I'm a Submarine  Nigel McHardy

 

I'm a Submarine   

Nigel McHardy (text & ill)

Oratia Books (2025)

Picture book, Illustrated story

Paperback, 32 pages

ISBN   978 1 99 004280 5

 

A single conversation establishes this amusing picture book’s theme. A seagull addresses a whale.

‘Hello whale!’

‘Whale? I’m not a whale. I’m a submarine.’

Intrigued and suspecting a trick, Seagull presses Whale to admit that he’s a whale.

‘You are long and grey but you still look like a whale to me.’

Their debate continues as they move around the sea, with Whale using slightly dodgy logic.

He mentions his ability to dive deep, then rise up out of the water with a splash as proof he’s a submarine.

Whale also points out his use of sound detection to navigate.

‘Yes, whales can do that too,’ responds Seagull, ‘It’s called sonar. You are a whale.’

The two friends are still arguing about the whale’s lack of windows and passengers when a storm strikes. Seagull is saved in a surprising way by Whale. More surprises follow and Seagull now sees Whale in a new light.

He also sees himself in a surprisingly different way.

Nigel McHardy has created an allegory for our times; a fable about self-perception. This is a story which is told entirely in dialogue. In this case, it is very witty and pertinent dialogue. [“And what is the use of a book, without pictures or conversation?" asks Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.]

Nigel McHardy has also illustrated his book with his own pictures, which are as funny as the text. Both the whale and the seagull are charmingly depicted and there is deadpan humour in their movements and expressions.

I Am a Submarine is a picture book with a wide range of appeal.   

 

Trevor Agnew 

14 Apr 2025 [Review 3758]

 

 

 

Alagā’upu Fa’asamoa Ma Uiga Mo Tamaiti:

Samoan Proverbs for Children                   

 

Alagā’upu Fa’asamoa Ma Uiga Mo Tamaiti: 

Samoan Proverbs for Children 

Author: Tauanu’u Perenise Tapu Sitagata 

Illustrator: Ani Huia Ligaliga

Oratia Books (2025)

Picture book, Information,

Paperback, 32 pages

ISBN   978 1 99 004270 6

                         

This is a very attractive, full-colour, bi-lingual picture book, illustrating thirty Samoan proverbs.

These are traditional wisdoms or sayings passed down through the generations, and still holding their relevance for today. Each proverb gets its own page.

The proverb is given first in Samoan, then in English:

‘O oe o le tautai matapalapala.

You are a wise fisherman.’

This is then followed by author Tauanu’u Perenise Tapu Sitagata’s explanation of the background, or his guidance to the proverb’s full meaning. This often involves explaining the proverb’s cultural context. Here he explains the ‘wise fisherman’ proverb:

‘O le tautai matapalapala o le tautai na te iloa le mea o iai i’a, tusa lava pe nenefu le ogosami.

E fa’asino i se ta’ita’i lelei i taimi o puapuaga.

A wise fisherman knows where the fish are, even in muddy waters. This refers to a person who leads wisely in times of danger.’

Each proverb is accompanied by a colour illustration by Ani Huia Ligaliga. Her handsome pictures show family situations, formal and informal, as well as church gatherings and gardening scenes. Creatures mentioned in some proverbs, such as birds, crabs and fish, are also shown. Many of the pictures have a frame of traditional tapa cloth designs.  

Each picture is not only a representation of Samoan daily life but it also contains clever modern representations of the particular proverb.

For example: ‘E sili le puipuia nai lo le togofitia. Prevention is better than cure,’ is shown by a family putting on their life jackets before taking a rowboat out to sea. Each picture thus reinforces its proverb. These skilful and well-researched illustrations also give a lovely insight into Samoan families and their way-of-life.

 Alagā’upu Fa’asamoa Ma Uiga Mo Tamaiti: Samoan Proverbs for Children is a book which has a much wider appeal than just the inhabitants of Samoa or Samoans living overseas.  It also offers all children a useful doorway to the culture of Samoa, and an introduction to its rich heritage of customs, traditions and wise words.

