Rākau: The Ancient Forests of Aotearoa  Ned Barraud 

 

  

Rākau: The Ancient Forests of Aotearoa     

Ned Barraud   
Te Papa Press (2025)
Picture book
Hardback, 52 pages
ISBN 978 1 99 107206 1   

 

 

Ned Barraud’s skill as an artist is matched by his ability as a writer. With the assistance of specialists from Te Papa (The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) he has created a magnificent picture book about New Zealand’s forests. He begins with a brief illustrated overview of the ancient forest and the changes brought by Māori and European settlers.

The main body of the book shows the various major trees, from tawai (beech) to rimu, tōtara to matai, rewarewa to karaka. Each illustration is supported by interesting facts, examples of use and sayings. Kahikatea, for example, intertwine their roots for stability, resulting in the Māori saying, ‘Rite tonu he whānau ki kahikatea rākau. Family is like kahikatea trees.’

The tōtara has a large illustration of a carved canoe, while smaller illustrations show the tōtara bark’s use as torches and pātua baskets.

Although listed as 48 pages, Rākau actually has 52 pages if you count the two stunning, unfolding tree portraits, each over 50 cm tall!. The kauri is, of course, represented by Tane Mahuta, while the other portrait is of a rata vine which has outlived its host tree and become a forest giant itself. 

As well as the trees, the illustrations show the birds and insects and animals which play their part in the forest world. The bushes, ferns and fungi are shown as well, along with the process of forest regeneration. Native trees which are commonly seen, even in cities, including kowhai and tī kōuka (cabbage tree), are given their due. Even the honeydew of the beech forest is explained.

Ned Barraud’s text is endlessly interesting, and carefully matched to the illustrations. He also provides brief retellings of favourite Māori tree legends, particularly ‘Rata and the Totara Tree’

The design of this book is impressive and two useful glossaries are included. The result is an appealing and useful picture book, which is also fun to read.

 

Trevor Agnew 
4 August 2025   [Review 3787]

 

 

Turkey Hurly-Burly 
Annelies Judson  Nikki Slade Robinson    

 

Turkey Hurly-Burly 
Annelies Judson,
Ill. Nikki Slade Robinson 
Scholastic (2025)
Picture book
Paperback, 32 pages
ISBN 978 1 77543 910 3 

‘A rampaging herd of turkeys,           

that numbered in the thirties,

rampaged towards the field of play.’

Turkey Hurly-Burly is a funny picture book which cries out to be read aloud.

When Miss Burton asked her class to suggest a classroom pet, she did her best to reject unsuitable creatures such as lunch-eating rats and book-eating goats. Unfortunately, she agreed to a pair of turkeys, Jake and Jenny. Eggs were laid and, in due course, there were lots of turkeys; in fact, ‘a flock, squashed beside the office block.’ When the fence gave way under the extreme turkey pressure, the entire flock of turkeys ‘went storming straight towards the children playing games outside.’

What follows is a comic catastrophe of epic proportions, fought out on the playing fields of New Zealand.

‘It was a turkey-teacher-student free-for-all.’

Not only does Annelies Judson relate a war story worthy of Homer; she also spins her saga in verse. (There is also a very appropriate and funny conclusion, which is more than Homer managed.) Best of all, Turkey Hurly-Burly scans perfectly, so that it can be recited, declaimed or sung.

Then there are the colour illustrations.  Nikki Slade Robinson has created marvellously exaggerated turkeys - all throbbing wattles and bulging eyes – generating mayhem as they forage for school lunches. The pictures portraying the charge of the turkeys are eye-wateringly funny.

The result is an ideal book for reading aloud – or even singing aloud.

 

Trevor Agnew 
9 Aug 2025    [Review 3789]

 

Violet and the Velvets:
The Case of the Angry Ghost 
Rachael King    Phoebe Morris

 

 

Violet and the Velvets: The Case of the Angry Ghost
Rachael King Ill. Phoebe Morris
Allen and Unwin (2025)
Novel, paperback, 208 pages
ISBN 978 1 99100 699 8

 

‘You only need to know three chords to play a song.’

Violet Grumble, the self-confident, guitar-playing 12-year-old from Oakleaf Primary School has plenty of ambition for her euphoniously-named band, Violet and the Velvets. In the first book of the series, Violet and the Velvets: The Case of the Missing Stuff (2025), Violet and her friends solved the mystery of who was sabotaging their band’s efforts to get to the BandChamps, an inter-school contest.

