Board Books by Gavin Bishop
Mihi Gavin Bishop
Mihi Gavin
Bishop (2020)
Gecko Press, Wellington NZ
Board book, 16 pages
ISBN 978 1 776573 02 8
Mihi is perfect.
This board book is simply the perfect book for a young New Zealander. Mihi is a
Māori word that every New Zealand schoolchild (and a growing proportion of
their elders) will understand. The mihi is steadily becoming a recognised
feature of New Zealand life at public and private functions and occasions. It
could be called an introduction or a greeting. It tells who you are and where
you come from. It gives you your place in the world.
You mention the canoe your
ancestors came on, the landscape feature you are connected with, usually a
mountain, the body of water, the marae, the iwi (tribal grouping) and the
whanau (extended family).
The technical definition is: Mihi / mihimihi / pepeha: introducing
yourself and making connections to other people and places.
All this sounds complicated but Gavin Bishop’s Mihi makes it
breathtakingly simple. A baby could understand it. Mihi makes
brilliant use of simple words and simple illustrations to help any parent to
introduce any young child to their tūrangawaewae.
Tōku waka. [My canoe]
Tōku maunga. [My mountain]
The focus steadily closes through iwi and whanau to parents:
Tōku māmā. [My mother]
Tōku pāpā. [My father]
Until finally we reach the individual:
Ko Ahau tēnei. [This is me]
Gavin Bishop’s striking illustrations match the spare simplicity of his text.
The sea that supports the symbolic canoe is a koru (fern, spiral), gently
repeating its own shape. The illustration of the whanau is a cluster of
relatives, with only the top half of a small person’s head visible. A small
blue rabbit is firmly held up. When we reach the final picture we see the
serious face of the small child, with the blue rabbit still near at hand.
This is the perfect book for parent and child to read together and then expand
and elaborate, inserting details and naming the people.
Mihi is a taonga, a treasure.
Trevor Agnew
6 Jul 2020
Koro Gavin Bishop
Pops Gavin
Bishop
Pops Gavin Bishop
(2021)
Gecko Press, Wellington NZ
Board book, 16 pages
ISBN 978 1 776574 00 1
Hi Pops!
This board book is a charming celebration of a small Māori girl’s day spent
visiting her grandfather (koro). My day with Pops (Ka toro ki a Koro).
The pictures, cleverly, show only part of what is happening, so the meeting of
the two characters is shown by just a tiny hand clasped in a large one.
For Are you hungry? (He aha māu, e moko?) we see no more than Pops’ boot
and the girl’s bare feet as they move to his garden. Only when they gather some
greens (he pūhā) does the reader see their faces, with Pops a grey-haired
version of his tiny granddaughter. They gather an egg (he hēki), carrots (he
kāroti) and other ingredients for a sandwich meal (he kai).
Then they tell stories. (he kōrero).
Night, night, Pops! (Ā! He moe!).
The minimal text gives great scope for the young reader to develop (or have
developed) their own family’s features as part of the story.
Gavin Bishop’s double-page colour illustrations are bold, simple and charming,
with the figures (or parts of them) shown against large blocks of colour.
Compared to his granddaughter, Pops’ face is darker and more textured (by
Gavin’s trademark sprinkling of salt on damp watercolour). Every picture shows
the contrast between the old man and his fresh-faced granddaughter. This little
board-book will inspire not only reading but story-telling in a family.
An identical Māori language edition, Koro, was also published by Gecko
in 2021.
Note: The little girl also appears, with her family, in Gavin Bishop’s board-books Mihi (2020)
E Hoa (2022) and Friend (2022).
Trevor Agnew, 19 July 2021
Koro Gavin Bishop
Koro Gavin Bishop
Gecko Press, Wellington NZ (2021) 
Board book, 16 pages
ISBN 978 1 776574 01 8
E Koro! (Hi Pops!)
This board book is a charming celebration of a small Māori girl’s day spent
visiting her koro (grandfather). Ka toro ki a koro. (My day with Pops.)