Author Tauanu’u Perenise Tapu Sitagata was born and raised in Samoa. He now lives in Auckland. Described as ‘an eminent orator and community leader’, he teaches at McAuley High School in Ōtahuhu and the Centre for Pacific languages in Manukau.

Illustrator Ani Huia Ligaliga is a Māori artist who studied Art at Brigham Young University in Hawaii. Her book illustrations include The Ever-Standing Tree by Tim Tipene (2024) and Alagā’upu Fa’asamoa Ma Uiga Mo Tamaiti: Samoan Proverbs for Children by Tauanu’u Perenise Tapu Sitagata (2025)

 

Trevor Agnew 

8 Apr 2025 [Review 3757]

 

 

Rere Atu Taku Poi! Let My Poi Fly!  

Tangaroa PAUL  Rebecca GIBBS

 

Rere Atu Taku Poi! Let My Poi Fly! 
Tangaroa Paul, ill. Rebecca Gibbs
Oratia (2024)
32 pages, paperback
ISBN 978 1 99004248 5

 

This picture book, with its bilingual Māori and English text, uses a traditional Māori cultural performance as a framework for a social issue – sexual identity.

Rangi’s school is preparing for its end-of-year festival and the school theatre is full of students preparing their performances. Everyone puts their best effort into the haka (challenge) but when the girls were spinning their pois, some of the boys ‘mucked around behind them. They were being hōhā.’ [annoying] They mock Rangi when he encourages the girls.

At his Nana’s home, Rangi is fitted for his piupiu and watches recordings of Kapa Haka finals on her TV. He copies the elegant movements of the poi dancers, using his grandmother’s poi. He knows that his love of poi is ‘something that sets him apart from other kids.’ 

On the eve of performance Hine, leader of the girls’ poi, falls ill. ‘… they wondered how they could perform without Hine. Who would lead them?’ Rangi’s friend Tu reminds the teacher that Rangi has poi skills. ‘Kind of,’ admits Rangi. There is no time for a run-through. The evening’s performance has begun. After the welcoming haka and the action songs, it is time for the poi.

‘Wahine mā, ki ngā poi!’

‘Prepare your poi, ladies!’

 Rangi takes a deep breath and moves in front of the line of girls. Will he have the confidence? What follows is a charming conclusion where Rangi feels he has been his true self.  He also has a new ambition.

Tangaroa Paul, a lecturer in Māori language and a poi expert, has created a delightful story, which also opens the way for discussions on sensitive issues, such as gender roles and stereotypes.

Great strength is added to this book by Rebecca Gibbs’ colour illustrations, which give a convincing picture of a real school performance. The detail adds to the feel of authenticity, so readers will spot Nana’s patu and the various greenstone pendants and ear ornaments. One performer has kept his glasses on and another is in a wheelchair. Not all the performers are Māori, but all are enthusiastic. There is a real sense of inclusiveness and belonging.   

Translations of Maori words used in the English text are provided at the bottom of the page.

 

Trevor Agnew 

25 January 2024  [Review 3613]

 

Rere Atu ki Poroihia: Flight to Polynesia  
Tangaroa PAUL  Luca Tu’avao WALTON

 

Rere Atu ki Poroihia: Flight to Polynesia
Tangaroa Paul, ill. Luca Tu’avao Walton
Oratia (2026)
32 pages, paperback, picture book
 ISBN 978 1 99 004297 3 

 ‘I don’t know if there’s a Māori word for people like me, but I’m going to find out when I get home, said Rangi.’

This book is a sequel to the author’s groundbreaking Rere Atu Taku Poi! Let My Poi Fly! (2024) where young Rangi broke tradition by leading the girls’ poi performance. Rere Atu ki Poroihia: Flight to Polynesia (2026) begins as the school’s successful kapa haka team boards a plane for Honolulu.  They will be taking part in a Polynesian festival, bringing together school performance groups from all over the Pacific.  Tangaroa Paul tells Rangi’s story in both Māori and English.

At the Waikiki Stadium, Rangi meets Puna, a Hawaiian who plays an ipu heke gourd drum. Just as Rangi has made his own poi, Puna grew the ipu heke. ‘We learn how to grow our own from a seed at halau.’

