MOPHEAD

 

Mophead    Selina Tusitala Marsh

 

It was an exciting experience to read Mophead because I quickly realised that it was a winner, a book young people (and adults) would enjoy reading. In fact, Mophead won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award and the Elsie Locke Award for Non-fiction at the 2020 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Mophead also picked up a 2020 Storylines Notable Book Award in the Non-fiction category. A winner, indeed.

 

Below is a review of Mophead, which I wrote for The Source website in December 2019.

 

Mophead (2019)

Selina Tusitala Marsh

Auckland University Press

88 pages, hardback, NZ$25

ISBN 978 1 86940 898 5

  

Do you want to hear a story/

Um, OK

When I was 10 …

This unusual illustrated story or picture book (or more accurately a graphic memoir) is the author’s cleverly constructed and charmingly-illustrated account of how she came to accept herself, her appearance and her identity. Selina Tusitala Marsh - who was the New Zealand Poet Laureate from 2017 to 2019 - begins her story by telling how 'when I was 10 I was teased for having BIG hair.'

She describes her hair as ‘wild Afakasi hair’. (Afakasi means a Samoan person with some European ancestry.) She tells how she got thick wavy hair from her Samoan-Tuvaluan mother and thin curly hair from her New Zealand-Scottish-English-French father. ‘My hair was so wild that it defied gravity.’ Teased and called ‘mophead’ and ‘golliwog’, Selina tied her hair in a tight bun and her classmates stopped calling her names. ‘I was the same.’

A turning point in Selina’s life was a visit to her high school by poet Sam Hunt. ‘He was tall and thin. He had WILD hair and WILD words.’  Impressed by the way that Sam was happy to be different, Selina made a life-changing decision. ‘I was going WILD.’ Using a few apt words and her quirky illustrations, Selina sketches in her writing career, her inspiring discovery of other wild women (from Queen Salote to Maya Angelou) and what she calls ‘the wild words of Pacific Island women poets.’

When invited to perform her poetry for such celebrities as Queen Elizabeth II and President Barack Obama Selina is always told, ‘It’s formal. You’ll need to tie your hair back.’ (Her various responses make this book a joy to read aloud.)

As New Zealand’s 11th Poet Laureate, Selina is given a tokotoko (carved ceremonial walking stick) which incorporates a traditional Samoan fly-whisk (fue) made from coconut fibres. To Selina’s delight, the tokotoko reminds her of a mop. 

The story ends (and begins) with Selina’s return to her home on Waiheke Island, with her tokotoko. A small boy mistakes it for a mop and Selina asks him, ‘Do you want to hear a story?’

Mophead is a book for all ages. Its text is exceptionally well-constructed with never a word wasted (as might be expected from a poet). A powerful message is conveyed with wit.

The lively line illustrations and dramatic lettering, which make the book such fun to read, are all by the author. The rear endpapers add another whole layer of enjoyment.

 Trevor Agnew 

16 Dec 2019

FOUR GECKOS

FOUR GECKOS

Monkey on the Run

Leo Timmers

Gecko Press

30 pages

Paperback, NZ$20

ISBN 978 1 776572 51 9

Otto Goes North

Ulrika Kestere (text and ill.)

Gecko Press
30 pages
pb, NZ$20
978 1 776572 42 7

Zanzibar

Catharina Valckx (text and ill)

66 pages

pb, NZ$20

978 1 776572 56 4

The Runaways

Ulf Stark

Ill. Kitty Crowther

132 pages

Pb, NZ$20

978 1 776572 34 2

These four Gecko titles arrived for review in July 2019. I always enjoy the arrival of books from Julia Marshall’s Gecko Press, because each one is a surprise. These four really surprised because they interacted with each other and got me thinking about some big issues. But they also amused me and gave me hope for the young people who read them. Bear with me and you’ll see why I think children’s books are so important.

Monkey on the Run is a joyous story told entirely in pictures. This makes it a skilfully-laid trap for all those who think they don’t like reading. The plot begins when a father monkey with a motorbike collects his son from school and rides off with him in his banana-shaped sidecar. They drive off down a busy street. That’s the start. The story ends when the pair arrive home, with the young monkey clutching a gift for his mother.  What is it? Where did he get it from? Back to the beginning we go and follow the young monkey’s adventures as he leaps from one vehicle to another.  

Leo Timmers delights in creating crazy cars which are entirely logical if you consider the unusual animals who are driving them. Of course the rabbits would have a fast food van, selling carrot burgers on the move. Naturally a bee taxi has a large hive. Why shouldn’t a rhino’s fire engine employ snakes to slurp drinks and then squirt mouthfuls on fires? Add a young monkey to the mix and the rip down the road becomes even more intriguing. What became of Dad’s ice-cream? Who is stealing dolls? And so it goes on, with all the delightful details inviting the readers to make up their own stories.

Readers of Leo Timmers’ car books probably don’t worry about traffic problems. I sometimes wonder when current concerns enter children’s books. The answer, of course,  is that they

have always been there. Three more of the latest Gecko Press books prove my point.