Now, the Velvets are one of fifteen bands competing at the BandChamps national finals in the Royal Theatre (a craftily-disguised version of Christchurch’s historic Theatre Royal), which is packed with excited young musicians and their teachers.  When the excitement is interrupted by sinister whispers of ‘get out get get out’, rumours of the ghost of a ballerina spread among the bands.  Lexie (bass) is reading a Nancy Drew story about a haunting, The Ghost of Blackwood Hall, so she urges the band to emulate Nancy Drew by ‘searching for clues and interviewing witnesses.’ The band members are happy to copy Nancy’s detection work but Lexie does have reservations about Nancy’s misadventures.

‘She almost drowned in quicksand though.’

Violet once again proves a confident clue-seeker and suspect-interviewer, as well as a cheerful narrator. With the tension of the sound-check and impending performance, everyone is on edge.

‘Excitement wobbled around us like jelly.’

When further ghostly happenings trigger panic, Violet keeps her head and even manages to safely extinguish a backstage fire. Who is to blame for the worrying events? Is there perhaps a real ghost? Or is it another attempt to sabotage the Velvets? Meanwhile, the band contest must go on and Violet has stage nerves as she prepares to sing the band’s Hallowe’en song, Angry Ghost. The conclusion is satisfyingly theatrical and enjoyable.

This witty, fast-moving adventure is a pleasure to read with neatly-sketched characters and lively dialogue. The music teacher, Mr Saunders, returns and even has a hint of romance with another teacher. Less welcome is the return of irritating braggart Brayden Jones, who is thoroughly unpleasant to everyone but who unintentionally makes everyone else seem kinder and more caring by contrast.

Brayden: ‘Hey, why are you in a wheelchair?’

Dee: ‘I find that it really helps me … to mind my own business!’

Co-operation and recognising other people’s merits are the keys to success in Violet’s world, and if seeing girls succeed puts Brayden’s noise out of joint, all the better. The atmosphere of a band contest is well created, clues are examined, witnesses are interviewed and red herrings are rejected in a thoroughly enjoyable story. There are also some great band names, from Go Dog Go to Shimmy Shimmy.

The illustrations and decorations throughout the book are by the talented Phoebe Morris. Her black-and-white illustrations give visual identities to all the characters. Particularly cute is the picture of the two teachers at the precise moment when their eavesdropping students discover that their first names are Duncan and Jojo.  

I was fortunate enough to hear the author’s world premiere vocal-and-guitar rendition of Angry Ghost. Readers who wish to listen to Violet and the Velvets’ version of Too Shy and Angry Ghost will find them on the author’s website:

rachael-king.com/fun-stuff

 

Trevor Agnew 
14 Sep 2025    [Review 3793]

 

 

 

 

    

 

Tails of Tangleby Garden 3   
Sue Heazlewood   Jane Smith        

 

Tails of Tangleby Garden 3                                 
Sue Heazlewood   Ill. Jane Smith

Aukram Publishing, Ohoka (2024)
Illustrated story, Recipe book
Hardback, 170 pages
ISBN 978 0 47372 315 6

 

Spot the food in this story:

‘Marmalade had made her delicious paprika chicken and a scrumptious apple crumble for dessert.’ Before the story goes much further, the young readers encounter a picture of Marmalade the rabbit preparing the chicken dish and Violet the mouse pouring custard over a generous helping of crumble. Recipes are included. Suddenly a mealtime crisis erupts when naughty Basil the bunny has a tantrum and runs out into the snow. A search party of animals has to be formed to rescue him. Saved from drowning in an icy pool, Basil is reinvigorated by a mugful of Chinese chicken and corn soup (with recipe). And that’s only Chapter One.

 

This charming combination of storytelling and cooking has now reached its third instalment. Tails of Tangleby Gardens 3 once again mixes an illustrated animal fantasy with a recipe book. The result is a thoroughly enjoyable adventure involving talking rabbits, frogs, dogs, cats mice and hedgehogs, with a food bonus. The playhouse (cubbyhouse to Australian readers) at Tangleby Gardens has developed from being a home for a pair of refugee rabits, Marmalade and Montgomery, and has become a bustling multi-species sanctuary for a wide range of homeless creatures. And they all enjoy good food.

The animals face the challenge of winter with aplomb, using Leo the poodle’s balloon to fly in nourishing meals to some hungry local mice. With warmer weather, the whole Tangleby family of animals goes on a camping holiday to Foxton Beach, where the little blue penguins, Mr and Mrs Winterbottom, have made a new home. This jaunt enables the animals to enjoy a road trip in their camper-van as well as some amusing adventures and misadventures at the beach. Peking Duck’s big feet do cause mishaps such as falling into the chocolate cake, but they also prove useful in rescuing Basil and Belle from the perils of surf and wind.

