waipara (ill.) Scholastic (2018)

Stolen Stars of Matariki is a splendid picture book bringing some of the Māori traditions associated with Matariki into a 21st Century context.
Young Te Rerehua and Sam are visiting their grandparents at one of Canterbury’s important Maori traditional sites, Te Mata Hapuku (Birdlings Flat), a massive shingle spit and traditional eeling site. It is “a magical wild, windy place,” where they can gather agates on the beach. While Poua (grandfather) is gaffing eels at night, the children lie on the shingle with Grandma, looking up at the stars. One night Grandma spots something strange; there are two stars missing from the Matariki cluster. The patupaiarehe (fairy folk) have been stealing stars again. 

Their plan is to hide the stars beneath the

shingle, to be smashed to pieces, so they can wear the fragments on their clothing.
Using Grandma’s knowledge (and Poua’s gaff) Te Rerehua and Sam manage to infiltrate and outwit the mischievous patupaiarehe, and restore the kidnapped stars to their rightful place in the heavens.
Miriama Kamo has written a beautifully-styled story which has the simplicity and power of traditional folk tales.

Zak Waipara has produced magnificently atmospheric illustrations, with richly patterned and coloured backgrounds. He has successfully achieved the difficult task of mixing human and supernatural characters, as well as the technically difficult feat of portraying night-time activities. The result is a handsome and appealing picture book.

Stolen Stars of Matariki now joins a select mini-library of celebrations of Matariki.
These include Matariki (2003), Glow-Worm Night (2004), The Seven Stars of Matariki (2008), and Tawhirimatea: A Song for Matariki (2017).

In 2018 Scholastic also published a Maori language edition, Nga Whetu Matariki Whanakotia, with the Maori translation by Ngaere Roberts. 

Note: The rising above the N.E. horizon (in May-June) of the star cluster Matariki marks the Maori New Year. While it is common to count seven stars forming the cluster known as Matariki (or Subaru or Pleaides) some Maori identify nine. Their names are Matariki, Pōhutukawa, Waitī, Waitā, Waipuna-ā-rangi, Tupuānuku, Tupuārangi, Ururangi, and Hiwa-i-te-rangi. - info from Christchurch Library Website: The Nine Stars of Matariki

During the 2020 Covid-19 Lockdown, musicians from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra provided a musical background, as Miriama Kamo read The Stolen stars of Matariki aloud. The composer of the original music is Claire Cowan.
Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWWcM0BWwwc

10. Together in Love: a Legend of Matariki  Xoë Hall (text & ill.) Teacher Talk (2018)

This picture book is a brief retelling of the Māori creation legend telling how the children of the gods Ranginui and Papatūānuku force them apart to let in the light and allow the world to flourish. Tāwhirimātea, god of the wind, angered by this action of his sibling gods, tears out his lightning-bolt eyes and throws them up into the sky. They explode to become 

the star cluster of the Matariki constellation, which 

is now the harbinger of the Māori New Year.

 

When Māori come together at new year, to celebrate, they tell this story to their children as their parents did before them.

Xoë Hall’s simple retelling is nicely matched by her colour illustrations. She uses bright colours and traditional Maori designs to make the various gods distinctive figures.

Shayne’s reading of Together in Love is available on YouTube:



11. Twinkle, Twinkle, Matariki Rebecca Larsen (text and ill.) Imagination Press (2019)
Whistle like the windy sky,
Sprinkle showers passing by.

This charming picture book is both simple and useful. Within an over-arching story format of three native birds (Hoiho, Pukeko and Kiwi) touring outer space in a rocket, it presents a series of simple songs (with a familiar tune) about such things as our food, how it is grown, the seasons, the weather,

and of course the stars that act as markers.

Rub your puku round and round
Food we’ve grown, caught or found.

Bright colourful illustrations by the author match the simple songs, which are provided in both Maori and English. Particularly pleasing is the spaceship which is decorated with Maori motifs, an inspiration for young kiwi astronauts.
A pictorial Glossary ensures that all is explained.
These songs scan well and provide young people with useful vocabulary. The words are provided in both English and Maori. (Translators: Tania Solomon, Justin Kereama).

A bonus CD has the songs sung in both English and Maori by Paul Inia. (Music by Richard Larsen.)

Twinkle, Twinkle, Matariki is the perfect book for a kindergarten or kura kaupapa sing-along in English or Te Reo.