Take Otto Goes North as an example. The setting is ‘far up in the north’ of Sweden, where Lisa the lynx and Nils the little bear are getting their home ready for a visit by their friend Otto the lemur. ‘He’d been cycling for several months to get there. Maybe even years. A very long time in any case.’ They welcome Otto, who is entranced by the Northern Lights and sets out to paint them. Unfortunately the air is cold that Otto’s nose turns red and he can’t move his hands to paint.  ‘It’s hot where I come from,’ said Otto, ‘My fur isn’t like yours.’  Lisa and Nils put Otto into their sauna to recover, and puzzle out a solution to Otto’s problem. It would be a spoiler to say what they do but it is clever and involves sacrifice, the help of others and quite a bit of skill. Then comes the marvellous moment when they reveal their surprise to Otto. He is able to paint the aurora, and has not one but two marvellous souvenirs of his visit.

It’s a warm story with some amusing conversations, whimsical humour and charming colour illustrations by the author.  It’s only on reflection that we feel the full significance in today’s world of three animals, all with different fur, cheerfully playing board games by the fireplace.

Zanzibar is a droll illustrated story about a French crow, whose imagination is triggered by a visit from a reporter (a lizard named Achille Leblab) who wants stories about ‘exceptional characters.’ Zanzibar suggests his singing might be exceptional. ‘CAW! CAW! CAW!’ Achille, however, is scornful about Zanzibar’s singing. Zanzibar would have liked to have been in the newspaper but now he realises, ‘I’m just ordinary. As ordinary as a crow can be.’ Then he has the bright idea of doing something so amazing that Achille will have to put him in the paper. To avoid spoilers, I won’t say what he does but it is very funny and he has to go to North Africa and make new friends in order to do it. (No spoilers here.) Unfortunately, Achille refuses to believe Zanzibar’s story but his friends do and they reassure him that he has always been remarkable. Through a twist of fate (and the help of another friend) Zanzibar finds that is far more important to keep in touch with friends and to make omelettes than to seek fame.

In an age of viral videos, there is a wonderful and warm message here for young readers. The author’s pictures are fun too. (Why omelettes? Because Zanzibar is a French crow, of course.)

Readers in the (roughly) 10 to 12 range will enjoy The Runaways by Ulf Stark, which can be seen simply as a funny account of a young boy helping his grandfather to escape from his hospital for a weekend. It is indeed funny and enjoyable (as all Stark’s books are) but it also has a bittersweet theme (as all Stark’s books do).  

Gottfried likes his Grandpa but admits that he really is not a nice person. A former ship’s engineer, he swears at his nurses and complains. He is, as Dad puts it, ‘sick and angry and stubborn and crazy.’ Gottfried persists in visiting the old man (bringing him beer and herring sandwiches because Grandpa hates hospital food). He learns that his grandfather has unfinished business at his home. Perhaps because he takes after his Grandpa, Gottfried suggests running away. Surprisingly, Grandpa agrees.

Craftily covering his tracks, so that his dentist father suspects nothing, Gottfried succeeds in getting the old man driven and ferried to his former home, a white cliff-top house, which he had built for his late wife. (An older friend, Adam, helps with the complexities of car driving, and plausible phone messages.) During the weekend they spend in the house, there are memories of Grandma everywhere, but Grandpa finds particular comfort in a jar of her lingonberry jam.

After ceremonially burning his suit (which reminds him of funerals) Grandpa allows Gottfried to take him back to the hospital. Grandpa promises that he will try to stop swearing so that he can surprise Grandma in heaven.  Gottfried is a perceptive narrator who can see past Grandpa’s bluster and understands why he puts a drop of jam into his water glass each day. ‘Grandpa got nicer and weaker with every week that passed.’   Gottfried is able to do one last favour for Grandpa before he dies.

‘Grandpa was pleased when we arrived. He put in his false teeth and smiled.’

The Runaways is a richly rewarding and unsentimental story, about three generations and their relationships and love for each other. The various conversations about life, duty, words, death, heaven and lingonberry jam are very amusing.

Best of all, Kitty Crowther’s colour illustrations are totally unsentimental and show Grandpa as an ugly, angry old man. Only a grandson could love him.   

We are reading Ulf Stark in English because fourteen years ago, in 2005, Julia Marshall had the bright idea of publishing English translations of the best overseas books for young people. The book which gave her this idea was Can You Whistle, Johanna? which had been published in twenty languages but never in English. Julia Marshall translated it and that was the beginning of Gecko Press. Needless to say, that wonderful book was written by Ulf Stark.

Gecko Press is flourishing, and Can You Whistle, Johanna is still in print. Unfortunately Ulf Stark died two years ago from cancer but the great thing about authors is that their words live on. Especially if Gecko Press has anything to do with it.

Trevor Agnew

24 July 2019

The Clockill and the Thief

The Clockill and the Thief

Gareth Ward
Walker Books

Paperback $20

ISBN 978-1-760651-20-6

 ‘In two weeks’ time, you will be crewing the Swordfish, the finest airship in the Empire.”