The attractive colour illustrations on almost every page are by Jane Smith, who has created a full array of well-dressed animals. Her husband Neil Smith’s tasty food photographs have also been populated by animals, so Violet mouse is shown decorating her Jelly Slice with pansies.

 

A great deal of thought has gone into the organisation of this book. There is a double-page pictorial identification guide to the cast of characters, to remind readers that Louie is a cat, Hemi is a frog and Basil and Belle are rabbits. The recipes have two indexes. One offers the usual alphatical order, while the second has them listed in page and chapter order. The recipes themselves are well set out with clear instructions and ability levels that range from one strawberry (‘Very easy’) to three strawberries (‘Some skill required’). Each recipe has its own QR code, so that there is no need to take this handsome book into the food preparation area.

There is a two-page reference guide to liquid and weight measures, oven temperatures for cooking different meats and a list of alternative names for various ingredients.

Tails of Tangleby Gardens 3 is an ideal gift for fond grandparents to hand out. 

 

Trevor Agnew 
2 Dec 2024    [Review 3732]

 

 

Calum the Chameleon   
Danni Rae  Evan Heasman

 

 

Calum the Chameleon                             
Danni Rae Ill. Evan Heasman 
Little Love/Mary Egan (2025)
Picture book, Paperback, 24 pages
ISBN 978 1 0670875 4 8 

Calum the Chameleon is much more than a handsome picture book. Following the style of its predecessors, Kara the Kākāpō (2022) and Harry the Hermit Crab (2023), this easy-to-handle book packs a lively introduction to eight of the world’s ecosystems into its 24 pages. Writing in cheerful verse, Danni Rae introduces each ecosystem, from rainforest to savannah:

‘Tundras are treeless, they’re cold and they’re dry…

… Most of the year, the land is covered in snow,

But summer brings wildflowers bursting up from below.’

 She uses a nomadic chameleon, cutely named Calum, [short for Calumma parsonii], as a friendly guide to each landscape and its wildlife. The text invites readers to search for individual creatures. Search is the operative word.

‘A chameleon’s natural colour helps them avoid being seen.

Can you find Calum, exploring the forest of green?’

Calum is not the only one using camouflage. In the rainforest, it is not easy at first to distinguish between the Emerald Tree Boa and its leafy surroundings. Fortunately, silhouettes of such locals as the boa, toucan, butterflies, tree frog and jaguar are also provided to make identification easier for young eyes.

This brings us to the pictures. Once again, Evan Heasman’s full-page colour illustrations are spellbinders: finely detailed, richly coloured and often amusing. In his Savannah illustrations, for example, he has secretly added a dozen giraffes.  Now that Te Papa has a specimen on display, it seems that every New Zealand book about ocean life must include a giant squid.  Calum has found one. Also to be found in these pages are examples of the isopod, caracal, nautilus, pika, japalura lizard, and the lilac-breasted roller. Not to mention the well-concealed Parson’s chameleon known as Calum.

At the end of the book, there are three fact pages which explain the importance of ecosystems, as well as spilling the beans on what chameleons really get up to. The design is by Anna Egan-Reid.

Calum the Chameleon is a user-friendly introduction to the rich variety of nature and a warm invitation to young readers to continue their research and extend their knowledge of the natural world. And play hide-and-seek with Calum.

 

Trevor Agnew 
2 Jan 2026   [Review 3815]

 

Truth Needs No Colour   

Heather McQuillan    

 

 

Truth Needs No Colour 
Heather McQuillan
Cloud Ink Press
Novel, Paperback, 303 pages
ISBN 978 1 7385943 6 8

‘We know exactly who you are,’ the warden said. ‘We’ll be watching you.’

 

It is Mariana’s fifteenth birthday and the first day of her Year 11 course at her new college. A keen artist, Mariana will be in the Artisan Grade at the Apace Senior College, run by the Carapace Corporation. The ‘tipping point’ of climate change has arrived. The devastated South Island has been declared ‘financially unviable’ and is now run by the Carapace Corporation.

 

 Home-schooled, Mariana is surprised by the rigidity of her new school where the lessons are computerised indoctrination. The Civics class motto is ‘Your Civic Responsibility: Control, Obedience, Gratitude.’ An art lesson is mainly colouring-in, and Mariana gets low marks because of ‘unacceptable colour selection.’  Lunch includes Carapace Foodstuffs’ Hexa-Fuel Protein Bars – made from insects. There is a 3-minute limit on toilet visits and her counsellor carries a stun-gun. Not only are the students under constant surveillance; their teachers are too.