12. The Promise of Puanga: A Story for Matariki  Kirsty Wadsworth,  Munro Te Whata (ill), Scholastic (2019)

‘Hana and Puanga did everything together.’
The Promise of Puanga is a picture book about two friends, and the fun they have together, watching new-born animals in spring, swimming in summer and riding their bikes through the leaves in autumn.
A problem in their area is that winter comes without warning, killing the un-gathered crops. When Hana speaks to Puanga about this problem and the need for a warning about the approach of winter, she gets an astonishing confession.

                                                                                                                 

‘I’m really a star,’ Puanga explained.
She has left her Matariki cousins in order to ‘explore and go on adventures.’
Hana has never seen the stars of Matariki because of the nearby hills and mountains.
Puanga summons Tāwhirimātea, the guardian of the wind, to take her back up into the sky to be a guardian for Hana’s village.
Tāwhirimātea promises that when Hana sees Puanga shining brightly in the sky, she will know it is time for the people to gather their crops. ‘She is our own special sign,’ says Hana. And so it happens.

Munro Te Whata’s splendid illustrations convey the friendship of the two girls in several charming scenes. His portrayal of Tawhirimatea is equally skilful, bringing together the colour of the night sky, the shape of the nearby mountain and the suggestion of clouds as his hair and beard.
The result is a lovely modern story based on traditional Maori elements.

This picture book, The Promise of Puanga, fills an unusual gap. In recent years some half-dozen New Zealand picture books have been published with stories about the cluster of stars Matariki, the rising of which signals the coming of winter and marks the traditional Maori New Year. What none of these books has mentioned is that in some areas along our western coasts, mountainous terrain prevents sighting of these stars (also known as the Pleiades, Mao or Subaru). The Promise of Puanga tells in story form how this astronomical difficulty was solved for the Maori people living in these western areas by the rising of Puanga (also known as Rigel).

There are Teaching Notes for this book at: The Promise of Puanga

A diagram showing Matariki and Puanga is at: https://teara.govt.nz/en/diagram/14080/puanga

In 2019 Scholastic also published an identical Maori language edition, He Purakau Matariki, Te Ki Taurangi a Puanga.



13. Flit the Fantail and the Matariki Map  Kat Quinn (text and ill.)  Scholastic (2021)

This third picture book in the Flit the Fantail series is written and illustrated by Kat Quin (formerly Kat Mereweather).
We’re lost! Flit and Keri cry.
Lured by the moonlight and unable to sleep, Flit has left the safety of his nest and ventured down to the dark forest floor. Flit hopes to capture the moonlight (in order to illuminate his nest). Through the trees, he can see the star cluster known as Matariki.
Tahi, rua, toru, whā, rima, ono, whitu, waru, iwa, he counts.

                                                                                                       

Keri the young kiwi, out foraging, offers to help Flit in his quest. They struggle through the bush and scrub and climb up high but are still unable to reach the moon. The pair realise that they are lost. How can they find their way home?
Ruru the owl sees them huddled together and points to the stars above.
Sometimes those special stars can even guide us home.

Flit spots the cluster of nine stars he saw earlier above his home. He carefully pecks nine holes into a kawakawa leaf in the shape of Matariki. Then the two birds make their way home, using the leaf map to follow the Matariki stars. They reach home just before the sun rises. Flit then has a bright idea. Perhaps he can capture the sun and use it to light his nest at night?

The charming colour illustrations are by the author, Kat Quin.

An identical Maori language edition of Flit the Fantail and the Matariki Map was also published by Scholastic NZ in 2021, as Ko Flit te Tirairaka te Mahere Matariki.



14. Daniel’s Matariki Feast  Linley Wellington & Rebecca Beyer (text)
Christine Ross (ill)  Duck Creek Press. English ed (2014); Māori ed (2015) and combined English Māori and Chinese pinyin ed (2021).

On his first day at kindergarten, Daniel is shy.                                              

He is puzzled that they will be having a feast 

because of the stars. 

Then he listens to some of the other children 

telling stories of the Māori New Year.

At home Daniel tells his mother about the feast and she makes a spicy pumpkin soup using her late mother’s recipe. (This is a subtle reminder that Matariki is also a time for remembering those who have died.) Daniel has fun working in the garden with his new friends and afterwards he enjoys his Matariki feast.

Christine Ross’s illustrations really capture the world of small boys and also give a good idea of how to greet the Māori new year.