The success of The Traitor and the Thief (2018) has enabled Gareth Ward to produce a sequel. Ward’s first steam-punk escapade introduced the larcenous orphan lad, Sin, fleet-footed and light-fingered, who was recruited into the secret security force COG (Covert Operations Group) led by Major C. War threatens Europe unless the fiendish schemes of Britannia’s enemies without (and traitors within) are thwarted.
‘The sharp tick of spinning clockwork cut the air and, quick as a piston, the watchmek’s steamrifle was at its shoulder.’

As The Clockill and the Thief (2019) begins, Sin and his best friend Zonda are completing a COG training exercise which teaches them that death is a constant possibility in their world of secret missions, assassination and sabotage. While he can use his special skills to stay ahead of the robotic watchmeks, Sin has more difficulty coping with the hostile human beings he encounters.  The fanatically patriotic King’s Knights have injected Sin with a protoype blue blood, which makes him immune to poison, but also means that he is addicted and that his organs are failing. To add to Sin’s concerns, the fanatical Eldritch Moons has escaped and his plans for revenge include Sin’s murder.   

The visit of Sultan Khan’s giant airship, the amazing Sky Palace, for the annual Heroes Ball seems a likely opportunity for some act of sabotage. Meanwhile, Sin and his mixed bag of classmates have their airship training to complete, thus facing a new range of what Zonda calls ‘near-death experiences’.  

Gareth Ward’s inventive mind has produced a range of intricately-imagined steam-powered devices, such as submersible boats, steampistols, the NB88 rotary blunderbuss and submarines which are also capable of flight. Clockwork, however, is the driving force of the terrifying Clockill, a man whose brain and heart have been replaced by clockwork mechanisms and whose blood is cobalt blue. Sin may be able to outwit the other assassins but can he escape the Clockill?

Because almost everyone in the story has an ulterior motive, there are constant intricate plot twists. These make life difficult for Sin but entertaining for his readers. The Clockill and the Thief is rollicking fun, with plenty of hair’s breadth escapes and a whizzbang conclusion.

Trevor Agnew

23 July 2019

Antarctic Journeys Philippa Werry

Antarctic Journeys (2019)

Philippa Werry

New Holland

Paperback, 104 pages

NZ$25

ISBN  98 1 86966 499 2

Ignore the less than inspiring cover. Antarctic Journeys is a good book, ideal for introducing young readers to the Southern Continent.  Readable and well-illustrated, it conveys the grandeur and isolation of the Antarctic experience.

The theme of journeys works well. Philippa Werry begins with the journeys of the ‘heroic age’ of exploration, including several less well-known figures, such as de Gerlache, Borchgrevink and Shirase. Then she gives a completely different perspective by describing the various roles women have played in Antarctica. As well as scientists, the ‘Today’s Journeys’ segment also includes those who help preserve the historic structures.

“Antarctica is the only continent where the first structures built by humans are still standing.”

The complex issues surrounding visits by tourists and the changing climate are also discussed. Animal journeys introduce the area’s wildlife, ranging in size from krill to whale. Readers will learn about everything from the threat of king crabs to the easiest way to count penguins. (Happy Feet is here too.) Visiting animals include ships’ cats (Mrs Chippy) sledge dogs (Osman) and Scott’s luckless ponies.

I’ve always been fascinated by the South Pole. I grew up close to the spot above Port Chalmers where Kathleen Scott stood to wave farewell to the Terra Nova expedition (now marked by an elegant memorial). At school we often did projects on Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen, although my personal favourite was always Douglas Mawson. I was more deeply moved by the pony shooting sequence in the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic than by John Mill’s death scene. I stood at Taieri Airport and watched the heavily-laden Operation Deep Freeze Globemasters and Constellations lurch into the air, with their jato (jet-assisted-take-off) bottles roaring. I relished Peter McIntyre’s display of his Antarctic paintings in Dunedin.

Now that I live in Christchurch I have easy access to the Antarctic Centre with its penguins and Canterbury Museum’s Antarctic display with Hillary’s tractor and a shiny-nosed bust of Amundsen.

I was even lucky enough to be shown through the headquarters of Antarctica NZ and see their stores of cold weather gear and the stunning artworks of the creative people who are chosen to visit and reflect on the Southern Continent. There are painters, poets and even dancers. Some of the best quotes in the book come from Margaret ‘Skidoo’ Mahy.

Philippa Werry (who has at least 15 books in print) was certainly an excellent person to send to Antarctica. She has the historian’s eye and the novelist’s ear. She’s also good with a camera. (You can read Philippa Werry’s diary of her time in Antarctica on:  

http://kiwikids2antarctica.blogspot.com/)

Antarctic Journeys not only gave me a fine burst of nostalgia; it also brought me up to date with the daily rounds of the amazing range of people who work there.   It is good on the routines of everyday life at McMurdo Sound and gives a vivid insight into how Antarctica fascinates all those who go there.

It will also fascinate anyone who reads this book.