Mariana is in trouble from her first moment at school; she is fined because her red dress is not a Carapace-made garment. Carapace has re-introduced debtors’ prisons which double as sweated-labour workshops. Under Carapace, there are strong social divisions. Christchurch has been abandoned and the entitled well-off live in the newly-constructed Te Tahi city.

Mariana, however, lives with her grandparents in the shanty-town of Deans Village not far from the overgrown remains of the botanic gardens. Grandma Isla sews clothes and quilts, while Grandpa Jack is a caretaker. The black market operating from the former Cricket Oval enables them to scratch a living.

 Mariana narrates her own story and the reader quickly realises that she comes from a family with secrets. Her childhood memories gradually build up a picture of her parents as leaders in protesting against Carapace, but her mother was murdered and her father had to flee to Australia. Her grandparents are annoyingly tight-lipped about the turbulent past so Mariana is frustrated and resentful.  Her attention is caught by a bright fellow-student, Filiki, and the pair gradually come to a prickly understanding before events tear them apart.

 There are moments of grim humour. All students’ art work is copyrighted to Carapace, so Mariana finds one of her designs on the cover of a glossy magazine. She gets no acknowledgement. ‘And I’d only got 3/10 for it.’ The college promises that ‘everyone gets treated the same’ but uses this rule to deny aid to those in need of it. For Tulia, a student crippled by rickets, this means she is not allowed to use her wheel-chair in school. When Filiki is caught piggybacking her to a Maths class, he is fined. Is Filiki going to become trapped in the corporation’s ‘school-to-prison’ pipeline?

 

Mariana faces her own challenges with the authorities. She finds that her determination to tell the truth may bring harm to her grandparents and threaten her own future. Then, Grandfather Jack breaks his silence and Mariana faces a terrible dilemma.

 

This highly readable novel has a large cast of interesting characters from a range of backgrounds. The plot moves at Mariana’s lively pace from simple classroom events to a major social upheaval.

 

Truth Needs No Colour can be read as a grim but readable action thriller as well as an unusual teenage romance. Young adult readers will, however, be smart enough to see it, also, as a dark warning about present trends in our society. This is a story which will make young readers think.

 Trevor Agnew 
14 March 2025     [Review 3742]

 

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:

McQUILLAN, Heather

New Zealand writer, teacher

Heather McQuillan is an award-winning writer, who was born in Kent, England but now lives in Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand. As well as writing for young people she writes short fiction, flash fiction and poetry and has been widely published in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally. 

She has a Master of Creative Writing with distinction from Massey University and her thesis collection of short stories was published in the United Kingdom as Where Oceans Meet and other stories, Reflex Press, 2019. Many of these stories are ‘flash fiction’ defined as ‘a story between six and a thousand words.’

Heather says of her career, ‘For a long time I was a teacher who wrote. Now I am a writer who teaches. The two roles keep getting tangled.’

In 2005 she won the Tom Fitzgibbon Award and three of her novels for young people so far have been awarded Storylines Notable Books awards. Her previous novels for young readers are:

 Mind Over Matter, Scholastic NZ, 2006
Nest of Lies, Scholastic NZ, 2011
Avis and the Promise of Dragons, Cuba Press, 2019
Avis and the Call of the Kraken, Cuba Press, 2024
Truth Has No Colour, Cloud Ink Press, 2025

Heather is the director of the Write On School for Young Writers, where she works to give agency to young writers.

Heather lives with her teacher husband and their two boys in Sumner, Christchurch, where her writing loft in the roof of the family home gives her wide open views of the hills and sea. ‘It’s a small space but it’s a gorgeous space.’

 Heather McQuillan's Awards:

Tom Fitzgibbon Award (2005) Mind Over Matter

Storylines Notable Books Award (2006) Mind Over Matter

Storylines Notable Books Award (2012) Nest of Lies

Storylines Notable Books Award (2020) Avis and the Promise of Dragons

Otago University College of Education/ Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence (2021)

 

Website: https://www.heathermcquillanwriter.com/

 

 

 

The Terrible Trio: the (not so) Superheroes  
Swapna Haddow  Minky Stapleton       

The Terrible Trio: the (not so) Superheroes  

Swapna Haddow, ill. Minky Stapleton    
Scholastic (2025)
Graphic novel, paperback, 192 pages
ISBN 978 1 77543 897 7

 

Swapna Haddow, creator of Dave Pigeon and Bad Panda, has created three very ordinary heroes for her new series, The Terrible Trio: the (not so) Superheroes (2025). Barry is a ring-tailed lemur. Zeb is a zebra. And then there’s the penguin.

‘I’m Margarine.’