The pictures, cleverly, show only part of what is happening, so the meeting of
the two characters is shown by just a tiny hand clasped in a large one.
For He aha māu, e moko? (Are you hungry?) we see no more than Pops’ boot
and the girl’s bare feet as they move to his garden. Only when they gather some
pūhā (greens) does the reader see their faces, with Koro a grey-haired version
of his tiny granddaughter. They gather he hēki (an egg), some kāroti (carrots)
and other ingredients for kai (in this case a sandwich meal).
Then they kōrero (tell stories).
Ā! He moe! (Night, night, Pops!).
The minimal text gives great scope for the young reader to develop (or have
developed) their own family’s features as part of the story.
Gavin Bishop’s double-page colour illustrations are bold, simple and charming,
with the figures (or parts of them) shown against large blocks of colour. Pops’
face is darker and more textured (by Gavin’s trademark sprinkling of salt on
damp watercolour). Every picture shows the contrast between the old man and his
fresh-faced granddaughter. This little boardbook will inspire not only reading
but story-telling in a family.
An identical English language edition, Pops, was also published by
Gecko in 2021.
Note: The little girl also appears, with her family, in Gavin Bishop’s board book Mihi (2020).
Trevor Agnew
19 July 2021
E Hoa : Friend Gavin Bishop
E Hoa : Friend Gavin Bishop 
Gecko, Wellington NZ (2022)
Board book, 18 pages
ISBN 978 1 77657 468 1
This board-book for young readers is part of a family which includes Mihi (2020), Koro (2021) and Pops (2021). The little Māori girl who was the central figure of Mihi, and who shared a meal with her grandfather, in Koro and Pops, now returns as narrator to introduce her best friend.
Thus the Māori language edition is entitled E Hoa.
Thus the English language edition is entitled Friend.
Gavin Bishop’s cheerful cover illustration makes it clear that the friend in
question is the little girl’s faithful dog.
Taku kurī pai… Taku hoa pūmau.
[This is my good dog… She is my faithful friend]
The pictures that follow use the dog to illustrate a range of emotions and
feelings.
Each picture is a spring board for discussions about how the dog is feeling and
why. The dog’s attitudes and expressions are very clear messages of how she is
feeling. In some pictures people’s expressions help as well. For example, when
the dog is being noisy (hoihoi) we can see a deep frown on Koro’s face.
The bold, simple pictures provide clear illustrations of each of the dog’s
emotions and sometimes show why she is feeling that way. A worm intruding into
her food-bowl makes her angry, so she barks loudly. When the little girl
rebukes her, the dog is shown lying on the ground – sorry. Tummy-tickling makes
the dog happy. The chance of a walk makes her excited and ready to go. Kei
te kaikaha ia.
The best picture shows the dog and girl gazing into each other’s eyes – Taku
hoa Pūmau. [My faithful friend].
The board book has carefully rounded corners, just right for tiny fingers and
large clear illustrations just right for eyes of all sizes and ages.
Note: This boardbook, E Hoa, is also available in an English language
edition as Friend (2022).
Trevor Agnew
11 July 2022
Titiro: Look Gavin Bishop
Titiro: Look Gavin Bishop
Gecko, Wellington NZ (2024)
Board book, 32 pages
ISBN 978 1 0670207 8
Gavin Bishop has written and illustrated
a wide
range of board books ever since There was an Old Woman tossed up
in a Basket (2008). Arguably his best board books are the small wordless
Tummy Time fold-out board books Look (2023) and its Māori language
companion, Titiro (2023).
Now he has combined these two into a
large (22cm x 22cm) paged version, Titiro: Look. This board book is an
ideal size for sharing with a child seated on one’s knee. The corners are
carefully rounded so that little ones can handle it freely.
Best of all, Gavin Bishop has also added
words in Māori and English. The translation into te reo is by Darryn Joseph.
Each odd-numbered page offers a different face while the even-numbered pages
display objects familiar to young people. These include Teti pea/Teddy bear,
Rarā/Rattle, Mokonui/Dinosaur, Ngata/Snail and Ukurere/Ukulele.
The placement is well thought-out. For
example, the face of a lady wearing spectacles is opposite Mōhiti/Glasses.
The words are well-chosen to expand
vocabulary in both languages. Thus Taraka/Truck introduces nui/big,
wira/wheel, pango/black and whero/red as well as porotaka/round and taraiwa/drive.
An elderly man’s profile offers kiwikiwi/grey, rae/forehead,
tukemata/eyebrow, ihu/nose and ngutu/lips.
Charmingly, several of the faces shown
belong not to humans but to family pets such as Ngeru/Cat and Kurī/Dog.
The pictures are simple and bold in their execution, with a wide range of skin
tones on display. Several of the pictures use distinctively Māori objects so
that Manu tukutuku/Kite is illustrated by a traditional Māori kite and Taonga/Treasure
is a greenstone tiki. One of the word pairs offered for this carving is maimoa/cherish.
Titiro: Look is a taonga, a book to be cherished.
Trevor Agnew
27 May 2025 [Review 3775]
There was a Crooked Man Gavin Bishop
There was a Crooked Man
Gavin Bishop
Gecko Wellington NZ (2009)
Boardbook, 16 pages
ISBN 978 1 87746 724 0
This board book invests the old nursery rhyme There was a Crooked Man with all the charm of Gavin Bishop’s imaginative illustrations. In earlier versions the man was often shown as crippled or distorted, sometimes alarmingly so. In this version, however, he is an attractive character who is immensely tall and able to bend marvellously to keep in touch with the world below him. His legs and arms move in elegant arcs and arabesques. The result is engaging, especially as he gathers up the crooked cat and crooked mouse.
Gavin Bishop has also given his Crooked Man some splendid
clothes to match his unique anatomy. He wears long, bendy boots and top hat,
while the swallow-tails of his cut-away coat seem to have a life of their own.
Each opening creates a vertical double page spread, revealing a picture over
twice as tall as it is wide, ideal for the free play of the Crooked Man’s
remarkable limbs.
Like its companion volume There was an old woman tossed up in a basket (2008)
this book is good read-along fun. Its text is hand-written in a clear script
that young readers will find easy to follow, while the rounded corners make the
book comfortable to hold.
In 2010 There was a Crooked Man won the Russell
Clark Award for Best Book Illustration.
Trevor Agnew, 2009
There was an Old Woman Gavin Bishop
There was an Old Woman
Gavin Bishop
Gecko Press, Wellington NZ (2008)
Board book, 24 pages
ISBN 978 1 877467 16 5
This board book presents the
traditional nursery rhyme about spring cleaning, There was an old woman
tossed up in a basket, with some of Gavin Bishop’s most appealing
illustrations. This ‘flexiboard’ book with its rounded corners feels
comfortable in the hand. Each opening is a vertical double page spread,
revealing a picture over twice as tall as it is wide, ideal for the old woman’s
journey that is seventeen times as high as the moon.
The clear warm colours are
restrained but attractive and each picture bursts with life: birds, storms,
spring-cleaning maids, and clothes flapping on a line. The bold simple shapes
of the old lady’s basket and cloak stand out against the open blue and purple
of the sky, emphasising the distance she travels. Her basket is like a small
spaceship with a green umbrella strapped to its side. The spiders are huge and
green, many times the size of the old lady’s house, emphasising her great
achievement in sweeping both moon and sky clear.
A Sendak-like small boy cheers
her on throughout the book, so that it is clear who is asking the
question, May I come with you?
The text is hand-written in a clear script that might be called joined-up
writing, which proved easy for young readers to decipher.
Gavin Bishop says he was inspired by the 1844 edition, a seven-foot
vertical unfolding panorama etched
by Aliquis and published by D. Bogue in London.
A companion volume illustrated by Gavin Bishop is There was a Crooked Man (2009).
Trevor Agnew, 2008