Trevor Agnew

12 July 2019

On the Brink Maria Gill

On the Brink:

New Zealand’s Most
Endangered Species (2019)

Maria Gill
ill. Terry Fitzgibbon
New Holland
32 pages,
Paperback NZ$25
ISBN 978-1-86966-518-0

What a useful book this is.

Maria Gill’s information books for young readers always give a clear, well-organised overview of their subject. ‘Endangered’ is a term that is used loosely, so young researchers often find it difficult to research endangered species because of the torrent of information that pours over them.

On the Brink takes the sensible approach of first defining terms and then looking at the ‘Top Five’ endangered birds, fish, marine mammals and insects.

Take the ‘Top Five Endangered Reptiles, Frogs and Bats’ as an example. They are a frog, two bats a gecko and a skink. For each one, we are given their full name: (Hamilton’s frog, Pepeketua, Leiopelma hamiltoni) as well as their size (37-47 mm), population estimate (300) and a map of their location (Stephens Island). A clever code gives more information. (NC, E means that Hamilton’s frog is endemic, nationally critical and in danger of immediate extinction.) Along with a handsome portrait (artwork by Terry Fitzgibbon, author of Coo-Coo Kereru) each animal has a half-page description of their habits and habitat.  (Guess who lives in moist rock crevices and hatches straight from the egg?) Then there is a rather grim list of things that menace the creature’s survival. As well as the usual suspects (rats, cats, ferrets, stoats) frogs have the added danger of the fungus that is killing frogs world-wide. 

Reading this book, it seems amazing that these creatures have survived at all. Bats have to contend with sparrows, rats, mice and wasps at their roosting sites, as well as the routine threat of logging, fires and predators. There are only 200 to 300 Chesterfield skinks (NCE) living in a paddock bordering a sand dune near Hokitika and they are hunted by mice, rats, ferrets, cats, hedgehogs, weka and possums. (Yes, it’s being fenced.) The Muriwai gecko has the added threat of kingfishers and 4WD vehicles – and no fence.

Maria Gill always finds the perfect phrasing to help the reader visualise the animal. The body of a long-tailed bat is 5-6 cm, or ‘slightly larger than the size of an adult’s thumb,’ and it can travel at 60 kilometres per hour -‘that’s faster than your parents’ car when driving you to school.’

While species such as the fairy tern (45), kokopu (250) and Canterbury mudfish (unknown) are reasonably well known, some of the endangered animals listed are obscure. Insects such as the Mokohinau stag beetle, Tekapo ground weta, Te Paki stick insect, Alpine grasshopper and Forest ringlet butterfly simply don’t have the cuteness appeal of the kakapo (160) or Maui dolphin (55).

The text is supplemented by fact boxes, offering such gems as: ‘The Good News: Five birds that were once thought to be extinct have been found!’

The closing pages of Maria Gill’s books are always interesting and outward-directed and On the Brink is no exception. Here she has pointed out how much can be achieved by one person (such as Don Merton with the black robin) or by people working together (such as the children who campaigned against single-use plastic bags). She has included two pages of suggestions for ‘stamping out refuse waste’ and ‘planting for the planet,’ which young people can work on in their home, their garden or their community.

There is also a good list of websites which young conservationists will find useful. The Glossary uses admirably simple and clear language, e.g. ‘endemic: native, found nowhere else but that one country, indigenous.’  

I particularly admire the Index, which uses sub-headings such as Fish, Predators and Reptiles to make research easier.

On the Brink is a lively and readable book which will inspire a new generation of enthusiastic Kiwis with sympathy for our endangered creatures and an awareness of how to do something about it.

Trevor Agnew

10 July 2019

Pioneer Women; Volcanoes and Earthquakes

Pioneer Women;    Volcanoes and Earthquakes

Pioneer Women

Edited Sarah Ell
Oratia (2019)
Paperback, 100 pages, $30
ISBN 978-0-947506-59-9

Volcanoes and Earthquakes

Gordon Ell and Sarah Ell
Oratia (2019)
Paperback, 100 pages, $30
ISBN 978-0-947506-60-5

Teachers and librarians alike will remember with pleasure the Bush Press books produced by Gordon

Ell (who was 80 in April) and his daughter Sarah Ell. Generations of school children have benefited from the Ell enthusiasm for writing about our country’s history, wildlife, geography and mythology. Now Auckland

publishers Oratia have tapped the Ells’ collective wisdom to produce a new series of ‘snappily-designed and fact-packed’ non-fiction books, the NZ series.

Volcanoes and Earthquakes is a topical volume, drawing much of its earthquake material from recent events around Christchurch and Kaikoura, while most of the volcanic examples are drawn from the North Island. Yet, the Ells make it clear that volcanic activity has helped shape the landscape of most of New Zealand and warn that ‘most New Zealanders will experience at least one earthquake in their lifetime.’

The Volcanoes section of the book begins with a clear explanation of New Zealand’s place on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire,’ and explains the consequences of the plate movements for us. A series of succinct essays guides the reader through volcanic eruptions, geysers, mud pools, and thermal springs, and the ways that they form part of our everyday life from thermal power generation to tourist attraction.  It’s not just Rotorua, Tarawera, Taupo and White Island that rate a mention either.  Young readers are warned that Auckland’s fifty volcanoes are part of a ‘sleeping’ volcanic field and could erupt again. There’s a vivid account of the 1886 Tarawera eruption

to give a hint of what might then happen.

