Kekeno: Curious Explorer 

Katie Furze
Illustrated by Ned Barraud

 

 

Kekeno: Curious Explorer                

Katie Furze
Ill. Ned Barraud                                
Scholastic (2026)
Non-fiction Picture Book
34 pages, Paperback
ISBN 978 1 77543 967 7

 

‘Baby Kekeno sniffs the salty air,

Shakes his flippers and looks around.’

Kekeno is the Māori word for seal, and the young hero of this book, a fur seal pup, is certainly a curious-minded explorer.

Katie Furze’s lively verses follow Kekeno from his summer birth through his first year on a rocky coastal shore, so the book can be read as an interesting and sometimes exciting seal biography. Most pages also carry a text box by Katie Furze, which offers extra details or explanations, so the book can also be read as a non-fiction work describing the seal life-cycle, habitat and food sources. (It also describes some of the perils facing seals, especially the curious ones.)

 

Regularly fed by his mother, Kekeno grows in size and curiosity. He plays in pools with the other seal pups, while their mothers are away catching fish. The fact box explains, ‘Fur seal pups spend a lot of time playing. This helps them to develop strength and agility.’’

 

Ned Barraud’s cover illustration shows Kekeno as a cute youngster with appealing eyes. I have often met pups playing on the mole at Aramoana and I can confirm the cuteness of those eyes. What Ned Barraud’s other illustrations confirm is that eyes on the front of the head identify a predator, an eater of meat. Sure enough, by autumn Kekeno is catching fish and in winter he gobbles his first squid. ‘Seizing it with his sharp teeth, he swallows it whole.’

 

The illustrations are, as always with Ned Barraud’s work, both striking and beautiful. They are also accurate representations, especially the images of Kekeno raising himself on his flippers and galumphing across a football field.

 

At a year old, Kekeno is shown exploring an estuary and then crossing a busy road into a small town. Here he startles a cat which escapes through a cat-flap in a door. Ned Barraud uses a set of smaller pictures to depict the variety of surprises which follow, as Kekeno seeks a little shade to sleep in.

 

The conclusion of this book is satisfying, with Kekeno making his own escape and tumbling:

‘into the inky depths

of the cool wet ocean.

At last, he’s home.

 

With its easily-read text and dramatic illustrations, this is an ideal book for young readers and researchers.

A valuable bonus is the pages of information on New Zealand fur seals and their history at the back of the book. The Māori name for the seal, kekeno, literally means ‘look around’ which is certainly what seals always do. (Those eyes again, although the whiskers are sensitive too.)

 

Kekeno: Curious Explorer is thus a book which deserves a place in home, school and library.

Other books in this talented pair’s handsome series of Non-fiction Picture Books are Tuatara: A Living Treasure (2023) Ruru: Night Hunter (2024) and Pekapeka: Secret Forest Bat (2025).

There are Teacher Notes by Janine Scott for all four titles on the Scholastic website at: https://www.scholastic.co.nz

 

Trevor Agnew 

29 Mar 2026 [Review 3837]

 

Does Daniel Wilmott Tell Lies?  Juliet Martin  Ill. David Johnstone

 

Does Daniel Wilmott Tell Lies?

Juliet Martin  Ill. David Johnstone
Hazard Press, Christchurch (1991)
Picture Book, 34 pages, Paperback
ISBN 0 908790 23 6

 

Daniel’s friends looked at each other, heaved their shoulders and shouted, ‘Daniel Wilmott. You tell lies!’

 But does Daniel tell lies? This classic New Zealand picture book lets readers answer that question as Daniel keeps his friends guessing.  On a country walk, Daniel’s friends, Elliott, Alice and Nancy, join him outside an isolated house Daniel tells him that the empty, run-down building belongs to his Aunt Johanna.

‘Where’s she gone?’ they ask.