‘Margarine? Don’t you mean Marjorie?’

‘Nope. Margarine. … I was named after my mum. Her name was Marjorie On Toast.’

Young readers will enjoy feeling smarter than Barry, Zeb and Marge (as her friends call her).

These three meet up in a long, long queue of animals, waiting in line to be given their superpowers. (Yes, all animals have superpowers.) Unfortunately, the allocation has been delegated to a squirrel who has run out of ideas and wants to get home to catch his favourite TV series, Watching Paint Dry.

As a result, the trio are given a mix of very odd (and very funny) superpowers. No spoilers, but they end up working at a café. Barry and Marge are delighted to be using their special powers in creative (and amusing) ways. Zeb, however, is reduced to being the ‘guy who folds the napkins.’ He feels inadequate, under-appreciated and desperately in need of a way of using his talent.

Then (avoiding spoilers again) an emergency arrives where Zeb’s special talent saves lives and makes him a hero. It also makes young readers laugh, which is the whole point of the series.

Because so much of the story is carried by the discussions between the characters, it is important to note how witty Swapna Hadlow’s dialogue is.

Zeb: ‘Oi! I don’t want to disturb this riveting chat about paint drying, but what do you mean you’re all out of powers?’

Squirrel: ‘He’s a little rude, isn’t he?’

Marge: ‘You get used to it. He just really wants a superpower.’

 The visual appeal of The Terrible Trio is provided by Minky Stapleton’s funny black-and-white illustrations. With the dual role of illustrator and designer, she has created a fast-flowing visual treat. The stylised creatures in her illustrations are simply hilarious. When the characters shout (and there’s a lot of shouting with super-powerful animals around), their words leap out of the pictures.  This makes The Terrible Trio a great book to read aloud.

 Trevor Agnew
19 Sep 2025 [Review 3794]   

 

 

 

The Terrible Trio: The Day the Mac ‘n’ Cheese Ran Out   
Swapna Haddow  Minky Stapleton

 

              

The Terrible Trio:
The Day the Mac 
‘n’ Cheese Ran Out   

Swapna Haddow
Ill. Minky Stapleton
Scholastic (2025)
Graphic novel
Paperback,192 pages
ISBN 978 1 77543 900 4 

 

‘What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations?’ thought Alice.

Alice would have loved The Terrible Trio series and not just because it has more talking animals than Wonderland. It also has hilarious conversations and equally hilarious pictures.

Swapna Haddow was the creator of this pixilated world where all the animals have been given superpowers. Of course, the three friends of the title were at the back of the queue when the superpowers were handed out. [See Vol 1, The (not so) Superheroes] This meant the trio received some very odd talents indeed.

Zeb the excitable zebra can blend into striped surfaces. Barry the cool lemur has nice handwriting and a special way to clean blackboards. Margarine (‘Marge’) the gloomy penguin has the power to create macaroni-and=cheese with the flick of a flipper.

Zeb’s most terrible day ever begins when his superpower prank with a zebra crossing enrages a lion. As an alternative to being eaten, Zeb promises to cater a mac ‘n’ cheese party for the lion’s whole pride.

Unfortunately for Zeb, Marge has just discovered that her secret power is not working. So, the restaurant has had to close and Zeb is about to become lion fodder. The conversation which follows typifies the incisive debating style of the three animals:

‘Why did you promise him mac ‘n’ cheese?’

‘Because he was HUNGRY.’

‘Couldn’t you have offered him your bike?’

‘I don’t think he would have wanted to eat a BIKE.’

‘BESIDES, I DON’T HAVE A BIKE!’

‘You LOOK like you own a bike.’

With thinking processes like that, the three take a long time (and some strange sidetracks) before they can work out how to save Zeb. The journey is both witty and enjoyable. 

 Minky Stapleton is the illustrator as well as the designer of this series. The visual impact of her work is stunning.  Every animal is carefully realised, with a wide range of expressions and an ability to strike dramatic poses. When they cry, waterfalls pour from their eyes. Each page is full of vitality. The ill-assorted trio make no effort to fit into the standard comic strip panels.  Zeb’s long ears and Barry’s curvaceous tail often pop through the borders. When Marge engages in a lively mac-mixing fandango she dispenses with borders completely.

The lettering also deserves mention. The text is in lower case which helps young readers, while the shouty bits are in block capitals, which helps those doing some reading aloud.

It’s worth noting that rights for The Terrible Trio have been sold (in alphabetical order) to Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Israel, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

 Trevor Agnew 
2 Jan 2026 [Review 3821

 

Swapna Haddow is a talented writer.  Here are a few of her titles.