The Earthquake section of Volcanoes and Earthquakes begins in a restrained way with fault lines and earthquake measurements, liquefaction and tsunamis, before providing a summary of the impact of recent earthquakes on the inhabitants of the ‘shaky isles’. The Napier, Canterbury and Kaikoura quakes are case-studies covered in more detail.

The prose is clear and nicely aimed at the intermediate and junior high school classes who will be using these books. There are well-organised fact files interspersed through the pages but the most appealing feature is the range of handsome colour illustrations, maps  and diagrams. Many of the photos are satellite images, chosen for the insight they give into the movements of the earth.

A list for further reading and a guide to websites is followed by a useful index.   

Pioneer Women, edited by Sarah Ell, is adapted from two of her 1990s collections of the diaries and memoirs of early European women settlers in New Zealand (The Adventures of Pioneer Women in NZ and The Lives of Pioneer Women in NZ). It is good to have these first-person accounts again easily available. Sarah Ell has dug deep into the letters and diaries in the Alexander Turnbull Library to ensure that we hear some 19^th Century women telling their own stories in their own voices.

Eighteen women describe their experiences, beginning with the voyage out, where Charlotte Godley’s quiet cabin passage is a striking contrast to Jane Findlayson’s experiences as one of 28 young single women travelling on a ship with a measles epidemic, a rat infestation and an insane woman on board. ‘We were sorry to hear of another child’s death with measles, we went to the funeral service at 6 o’clock, the mother was pretty brave considering.’

Quiet bravery is on display in many of the other accounts, whether it is Elizabeth Holman being wrapped in a blanket ‘baby and all’ and bundled into a canoe by a friendly Maori chief, as part of a rescue, or the widowed Lizzie Heath, planning to support her three children by opening a store. 

‘I shall first begin by making and selling ready made clothes to the natives.’

Perhaps the most interesting passages are the women describing their daily routines, with Alicia Chitty describing the process of making her own butter and Ellen Wilson, the seamstress and union leader revealing the bleak working conditions before the Tailoresses Union was formed. ‘The long hours affected my health.’

A good set of illustrations are provided, many of them (such as butter-pats and a camp oven) selected to explain references in the text. An Index is included.

These two books are attractively presented, easy to handle and well suited for their intended readership. Each makes their topic accessible. Oratia plan to issue two volumes per year of the NZ Series, so we can look forward to another double helping in 2020. 

Trevor Agnew  7 July 2019

Amundsen's Way

Amundsen’s Way: The Race to the South Pole

Joanna Grochowicz (2019)
Ill. Sarah Lippett
Allen & Unwin
305 pages
Paperback, NZ$19
ISBN 978 1 76063 766 8

This book begins dramatically with a scruffy figure in a filthy old cap and ancient blue jersey striding into a hotel in Tasmania in 1912. It is Roald Amundsen, back from his conquest of the South Pole and desperately seeking his first hot bath for months. Bath-time over, he sends a telegram that the world has been waiting for: the South Pole has been conquered.

With the success of Into the White, her moving account of Robert Scott’s exploits, it was only logical that polar exploration expert Joanna Grochowicz would write her next book of ‘narrative non-fiction’ about the Norwegian expedition which beat Scott’s team to the Pole. Amundsen was a dedicated professional polar explorer and his life story is fascinating, dramatic and often controversial.

Written in the present tense, Amundsen’s Way maintains a mood of excitement tempered with a concern for the unknown dangers. Grochowicz has confined the main narrative of the book to Amundsen’s arduous journey to the South Pole, inserting flashbacks to his key experiences in polar exploration, in order to show how he developed his guiding principles.

Amundsen’s steely personality and his methods of leadership are well shown. ‘Roald is very good at convincing people to do the things he wants them to do.’

I have read many accounts of exploration written for young people but never one with such skilful writing and well-developed structure as Amundsen’s Way. The dramatic team-briefing meeting, where Amundsen reveals to his team that their goal is not the Arctic but the Antarctic, is particularly well brought to life.  Amundsen has lied about his plans to his backers, to Nansen, to the Norwegian Parliament, and even to the King of Norway. He has also mortgaged his own property, so that personal and professional ruin will follow if his attempt at reaching the South Pole fails. The notorious telegram to Scott in Christchurch, ‘BEG INFORM YOU FRAM PROCEEDING ANTARCTICA AMUNDSEN’, is sent and triggers a controversy over ‘the race to the pole’, an issue which is handled with fairness and moderation here. We even have the scene where Amundsen had earlier hidden under his desk to avoid the embarrassment of meeting Scott.

Grochowicz’s research in Norway involved not only visiting the famous Fram but also reading the unpublished memoirs of many of the expedition members. The result is a lively and convincing portrayal of the interactions and tensions between the individual team members. Their gruelling and sometimes gruesome work-load is well depicted.  We also learn rather more about their bodily ailments than some might wish.