The pair are joined by two other performers, Kalo from Tonga and Vai from Samoa. They discuss the traditional items they will be using on the stage, and the pride they feel in them.

When they see some of the other students staring, Rangi explains about his performing the traditionally female poi, ‘They don’t understand what it’s like to be me.’

The three are sympathetic. Pahu describes himself as māhū [gentle] with the sprit and energy of both male and female. Vai says, ‘I am fa’afafine. Although born a boy, we grow up with the values of both parents.’

‘I was told I am fakaleitī or leitī,’ said Kalo, ‘that’s to be like a woman. I use “leitī” because I know who I am.’

Rangi’s friendship with the trio sees him returning home to Aotearoa New Zealand with a determination to find his own identity. ‘He wondered if there was kupu Māori for him, too?’

 

The Tongan-New Zealand illustrator, Luca Tu’avao Walton, has enriched this story with dramatic colour illustrations, rich in Polynesian colours and patterns. He not only shows the characters proudly performing on stage but also depicts them at home, with Vai serving tea to an elder and Kalo striding confidently along with a fan emblazoned ‘leitī.’

 When Puna describes having ‘male and female energy and spirit in me’ we see two parents standing behind Puna, with their breath symbolically intertwining in traditional patterns.

This story is a sensitive introduction to how gender and identity is treated in several Pacific nations.

 To assist readers, various terms used in the story are defined at the bottom of the page on which they first appear. Thus, we learn that halau is a Hawaiian school, matai is a Samoan chief, and a kahoa heilala is a beaded necklace from Tonga.

 Trevor Agnew 

4 Mar 2026 [Review 3822]

 

 

 

 

 

Wrapping Things  

 Linda Burgess  

Hilary Jean Tapper

 

Wrapping Things (2025)
Linda Burgess, Illustrator: Hilary Jean Tapper
Allen and Unwin
Picture Book, Paperback, 32 pages
ISBN 978 1 991142 00 9 

 

‘Rosie wraps Rabbit in the blanket she had when she was a baby.’

Linda Burgess has spotted a useful metaphor and turned it into a splendid story. Rosie enjoys wrapping up her toys and crayons. We see her helping her mother wrapping a parcel for Granny.

 ‘Rosie helps her wrap the box in brown paper.’

When Rosie has a bath, her father wraps her in a towel and carries her to where her pyjamas are warming by the fire.

(There are hints in the illustrations that Rosie’s mother is pregnant, but the focus in this beautifully-told story concentrates on Rosie and her feelings.)

Rosie is delighted when Granny comes to stay and the story’s mood of comfortable warmth is emphasised when she and Rosie make muffins. ‘They cover them with a clean cloth to keep them warm.’

When Rosie realises that her parents have suddenly gone away, her Granny comforts her and soon has her wrapped up in Granny’s bed for a warm hug.

Next morning Granny takes Rosie (clutching carefully-wrapped flowers) to the maternity ward where her mother shows her a baby wrapped in a blanket.

‘”Hi Bella,” says Rosie.’

Hilary Jean Tapper, already acclaimed for her illustrations to Joy Cowley’s At the Bach (2023), has excelled herself in Wrapping Things. Her beautiful watercolour illustrations capture the domestic life of a small family as well as providing touching cameos of the main characters. The most skilful portrayal has gone into every illustration. Particularly impressive is the scene where Rosie is woken by the car leaving and realises her parents have left her behind. Our view is from outside, with Rosie (and her kitten) pressed up to the window. Rosie is sad; her cheeks are red and she is about to start crying. Behind Rosie, her Granny stands, well aware of how Rosie feels and knowing exactly what needs to be done. Or, as the text puts it, ‘My bed, I think.’ Warm blankets await. A perfect match of pictures and words.

The items shown in the pretty endpapers can all be identified by young readers.

 

This is an ideal book for reading to children when a baby is on the way. Or at any other time.