‘W..e..e..l,’ said Daniel, tilting his head, squinting his eyes and crossing his fingers, ‘She’s gone to the moon and she’s late coming back because … they tied her up with green string.’

Every time the four walk past the empty house, Daniel is asked the same question.

‘Where’s your aunt today, Daniel?’

Juliet Martin’s writing neatly captures the suspicious mood of Daniel’s friends and their cheerful repetition of their accusation. ‘Daniel Wilmott. You tell lies!’

 Daniel’s answers always have some plausible detail. Aunt Johanna is late getting back from underground exploration because somebody burgled her torch batteries. She’s late getting back from the jungle because she was chased up a banana tree. She’s late getting back from the desert because they made her join a camel train.

Finally, the day comes when the children see that the house has been put to rights, the lawn has been mowed and the chimneys repaired.

‘GREAT!’ cried Daniel, ‘My Aunt Johanna must be back.’ And he vanishes into the house.

 David Johnson’s colour illustrations bring the four children to life, from Daniel crossing his fingers to Elliott picking his nose. While they wait for Daniel, they swing on the gate, a wonderfully realistic reminder of kiwi kids just mucking about.

Then comes the surprise ending. Daniel emerges with gifts from Aunt Johanna: ‘some green string, a dead torch, a ripe banana and a picture of a camel.

The final page of the text offers the only possibly comment:

                                                 ?

 

 

Note: In 2026 a picture book, Lillian and Kionel, written by the late Juliet Martin and illustrated by David Johnstone, was published by Quentin Wilson Publishing.

 Trevor Agnew 

30 Mar 2026 [Review 3840]

 

 

Sauniga O Le ‘Ava Samoa:
The ‘Ava Ceremony of Samoa
Tauanu’u Perenise Tapu Sitagata
Ill. Ani Huia Ligaliga

 

 Sauniga O Le ‘Ava Samoa: 
The ‘Ava Ceremony of Samoa
Tauanu’u Perenise Tapu Sitagata
Illustrator: Ani Huia Ligaliga
Oratia (2026)
Non-fiction, 32 pages, Paperback
ISBN: 978 1 991353 07 8

 

 

 

Sauniga O Le ‘Ava Samoa:
The ‘Ava Ceremony of Samoa                            

‘The ‘ava ceremony is a Samoan custom that welcomes visitors to a village. It is also a ceremony where the village elders give blessings to new matai in a family.’

This book is a colourful and clear introduction to an important Samoan traditional custom. ‘Ava, known as Kava in other parts of the Pacific, is the official drink at Samoan welcoming ceremonies. Tauanu’u Perenise Tapu Sitagata, a Samoan-born teacher from Auckland, has written a readable and interesting guide to the ‘ava ceremony in Samoan and English.

 

A double-page colour illustration by Ani Huia Ligaliga shows the ceremony in progress with people seated on mats arranged in an open square in the centre of a fale (house). Each person’s role is indicated. The tulāfale (orators) sit at the front, with the party of visitors on their left and the host villagers on their right. At the back are the chief’s daughter who will mix the ‘ava and the young men who will serve it.

 

The text begins by explaining the importance of the ceremony, then introduces the participants in order. The first up is the village orator who explains the purpose of the meeting and calls for the ‘ave sticks to be brought forward.

‘The orator for the visitors lets everyone know what kind of ‘ava sticks the village brought.’

 

After a speech of welcome and a reply, the Tufu ‘Ava (Caller) announces the names of those who will drink at the ceremony. The ‘ava drink is mixed and served. Gifts are exchanged and a meal is provided by the villagers.

One page describes the etiquette observed in the ceremony and there is also an account of the origins of the ‘ava ceremony and some of the traditions surrounding it.

‘Before drinking from your cup, a little ‘ava is poured for God, to thank Him for his love. ‘Ava can also be poured for God’s blessing on everything we do.’

 

The beautiful colour illustrations on every page, by Hamilton artist, Ani Huia Ligaliga, are a vital part of this guide, showing each stage of a typical village ceremony. Each person’s role in the ceremony is clearly indicated and the various implements used – cups, mats and bowls - are depicted. The gifts exchanged, including food and mats, are also shown.

 

I like to think of the ideal readers of this book as young people who have been told they will be taking part in the ceremony as the Tautu ‘Ava (serving people their ‘ava drinks) or as the Ta Fau (cleaning the strainer). The author and artist have done them a service by creating this guide.

 

With so many Samoans living in other countries, books like Sauniga O Le ‘Ava Samoa also have enormous importance for young people wishing to know the proper way to observe the customs of their homeland. At the same time, books such as The ‘Ava Ceremony of Samoa, are equally important for the rest of us who would like to understand the significance of customs like these. By bringing the two together in this bilingual account, Oratia have created a useful resource for every school and library, not to mention many homes.

 

Trevor Agnew

18 May 2026 (Review 3833]

 

  

 

Piano Rock: A 1950s Childhood  Gavin Bishop

 

Piano Rock
A 1950s Childhood
Gavin Bishop 
Random House (2008)
Memoir, 120 pages, Paperback
ISBN 978 1 86979 010 3 

 
 

The entry for Gavin Bishop in the Continuum Encyclopedia of Young Adult Literature begins: A steam train is travelling across a golden tussock plain. Inside its freight van is a family with their furniture. Seated on their own kitchen chairs, the family look out through the van’s open doors at the passing mountain scenery. Piano Rock starts with the same scene, etched in white on black. It portrays one of Bishop’s earliest memories, travelling by train from Invercargill to the tiny lakeside settlement of Kingston.

In Piano Rock Bishop, whose brilliant art work means his skills as a writer are sometimes overlooked, evokes the years he spent there (1949 to 1954) in a world of coal ranges, school concerts, Tilley lamps, wash-house coppers, vegetable gardens, Guy Fawkes bonfires and jam-making.

Those interested in Bishop’s artistic development will learn how he was inspired by a visiting art-teacher at their 12-pupil school, and by a visiting sign-writer who took time off from a pub mural to paint Mickey Mouse figures on Bishop’s gumboots.

The illustrations show how Bishop is continually developing his style, or in this case styles. He uses black-and-white scraper-board for the dramatic train illustrations and the evocative endpapers. A touch of colour enlivens his stunning picture of migrating eels seen at sunset and his self-portrait walking through a frozen landscape in his painted gumboots and home-knitted balaclava. Many of the other illustrations are in colour, including a perfect re-creation of an illustration from the Janet and John readers.

Piano Rock is a superb evocation of growing up in the 1950s.

Trevor Agnew

 

  

 

 

Maui and the Sun: A Māori Tale 
Gavin Bishop

 

Maui and the Sun:                                

A Māori Tale
Gavin Bishop
North South (1996)
Picture book, 32 pages
Paperback
ISBN 1 86943 381 9 [English language edition] Maui and the Goddess of Fire
ISBN 978 1 86943 381 9 [English language edition] Maui and the Goddess of Fire
ISBN 1 86943 519 2 [Māori language edition] Ko Maui raua ko te atua o te ahi

 

Maui, the mischievous trouble-maker, is a popular figure in Māori and Polynesian traditions. In this retelling by Gavin Bishop, Maui and his brothers find the day is too short to complete their fishing.  Maui plans to slow the sun down to give them more time. He shows his brothers how to make ropes and nets from flax. They then trap the sun as he is sleeping. Maui beats him fiercely until he learns the sun’s secret name Tama nui te Ra (Great Son of the Day) and thus is able to slow him down.

The sun now travels too slowly and causes a long drought, so Maui ropes him and fastens him to the moon. As a result, when the sun sets, the moon rises. The sun’s speed is corrected. So from then on, Maui had light both night and day.

This is a good book to read and a great book to show to a class. Gavin Bishop’s prose is simple and clear, giving a sense of drama to the story. His pictures are skilful and dramatic, with the huge sun dominating the double-page spreads of the battle. Māori themes and motifs appear in many of the illustrations. Maui, his brothers (and the sun) all wear moko tattoos appropriate to their high rank.

Gavin Bishop, who both retold and illustrated Maui and the Sun based his version on one told to Governor George Grey in the 1840s by Wi Mahi te Rangi Kaheke of Rotorua. Maui’s trick of fastening the moon to the sun comes from a Ngati Awa tribe version.

 

A companion volume is Gavin Bishop’s Maui and the Goddess of Fire: A Māori Tale (1997)

Trevor Agnew

 

 Maui and the Goddess of Fire: A Māori Tale

Gavin Bishop

 

Maui and the Goddess of Fire:                    

    
A Māori Tale
Gavin Bishop
Scholastic (1997)
Picture book, 32 pages
Paperback
ISBN 1 86943 381 9 [English language edition] Maui and the Goddess of Fire
ISBN 978 1 86943 381 9 [English language edition] Maui and the Goddess of Fire
ISBN 1 86943 519 2 [Māori language edition] Ko Maui raua ko te atua o te ahi

 

Produced in a similar format to Gavin Bishop's earlier Maui and the Goddess of Fire, is a retelling of Maui’s greatest feat when, like Prometheus, he brought fire to people. As well as retelling a favourite folk-tale of the South Pacific, Gavin Bishop has also created dramatic (and sometimes amusing) illustrations.

 Maui, the trickster, puts out all the village cooking fires to see what will happen. Soon nobody can cook food. Maui’s mother gives Maui instructions to go to the home of his grandmother Mahuika, the fire goddess. (Everybody else is too frightened to go near her.) Mahuika gives Maui fire, in the form of her fingernail. He throws the fire into a stream and goes back to ask Mahuika for another nail. Maui does this again and again, but when he asks for her last nail, the fire goddess curses him and sets everything on fire.

 

Maui escapes the angry flames, first as a bird and then as a fish. When the sea begins to boil, Maui begs for help from Tawhiri-matea, the god of wind. He provides a rainstorm which puts out the fire, and Mahuika flees back to her home, tossing her last fire-seeds into our trees. And so, fire became available to all.

‘The people of Maui’s village soon discovered the seeds of fire hiding in some of the trees in the forest. And from that day on, the fire was released by rubbing together dry sticks from the totara, the patete, the pukatea and the kaikomako.’

Gavin Bishop’s pictures, like his stories, are delightful adaptations from traditional Māori material, enlivened by his professional skills. Look, in particular, at the double-spreads showing Maui tossing away the fire-nails (pages 14-17) for their subtle repetition. The transformation of Mahuika from granny-figure (page 11) to bird-headed monster (page 18) to all-conquering supernatural force (pages 20-23) and back to granny (page 28) is brilliantly done.

Gavin Bishop has based his version on the story told to Governor George Grey by Wi Mahi te Rangi Kaheke of Rotorua. He says, “It is very similar to the versions told by the Māori people of the Ngati Awa and Waikato tribes from the North Island of New Zealand from which come some of my ancestors”.

In 2001 a Māori language edition, Ko Maui raua ko te atua o te ahi, was published by Scholastic.  The Māori translation is by Katerina Mataira.

 

Trevor Agnew

 

                                            

Bruiser

 

Bruiser  Gavin Bishop

 

Bruiser                                                    

Gavin Bishop
Random House, 2011
Picture book, 32 pages, 
Paperback
ISBN 978 1 86979 449 1

 

Get out of my way! I’ve got a motorway to build! 

Bruiser is a massive digger, a machine with a mission. Bruiser’s story begins with a counting sequence following his usual run of work. 

On Monday he ploughed through five hills. 

As the amount of work builds up, so does the destruction. 

On Wednesday he tore up three forests, and flattened a paddock of daffodils. 

And so it goes on (like a mechanised version of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar).

Then on Friday Bruiser gets stuck in a muddy ditch. His vibrations dislodge a magpie’s nest and its chick and for the first time Bruiser is forced to re-examine what he is doing. He has a change of heart and starts swerving around hills instead of ploughing through them.

 Bruiser’s reformed behaviour is very funny and quite touching. A young reader spotted that Bruiser’s exhaust smoke rises in small heart-shaped clouds, whenever he looks at the magpies. Another young reader demanded to know HOW Bruiser pulled open the tab on a can of oil. The correct answer is that Bruiser is a very clever machine.

 With its whizzing wheels and flying mud (and language to match) this is a delightful book to read aloud.

Gavin Bishop’s bold illustrations give Bruiser tremendous impact on the page, with massive black tyres and orange body work. (Nevertheless, Bruiser has a clearly delineated face capable of a range of expressions.) The rocks, flowers and trees he moves about are skilfully shaped from textured paper. Darker paint is applied to each succeeding scene as Bruiser gets stuck in failing light and carries out the rescue of the magpie chick in near-darkness.

Bruiser is dedicated to the rebuilders of Christchurch after the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 to which is added, Look to the future boldly. Remember the past gently.

Trevor Agnew, 2011

 

A Manulele in a Mango Tree:
Le Manulele o nofo i le Mago:
A Pacific Christmas

 

A Manulele in a Mango Tree:
Le Manulele o nofo i le Mago:
A Pacific Christmas
Sarona Aiono-Iosefa
Ill. Steven Dunn
Translator: Le’autuli Sauvao, MNZ                    

Reed (2004)
Oratia (2025)
Picture book, Song book
Paperback, 32 pages
ISBN  978-1-99-004292-8

 

This cheerful (and sing-able) book provides a Pacific variant of the beloved Christmas song. It was originally published by A.H. & A.W. Reed in 2004, with the slightly daunting title, ‘Two Cans of Corned Beef and a Manulele in a Mango Tree: a Pacific Christmas’.  Today, 21 years later, it is a timeless classic, beloved across the Pacific.

Oratia have republished it in their Moana Oceania series, as A Manulele in a Mango Tree: Le Manulele o nofo i le Mago: A Pacific Christmas. It is a bi-lingual book with an English and Samoan text

The author, Sarona Aiono-Iosefa, a Samoan New Zealander, has provided some Polynesian elements in the traditional Christmas mix of gifts, first outlined in ‘A Partridge in a Pear Tree’. Her Pacific version begins with a manulele (flying bird) in a mango tree, followed by two cans of corned beef, three frangipanis, four rolls of tapa and five pairs of jandals.

Steven Dunn’s coloured wood-block illustrations are magnificent, particularly those showing people’s activities. The ‘nine hats a-hiding’ are seen providing their owners with cover at an Islands church service on a White Sunday, while the eight chiefs a-chatting, seven women weaving and ten hula dancers are all full of life. His hand-painted colours are strikingly beautiful, especially in the illustration of the three frangipanis.
The translation is by Le’autuli Sauvao [Le’autuli’ilagiTautua Malaetā Sauvao] MNZM

A glossary is not really needed; the illustrations leave readers in no doubt about what the six lavalava are, or what the seven women are weaving. Nevertheless, here is a bonus glossary.

Glossary for non-Pacific folk:
Corned beef – once an important element of modern Pacific Islands diet
Frangipani – a scented flower
Jandals – popular light footwear in New Zealand and Pacific (Ja-panese sa-ndals); flip-flops.
Lavalava – colourful cotton skirt, from Samoa
Mango – sweet, juicy tropical fruit
Manulele – a flying bird, a metaphor for freedom
Tapa – traditional cloth, made from mulberry bark

Trevor Agnew, written 13 May 2026 as an update of 2004 review