The hard-driven sledge-dogs also emerge as personalities (particularly the pup Madeiro, rescued by the Fram’s Captain Nilsen), although there should be a warning for readers who are over-sentimental about canines.  42 dogs set out for the Pole and only a dozen returned for reasons which are described in sometimes alarming detail.

Illustrations and maps are included but they have been poorly done so that every young reader will realise they could do better ones. In other words, it’s the words that matter here. And the words are great (Except when Amundsen says, ‘Okay.’).

Amundsen’s Way is a thoroughly enjoyable and readable story about some very brave people coping with horrific challenges.  It is ideal for making YA readers aware of the pleasures of long-form non-fiction books. Even better, her Acknowledgements section makes it clear that Joanna Grochowicz has plans for further writing, so we can look forward to more books like this one.

Trevor Agnew

3 June 2019

A Place of Stone and Darkness

A Place of Stone and Darkness

Chris Mousdale

Puffin (2019)

415 pages

Paperback, NZ$30
ISBN 978 0 14 377312 2

In A Place of Stone and Darkness, Chris Mousdale has created not one but two worlds, each with their own unique civilisation, language, customs and technology. Already an award-winning illustrator, Mousdale now demonstrates his skill as a storyteller by describing the consequences of these two races encountering (or rather re-encountering) each other. Surprisingly the first dramatic meeting takes place underground.

An adventurous young cave explorer, Ellee Meddo, is investigating a secret cavern created long ago by her ancestors. Accidentally plunging into a deep well system, Ellee risks her life to save and resuscitate a half-drowned boy. When the narrative viewpoint moves to the boy, as he regains consciousness, we find that he believes a strange feathered creature is jumping up and down on his chest.

A Prologue explains that thousands of generations earlier, a newly arrived group, the Toppas, had arrived and slaughtered almost all species of birds. One group, the flightless Striggs saved themselves by the desperate measure of moving underground and hiding in caves. Evolution produced a highly specialised civilisation with the skills needed to survive underground, far away from the murderous Toppas.

On page 6, a picture gallery of the main characters shows the Stiggs, all looking like tall intellectual parrots who have developed digits at their wingtips. Sidfred is Ellee’s inventive brother, while Kass is an eager young organiser, impatient with the more cautious, older leaders.    

The reader now understands that Ellee, of course, is a Strigg, one of the evolved birds. The boy she has just saved from drowning, is a Toppa from the terrifying world of Uptop, a young human named Blue.

Over the years bits of Uptop technology have ‘found their way’ underground and been preserved in the Merzeum (Museum) sometimes with amusing results. (A gramophone and clockwork technology both play a significant part in this story.) Because he is fascinated by Toppa technology, Sidfred has mastered the Toppa language and, therefore, he can communicate with Blue.

Unfortunately Blue is still suffering from shock and can’t recall much. This means that the Striggs (and the readers) learn only gradually a little about the Toppas and the current situation in Uptop.  

Pollution from the surface is contaminating the Striggs’ water supplies, killing their crops of morra (mushrooms) and harming their health. When Blue’s presence is revealed to them, the leaders are faced with a terrible dilemma.  On one wing, they feel they cannot kill Blue but, on the other wing, if Blue returns to Uptop, it seems certain that he will tell of the birds living underground. Then the Toppas will come down and slaughter them all.

With time running out, Ellee, Sidfred, Kass and a slowly recovering Blue mount an expedition. They will try to ascend the dangerous well-shaft, to reconnoitre the surface and report back.

What the four find on their arduous quest is a dramatic surprise and makes the second part of this novel an even more exciting adventure.

A high level of imagination has gone into creating the Strigg world, complete with its customs, ceremonies, religious observances, songs and mythology. Their language and figures of speech are skilfully created, so that they make perfect sense. Striggs don’t tell their visitors to sit; they say, ‘Take a perch.’ There are even sayings, such as ‘Busy Striggs have their wings full.’

Mousdale has also made full use of his illustration skills, by providing intricate endpaper cave-maps, and a selection of coloured illustrations as well as two more maps (not a spoiler). The splendidly dramatic cover picture, which shows Ellee as an alarming silhouette, gives us a good idea of Blue’s view of the Strigg world.

Well designed and beautifully presented, A Place of Stone and Darkness is a strikingly fresh and enjoyable novel, unpredictable and constantly surprising.  

Note: Bright readers will have worked out the heritage of the Striggs by their distinctive dancing customs. An extra hint is that the scientific name of New Zealand’s Kakapo parrot is Strigops habroptilus.

Trevor Agnew   4 May 2019

Clotilde Perrin and Eric Veillé visit Christchurch

Clotilde Perrin and Eric Veillé visit Christchurch, May 2019

Visiting children’s book artists always have the difficulty of trying to address two groups – the children who read their books and the adults who buy them. Touring French picture book artists Eric Veillé and Clotilde Perrin dealt with the problem with Gallic aplomb. Their first Christchurch session was held in the book palace known locally as Scorpio Books. A wide range of felt pens and paper had been provided to enable enthusiastic children to be initiated into the craft of picture-book making.