 

Trevor Agnew 

25 Sep 2025 [Review 3798]

 

 

Meri Kirihimete, Kererū    Juliette MacIver   Daron Parton

 

Meri Kirihimete, Kererū  (2025)  
Juliette MacIver,  Illustrator: Daron Parton  
Allen and Unwin
Picture book, paperback, 32 pages
ISBN 978 1 991142 30 6 

 

Meri Kirihimete, Kererū translates from Māori as Merry Christmas, Wood Pigeon. Juliette MacIver has written a cheerful Christmas story making full use of her usual witty phrases and clever rhymes.   The animals of the bush are all busy preparing for Christmas, and each has a wish.

‘Kiwi has a secret wish: she’s always longed to fly.

But Tuatara only wants a safe warm place to lie.’

Centipede has musical hopes, Bat wants better eyesight and Kea dreams of car parts. [The world’s only mountain parrot, the kea is famous for amusing itself by damaging tourists’ cars. Windscreen wipers are favourite targets.]

Kererū the wood pigeon, however, is quietly despairing:

‘She yearns to sing like Tūī does, a silver, trilling flute.

But Santa can’t change who she is. All he’s got is fruit.’

Each of the bush creatures receives a Christmas present from Santa that meets their needs, so Bat gets spectacles and Kea gets a windscreen wiper! But poor Kererū is disappointed. Then her friends gather and co-operate to bring her dearest wish to fruition. Tuatara has worked out that since Kererū can only coo, ‘we’ll host a Christmas COO-ALONG.’ And they form a choir.

‘And oh! The coo of Kererū is sweet as any dove,

and all the bush resounds at last with Christmas joy and love.’

 

Daron Parton’s colour illustrations are a perfect match for this warm-hearted tale. He even manages to make the centipede look adorably cuddly. Each picture creates attractive shapes and bold colours as well as matching the mood of the story. The portraits of the various animals are delightful. Santa Claus has dressed appropriately for the summer season, arriving in jandals and shorts.

With its touching conclusion and smooth rhythms, Meri Kirihimete, Kererū is a pleasure to read aloud. 

 

Trevor Agnew 

25 Sep 2025 [Review 3799]

 

 

 

Kuwi the Kiwi Treasury   Kat Quin           

 

Kuwi the Kiwi Treasury  (2025)
Author and illustrator: Kat Quin  
Illustrated Publishing (Te Awamutu, NZ)
Picture book, hardback 200 pages
ISBN 978 1 7385904 9 0 

 

This handsome hardback picture book, with a cute kiwi peering through the peekaboo cover, brings together Kat Quin’s first five Kuwi the Kiwi picture books in a single volume.

The stories included are:

1.     Kuwi’s First Egg (2014) where Kuwi’s egg survives disaster and little Huwi hatches out.

2.     Kuwi’s Huhu Hunt (2015) where picky chick, Huwi, explores bush cuisine with his mother.

3.     Kuwi’s Very Shiny Bum (2016) where Kuwi creates appropriate Christmas presents for her friends.

4.     Kuwi’s Rowdy Crowd (2018) where Kuwi seeks peace and finds noisy friends.

5.     Kuwi’s Fluey Huwi (2024) where Huwi has the sneezes and Kuwi seeks a cure for him.

The writer-illustrator, Kat Quin, has also included an illustrated account of how Kuwi was created, complete with concept sketches. Kat Quin’s illustrations for these books often include amusing details. Her creatures furnish their homes with Tiffany lamps and classic paintings ranging from Vermeer’s Weta with a Pearl Ear-ring to Leonardo’s Mona Kiwi. Among the Quin family photos included is one of artist Dick Frizell looking at a sweetly satirical rendering of his iconic Tiki to Mickey as Tiki to Kiwi! 

Treasury is the right word. These five books in one are as much fun to look at as to read.