15. Matariki Around the World Rangi Matamua & Miriama Kamo
Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (ill.) 82 pages, hardback, Scholastic (2022)

The subtitle tells it all: A Cluster of Stars, A Cluster of Stories.
Miriama Kamo and Rangi Matamua have gathered stories from around the world that are linked to the distinctive group of stars known to Maori as Matariki. ‘All around the world, the star cluster has different names, different stories, different mahi (jobs), and even different numbers of stars.’ The result is the best book ever written about Matariki.    

The first part of Matariki Around the World describes the Māori traditional creation of the 

world and has handsome double-page descriptions of the Maori gods and the lunar calendar. There are similar double-page retellings of some Māori traditions concerning the attributes of each of the stars Matariki and her eight children (Pōhutukawa, Tipuānuku, Tipuārangi, Waiti, Waitā, Waipunarangi, Ururangi and Hiwa-i-te-rangi). For example Tipuānuku cares for food grown in the earth, and her brightness gives an indication of how kumara crops will fare in the year ahead.

‘Anā! Te paki o Matariki. Behold! The wonders of Matariki.’

The second part of the book offers some retellings of Matariki stories from other cultures around the world. Not only the well-known Pleiades (Greece) and Subaru (Japan) legends are offered but also a range of stories from Africa, Australia, China, India, Scandinavia and North and South America. All are fascinating but the most interesting are the ones from the Pacific, with the similarities and differences sympathetically examined.

The writing style of this book is remarkable. The text is well researched and culturally sensitive but it is also written in a relaxed and witty style. Here the authors are revealing the Viking name for Matariki: ‘So you would think they’d have a pretty tough-guy name for the Matariki cluster, wouldn’t you? Nope. They called it…ahem…Freya’s Hens. Hens? What? Are hens hardy, battle-scarred warriors?’ (We also learn that some Vikings preferred to think of Matariki as a ladybird because of the insect’s seven spots.) Either way, Freya was the goddess who cared for the spirits of dead warriors. ‘So Freya is pretty cool.’
Writing like this makes for enjoyable reading.

Each story is beautifully illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White.
Best of all, this handsomely designed book has an excellent index and glossary.
It is a picture book which every home should have.

Trevor Agnew  

24 June 2022

The first celebration of Matariki as a New Zealand public holiday.

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

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

 

 

Twigs and Stones
Joy Cowley  Gavin Bishop

 

Twigs and Stones
Joy Cowley (2025)
Illustrated by Gavin Bishop
Hardback, 34 pages, Gecko Press

ISBN 978 7 6566 823 8 

 This delightful picture book is a sequel to the cheerfully wise Snake and Lizard series, which matches Joy Cowley’s fine prose with Gavin Bishop’s fine watercolours. Snake and Lizard are oddly-matched friends who share a hole in the desert, from which they operate a counselling service for the other desert creatures. As always in this charming series, much of the humour comes from their bright ideas, arguments, misunderstandings and reconciliations.

Equally as usual, it is Lizard who has the bright idea.

‘Why don’t we have our names in large letters over our entrance?’’

Snake is not sure, but Lizard gathers sticks and uses mud to erect their names. Snake is unable to assist because of her limited eyesight. Lizard begins to be annoyed with Snake, and their friendship becomes strained.

After several days of work by Lizard, their names stand proudly above their home, tall enough for Snake to read.

SNAKE AND LIZARD.

Tortoise warns the proud pair that ‘One good puff of wind will blow it down.’

That evening’s desert wind is strong, so Lizard finds some letters have fallen down and he puts them back.

Next morning Snake looks at the sign and hisses.

 SNEAK AND LIZARD.

In the argument that follows, Lizard only succeeds in making Snake angrier. Soon they are avoiding each other and not speaking. That night, Snake uses her mouth to remove two letters.

SNEAK AND LIAR.

What follows is a warm and touching act of friendship. Twigs and Stones is a lovely, witty fable.

Gavin Bishop’s illustrations of the Arizona desert and its quirky inhabitants have always been a vital aspect of this popular series. The picture book format now gives him the opportunity to create stunning double-page pictures, full of inventive detail. The sinuous curves of Snake and Lizard dominate the desert landscape. Insects, birds, moths and even a porcupine assist with the fetching and arrangement of the sticks. The endpapers have a complete alphabet made from sticks.

With design work by Vida Kelly, this picture book is a handsome and enjoyable addition to an excellent series.

Note: The Snake and Lizard stories by Joy Cowley and Gavin Bishop are:
Snake and Lizard (2007) 
Friends: Snake and Lizard (2009)
Helper and Helper (2017)
Twigs and Stones (2025)

Trevor Agnew 

25 March 2025 (Review 3752)