Unfortunately no Christchurch children had made it to the central city venue by the starting time of 3.30 pm.  Undaunted Clotilde and Eric dragooned a large contingent of teachers, librarians, booklovers and grandparents – some qualifying for inclusion in several of these categories – to take up their pens and have a go.

Both artists showed the draft illustrations they had used in beginning two of their recent books Eric’s Encyclopedia of Grannies and Clotilde’s Inside the Villains (both published in NZ by Gecko Press). Clotilde showed how she prepared her pictures, complete with carefully designed flaps and openings, as maquettes (preliminary sketches).  

Eric displayed a huge array of pictures of Grannies and explained that he drew them with a felt pen, scanned them into his computer and then chose the ones he likes best. Colouring follows. Asked how he chooses them, Eric replied, ‘Sometimes, I know that it is a good picture, when it makes me laugh. I laugh out loud as I am drawing it.’

Using an easel, the pair took it in turns to create a picture, inviting their ‘students’ to follow suit on their sheets of paper. Clotilde began by drawing an eye which rapidly became part of a furry head and finally turned into the hungry wolf, the villain occupying the cover of her book. Clotilde’s brushwork was quick and confident and soon she had used watercolour to create a thoroughly convincing wolf.

Eric then showed how to draw a Grannie. Even though his illustration was quite small, his ‘students’ produced reasonable copies.

Then came the surprise. Clotilde used a Stanley knife to make a semi-circular cut in the wolf’s belly, following which she glued Eric’s Grannie picture on the back of her wolf picture. Finally, she lifted the flap to reveal Grannie inside the wolf’s stomach. It was a lovely moment of revelation when we could all appreciate their combination of skill and imagination.

Later Eric added a highly ambiguous speech balloon for the wolf, ‘I love the Grannies of Christchurch city.’

The photos show Clotilde and Eric at the Scorpio Bookshop, 2 May 2019
Trevor Agnew, 2 May 2019

Where Dani goes, happy follows Rose Lagercrantz

Where Dani goes, happy follows   

Rose Lagercrantz [author]

Eva Eriksson [illustrator]
Gecko (2019)
181 pages
Paperback   978 1 77657 226 7  (NZ$20)

This young novel is the sixth in the series My Happy Life, about cheerful Dani and her determination to maintain her friendship with Ella, who has moved to Northbrook. Once again Dani’s cheerful enthusiasm sweeps the story along making this the perfect series for young readers who are moving from picture books to novels.

As always the reader is enabled to spot signs that Dani has missed, such as her classmate Cushion’s interest in her.  (Cushion’s name is Alexander ‘but only when things get serious.’)
Cushion would like to sit next to Dani but she prefers an empty desk so that Ella can sit there if she comes back. Cushion tries admiring Dani’s artwork.
“Nice!” he said at last.
“Ugh!” Dani mumbled.
Dani’s father is sad and visiting his mother in Rome, so Dani is staying with her grandparents for a week. Then Dani has the bright idea of visiting Ella on her birthday (while wearing her Best Present headband). Her grandparents arrange for Dani to travel by herself to Northbrook by train. Dani copes well with the big adventure but when she arrives at the station, there is nobody to meet her. There has been a misunderstanding.
As usual Dani meets (small) disasters and as usual she has a rollercoaster ride of emotions before her father’s ex-girlfriend Sadie and Sadie’s sister Lisette (a police constable) arrive to help her sort things out.
Lisette makes an interesting comment, ‘This little girl needs a mother,’ which could be a good title for the whole series.
Dani now learns that her father and Sadie have broken off their engagement and there is a touching scene where Dani, sick in bed, is being nursed by Sadie. Almost unable to speak, Dani can only think the words she would like to say to beg Sadie to make up with her father.
‘You can change your mind, Dani wanted to say. But she couldn’t. She had no voice left. ’
Rose Lagercrantz is a brilliant and witty writer, so after six books, we feel that we know Dani and Ella very well, and look forward to their next (mis)adventure, which had better involve them being flower-girls.
Eva Eriksson’s charming illustrations which appear on almost every page emphasise the personalities involved.
The translation from the Swedish is by Julia Marshall.

Trevor Agnew  26 Jan 2019

I am so clever Mario Romas (Gecko)

 I am so clever   Mario Romas
Gecko (2019)
48 pages   Ages: 4 to 7
Paperback   978 1 77657 249 6  (NZ$20)
Hardback    978 1 77657 248 9  (NZ$30)

Wellington’s Gecko Press (guided by its resident genius, Julia Marshall) does the English-speaking

world a service by producing their attractive English language editions of award-winning books from overseas. A whole army of authors and illustrators are thus made available to our young readers. 

The picture book, I Am So Clever, is the last book of the talented Belgian artist and writer, Mario Romas, who died in 2012. It is the sequel to his I Am So Strong (2007) and I Am So Handsome (2007), continuing the egocentric adventures of the Big Bad Wolf.