 

Trevor Agnew 

29 Sep 2025 [Review 3801]

 

 

 

 

 

The Curioseum: Collected stories of the Odd & Marvellous

 

The Curioseum: Collected stories of the Odd & Marvellous (2014)           
Editor: Adrienne Jansen; Illustrator:Sarah Laing
Te Papa Press (Wellington, NZ)
 

‘All the stories in this book started out as objects in a museum.’
Editor Adrienne Jansen assembled this collection of 22 stories and poems of the ‘odd and marvellous’ in an odd and marvellous way.  Twenty-two odd and marvellous writers looked at the public displays and poked through the back rooms of Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum. Inspiration was created by everything from a beaded purse (carried by a refugee) to a heavy suit (made for a shipwreck survivor).
Barbara Else brings the hat collection to life, while Joy Cowley’s story combines an adventurous cat and Te Papa’s giant squid exhibit.
The short stories are:
Joy Cowley, Puss, Puss, Puss
Jo Randerson, Things from Other Places
Ant Sang, Samurai Takeshi’s Return
Marisa Maepu, The Saurus
Mandy Hager, The Beaded Purse
Paora Tibble, Kiore Whispers
Elizabeth Knox, A Doll for the Captain
Phillip Mann, Sa-Li
Raymond Huber, Spineless
Kyle Mewburn, The Fold-Away Boy
John McCrystal, A Dog’s Tales
Dave Armstrong, Soldiers
Anatonio te Maioha, Puki, Mum and Me
Barbara Else, The Flyaway Hat
Moira Wairama, Rupe and the Kurī
Emily Hunter, Bear Diaries
Tusi Tamasese, The Demon in the Village
 
The poems are:
Frances Samuel, Monster Fish
Tusiata Avia, Who Am I?
Margaret Mahy, The Fantail.
James Brown, Te Papa Bike Makeover
Bill Manhire, Magnitude
This is a high quality collection of prose and poetry, with authors aiming to inspire a sense of curiosity in their readers. The line illustrations are by Sarah Laing who is also the designer.
Recent edition info:
Publisher name:                      Te Papa Press
Binding                                   Paperback
ISBN [13]                               978 1 877385 92 6 
Trevor Agnew 
23 Sep 2025 [Review 3797]

 

 

The Paradise Generation Sanna Thompson

 

The Paradise Generation (2024)
Sanna Thompson, The Paradise Generation
umop apisdn Press [Upsidedown Press] Wellington
346pp, Pb, ISBN 978 1 067037 30 7

 

                                   

‘Weren’t we glad we were the Paradise Generation, and didn’t have to live through wars or plagues or internet disintegration or rapid sea rise like the generations before us …’

The narrator, Kieran Xu (16), is a member of the Paradise Generation but he dozes through his teacher’s reminder because he is exhausted. At night he slips out to visit his comatose cousin Lucas (20) in Wellington Hospital.

‘He hasn’t spoken in four years.’

 

As this superb sf novel begins, a terrifying emergency breaks out in the hospital. Kieran is alarmed because he realises that a Gen-en (genetically engineered human) has escaped and is rampaging through the ward. Kieran’s swift response ensures that he and Lucas survive unharmed. Kieran’s parents, learning of his midnight outings, ground him so he tries to prepare for his exams, but he is also intrigued by a fellow student, Mira Sorenssen, who returns his interest.

 

Kieran’s explanation of the Gen-en is typically laconic, ‘Eighty years ago they were everywhere, but then they decided Earth would be better off without humans and tried to wipe us out. Cue the Great Plague.’ Kieran’s narration drops subtle hints about the conflicts of the past. ‘Gen-ens were the reason Mum never met her grandparents.’

The reader also gains hints of the sort of government set in place to ensure there is a future for Earth’s surviving humans – a mere 72 million. People have coded identity chips in their wrists.  A world genome database enables the Match – a check on the gene pool – for couples. Kieran and Mira fail the Match test. ‘… we have to keep the gene pool moving … If you disagree with your result, well, the re-education workcamps will sort you out …’ Kieran concentrates on Lucas’s grim position. In a few weeks a medical review will decide ‘if he is worth all these resources … You got Allocated four years to recover and prove your contribution to society. After that …’

 

So, what happened to Lucas four years earlier, when Kieran was twelve? Several brief chapters, titled Four Years Ago, are interspersed through the early part of the novel enabling the reader to understand Kieran’s determination to save Lucas. They also include tantalising hints of deeper issues involving Lucas’s technology skills.

Mira plays an important part in the dramatic events which follow and - avoiding spoilers – her interest in law and history proves vital in the exciting events that follow. Kieran’s opportunity comes when he has a student internship at the powerful Genetics Authority and is shoulder-tapped by Edmund Doncaster (112), the man whose cure had stopped the Great Plague. Keiran calls him ‘the closest New Zealand had to a national god.’ Why is Doncaster so interested in Kieran and his Category A genome? What does this mean for Kieran and Mira? And the rest of the Paradise Generation?

What follows is a lively science fiction story, packed with surprises and full of convincing characters interacting in a brilliantly constructed world of the future.

 There is a useful and intriguing map of Pōneke Wellington, which shows the location of the various suburbs mentioned in the story. It also shows such sinister future features as Sea Flood Zones, Consolidation Lines and, beyond them, The Wilds.

 Awards: 

2025: Storylines Tessa Duder Award: Shortlisted

2025: Best Young Adult Novel Award: Winner

 

Trevor Agnew 

23 Sep 2025 [Review 3796]

 

 

Lost World in the City   Bill Nagelkerke

 

Lost World in the City (2025)
Bill Nagelkerke, Copy Press (Nelson), 175pp
Pb, NZ$23, ISBN 978-0-47375-569-0 

Lost World in the City (2025) is the third volume in a series which Bill Nagelkerke began with The Ghosts on the Hill (2020) and continued in The Roar of the Lion (2025). Each novel stands alone but some of the characters reappear as time passes. The saga which began in 1884 has now reached 1914, with war imminent.

 

The narrator is Nell aged eleven. She reads widely and is irritated that all the adventure stories feature men with beards who have all the fun. ‘It’s not fair on girls,’ complains Nell to her brother Sandy, ‘Because there’s never a place for us in their expeditions. We have to wait around at home.’ These two young readers of Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, live in Christchurch’s eastern suburb of Aranui, near Wainoni Park. Their father travels by tram each day to work in the city library. Meanwhile their mother is concerned that war is about to break out in Europe; she was deeply disturbed by the death of her brother Hugh in the South African War a decade earlier.

Nell and Sandy are sympathetic and ask their father what they can do.

‘We just have to keep on reminding her that she still has us, as well as the new baby on the way, and that it’s possible to be happy at the same time as being sad,’ Papa replies.

‘That’s hard,’ Sandy says.

 

Nell is inspired by attending a public lecture given at the library by a successful adventure story author, Jack Lytle (whose career began in The Roar of the Lion). She persuades her brother to come with her into Wainoni Park in search of a moa. The amusement park has been closed to the public since its owner Professor Alexander Bickerton returned to England but Nell is sure she has heard strange sounds from there.

What they find is much more interesting and puzzling. Can a moa eat a small boy? How can Nell and Sandy have met and talked to Professor Bickerton when he is still overseas? Has Nell possibly found a way of fulfilling her dream of flying over Christchurch?

Nell is beginning to believe her Mama’s warning ‘that we get so lost in stories that one day Sandy and I won’t be able to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not.’  What is certain, however, is that the baby is arriving just as war is declared.  Their harried father sends them out to play in the street. (In those days, we are reminded, babies were usually born at home, and streets were slightly less dangerous places.)

 Of course, Nell and Sandy head straight for Wainoni Park again. What they find there, this time, is truly remarkable.

 

Bill Nagelkerke has written a charming and readable story that recreates the final days of the Wonderland amusement Park created by the talented Professor Bickerton. There is a real sense of wonder as past and present blend. Henry, from The Roar of the Lion, makes a surprising and uplifting appearance. Will he achieve his dream of zoo-keeping, or will he join the army? The differing views towards warfare held during the opening days of the Great War are well conveyed, offering plenty of scope for a sequel.

A Historical Note includes research advice for young readers who want to experience some of the magic of Bickerton’s Wainoni.

 

Trevor Agnew 

Jan 2026 [3813]