As usual the wolf is in the forest, spreading alarm among its inhabitants. He meets Little Red Riding Hood.
‘But tell me, little raspberry, where are you going with your basket?’ asks the wolf.
The joy in reading these Mario Ramos books is the stylish, suave speaking style he gives to the wolf. Planning to eat both the little girl and her grandmother, the wolf suggests that Little Red Riding Hood should take a lingering walk through the woods. ‘Slow down and listen to the birdsong. And look at all the flowers.’  
A series of comic misadventures sees the wolf dressed in Granny’s frilly nightie but locked out of her house. He then has droll encounters with various story characters, who all mistake him for Grandma. A short-sighted huntsman, the three bears, a questing hero, the three little pigs and the seven dwarfs all make the same mistake, irritating the embarrassed wolf.
When he finally confronts Little Red Riding Hood, she responds, ‘Grandma, that wolf mask is fantastic! That big furry head, those rotten teeth, the huge bulging eyes – did you do this just for me?’
Just as in Ramo’s other Wolf books, the unexpected and funny conclusion sees the wolf getting just what he deserves – humiliation.
Ramos’s bold colour illustrations are a delight, with lots of fascinating detail. A rabbit finds the huntsman’s missing spectacles, and the seven dwarfs find it too hot to work.
‘Hi ho! Hi ho! Off to the creek we go.
It’s far too hot to work a lot. Hi ho! Hi ho!’
This book was first published in Paris in 2011 as Le Plus Malin.
The English translation is by Linda Burgess.

Trevor Agnew 26 Jan 2019

Chinatown Girl

Chinatown Girl

The Diary of Silvey Chan, Auckland 1942

Eva Wong Ng

Scholastic, 200 pages, paperback, NZ$18

ISBN 978 1 77543 577 8 

 Reviewed by Trevor Agnew

Surprisingly, the best account of NZBC (New Zealand Born Chinese) children adjusting to life within their two cultures is a work of fiction. Chinatown Girl (2005) by Eva Wong Ng has just been released in its second (2019) edition with an eye-catching cover. It is rare for young adult novels to be re-issued but Chinatown Girl has captured readers of all ages as it introduces them to life in war-time central Auckland, as seen through the eyes of Chan Ngun Bo, known to all as Silvey Chan. The oldest reader I know of is in his nineties and he declared that it brought back all his memories of Auckland’s Chinatown in the 1940s.

Silvey is an ordinary twelve-year-old Auckland girl. She has just been inspired by Anne of Green Gables to start keeping a diary. Her first entry is 1^st January 1942  and the first words are ‘Anyone reading this without permission risks blindness or worse: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!’

Silvey is part of a tightly-knit Chinese community. As she works on her family history project for school, Silvey, who was born in New Zealand, learns about life in China, and why her family members came to New Zealand. Meanwhile events around the world have their effect, with the fall of Singapore and the arrival of American troops.
The diary is rich in tiny historical details, such as the tricks the schoolchildren play on their teacher on April Fool’s day, or Silvey watching Ah Yeh (her paternal grandfather) rolling his own cigarettes from a tin of Silver Fern.

Chinatown Girl is also a great introduction to city life in the 1940s, with Lofty Blomfield, five shilling postal notes, sugar rationing, and air raid rehearsals. ‘The bag is to hold a cork to put between our teeth, and cotton wool to stuff in our ears to stop us going deaf if a bomb explodes.’  Modern readers will find school life in the 1940s a very strange world, while Silvey also has to cope with Chinese School at least twice a week.

In the same way that she attends two schools, Silvey is aware of the two ways of looking at events and people: the way of China and the way of Sun Gum Sarn (New Gold Mountain: New Zealand). She emerges as a lively, intelligent observer, able to cope comfortably in both cultures.
The diary’s emphasis is domestic but there are small excitements (Silvey’s accident with a fish hook) and more dramatic moments (a burglary followed by an identity parade) to make Silvey’s account of daily life at 45 Greys Avenue into a real page-turner. The official celebration of Double-Ten (October the 10th) 1942 by the New Zealand Government is an important event for the Chinese in New Zealand. Silvey’s parents make it clear to her that Prime Minister Peter Fraser’s announcement is a turning-point in NZ Chinese history Nevertheless when she attends the Chinese National Day Banquet she still notes that ‘we…listened to lots of boring speeches.’

Readers of all ages will find much to delight them. For example Sylvie’s mother represents the older generation’s determination to eventually return to China. Thus she insists on showing Sylvie how to kill hens - because she will need to do it in China. 

Despite the shortages and fears of wartime, this is a delightfully readable account offering many insights into two cultures.

NOTE: Teachers will find useful background material in the school bulletin compiled by Eva Ng and Jane Thomson. Amongst Ghosts: Memories and Thoughts of a New Zealand-Chinese Family, (Learning Media, Wellington, 1992, ISBN 0 478 05523 4), which includes an account of the lives of Eva’s parents.

Trevor Agnew

8 February 2019

Below is the original

2005 cover of the first 

edition of Chinatown Girl: