Some Gavin Bishop Classics

 

Bidibidi  Gavin Bishop

Bidibidi  Gavin Bishop
Oxford University Press (1982)
Scholastic (2014)
Picture book, 36 pages
ISBN 978 1 77543 192 3

 

 

Gavin Bishop’s first published book is a classic of the South Island high country, the adventures of a rebellious ewe. On a ‘hot and windless day in the mountains’ Bidibidi the sheep finds she is dissatisfied with life. She leaves the flock and heads up into the hills in search of the rainbow.

As she moves through the Canterbury high country, Bidibidi meets typical creatures (a kea, a trout, a sheep-dog) who help her in her quest. Eventually she finds a bearded old man, a strangely symbolic figure, ‘dressed in clothes the colour of the hills’. This is Rainbow Jackson, who lives in the mountains and makes the rainbows with a hurdy-gurdy. Bidibidi is happy mto stay with him. When he grows old, Bidibidi takes over his work, ‘I’ll make the rainbows now,’ she says.

This is a lovely picture book, with lots of jokes and the symbolism of Rainbow Jackson to think about. The various creatures depicted all have strongly individual voices and this makes it a good story to read aloud. Already Gavin Bishop's appreciation of New Zealand architecture can be seen in his depiction of the run-down remains of a country hotel.

An identical Māori language edition was published by Scholastic in 2001. The Māori language translation by Apirana Mahuika.

Note: Piripiri is a New Zealand native plant which grows in a mat with clinging burr seeds. This Māori name was often anglicised as Biddybiddy or Bidibidi. Biddy is a disused term for an old woman, so Bidibidi’s name is doubly evocative.

In 2014 Scholastic re-issued Bidibidi in a sumptuous large format paperback edition.
Although his Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant was published in 1981, Bidibidi (1982) was actually the first book that Gavin Bishop wrote and illustrated. It was appropriate that its re-issue came just as Gavin Bishop was named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to children’s literature in the 2014 New Year’s Honours List.

 

Trevor Agnew, 2014

The Three Billy Goats Gruff  Gavin Bishop

 

The Three Billy Goats Gruff  
Gavin Bishop
Scholastic (2003)
Picture book, Paperback, 32 pages 

ISBN 1869435877

 

Gavin Bishop provides a faithful retelling of the original Norwegian folktale of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, as set down by Peter Christian Asbjornsen (1812-1855).

Gavin Bishop’s colour illustrations of the three goats are superbly rendered, with his usual combination of imaginative flair and skill. The goats are completely convincing, especially their eyes. He also creates magnificent mountains and a convincingly realistic narrow bridge made from a single tree trunk. His troll is thoroughly unpleasant, right down to his tombstone teeth, and thoroughly deserves his downfall.

This is a splendid companion to Gavin Bishop’s interpretations of Chicken-Licken, Mr Fox and The Three Little Pigs.

Trevor Agnew, 2003

 Sand-Play Time on the Sun-Baked Beach Juliette MacIver   

 

Sand-Play Time on 
the Sun-Baked Beach          

Juliette MacIver   (2026)
Scholastic, 24 pages, Paperback 
ISBN   978 1 77543 933 2 

 

‘What a solid seawall, strong, tall and wide.

With 15 shells, it’ll stand against the tide!’

The very rhythm of the title Sand-Play Time on the Sun-Baked Beach reveals that the author is Juliette MacIver. She has a great ear for rhymes and rhythm, making her books a joy to read aloud. Who can read ‘Sunshine! Sunblock, a sunhat each, skipping down the track to the sun-baked beach’ without hearing echoes of John Masefield’s Cargoes?

The two girls doing the skipping have come to the beach, with their father, in order to build what is now known as a seawall (because it is easier to rhyme than sandcastle). What follows is not so much a counting book as an un-counting book.

The mighty wall with its decoration of 15 shells is soon facing a frontal assault by the incoming tide. As each wave removes more shells, the young Canutes keep count and learn subtraction:

‘Auē! 4 shells! Sly sea tricks.

We had 10 shells but now there are … 6.’

The waves continually return, so we have a final countdown.

‘Woosh go 2 shells, and now there’s only … 1.’

Soon, as all beachgoing junior engineers know, the sea prevails in this game. The girls are elated rather than disappointed as their seawall vanishes. ‘The sea won the game but now we can SWIM!’

The co-operation needed in building and decorating a sandwall is beautifully captured in Lily Uivel’s illustrations. As the sisters work together, building and rebuilding, they have two companions, a crab and an oystercatcher, who appear in almost every picture. The golden sand of the beach and the turquoise sea are skilfully intertwined to create a charming memory of days spent on summer beaches. And we’ve learned to count to 15.

 

 

Trevor Agnew 

2 Jan 2026 [Review 3820]                 

 Lonasei and the Mystery of Origin Grove
Kenneth Chapman

          

Lonasei and the Mystery of Origin Grove
Kenneth Chapman
Bateman Books (2026)
Junior novel, 222 pages
Paperback
ISBN 9 781 77689 165 8

 

‘At eleven years old, Lonasei was a curious girl. She was always asking too many questions; at least that’s what people told her.’

Lonasei and her sister Eva Grace (16) live with their hard-working solo mother, Aria Nix, in Porirua.  Their lives change suddenly when they attend the funeral of Aria’s estranged sister, Malia Tuivasa, a successful artist. Malia’s will has left her sister Origin Grove, their childhood home. It is an overgrown, three-storeyed mansion which stands isolated in the back-country behind Paraparaumu, ‘the only home as far as the eye can see.’

 Aria’s plan is that they will live in the huge, fully-furnished house, until she can sell it. Her daughters resent having to leave their home and friends behind, but Eva Grace is pleased to have her own room at last. Meanwhile Lonasei’s curiosity is aroused particularly when she looks at some of Malia’s paintings which remain in the house. Maria had left messages in envelopes for Aria, Eva Grace and Lonasei. Lonasei had been puzzled by a sentence in her letter from Maria, ‘I hope that through the art on the walls, we can still connect, even though I’m no longer there.’  Lonasei is soon asking questions about her family’s past.

 

At this point, the junior novel switches from being the story of a poor Pasifika family trying to make ends meet and becomes a supernatural mystery thriller as well. Hearing a sniffing sound, Lonasei goes downstairs at night and finds her mother weeping in a basement room. Aria tells Lonasei never to go down into the basement again. Of course, Lonasei’s curiosity has already been aroused, especially because of the strange black door she saw in the room.

Malia’s paintings, showing herself and Aria in the time when they were living in the house, seem to draw Lonasei in. Is she dreaming this or is there a supernatural force at work? Either way, Lonasei is disturbed to realise that Malia and Aria once had a little sister, Agnes, who disappeared mysteriously. Then Lonasei finds the hidden door to Malia’s studio where there are even more paintings. The house seems to be beckoning her. ‘The urge to go deeper, to explore and discover overrode her fear.’ Before long Lonasei is deep in the dark basement, seeking the answers to her questions.

Kenneth Chapman’s clear narrative style keeps his readers aware of what characters are thinking and feeling. I particularly enjoyed his description of Lonasei’s first night in a room of her own, a room so big that she felt ‘as if she was sleeping in her school assembly hall.’

 Nathan Foon has provided a suitably creepy cover painting of the mansion, as well as black and white chapter heading illustrations. The sinister black door makes an appearance on the back cover.

 Kenneth Chapman has written a captivating page-turner in Lonasei and the Mystery of Origin Grove. While the narrative stays with Lonasei, there is also a warm portrait of a Pasifika family, with a hard-working mother holding down two jobs. The scratchy relationship between the two young sisters is also neatly developed in a way that young readers will recognise.

In fact, this is in many ways a novel about sisterhood. All this is wrapped up in a pleasantly creepy tale of supernatural forces, which ends with a surprising revelation that promises sequels. What more could a young reader ask.

 

 Trevor Agnew 

17 Mar 2026 [Review 3827]

 

The Takoradi Run  Bob Kerr

 

The Takoradi Run  
Bob Kerr (text and ill.)
Bateman Books (2026)
Graphic novel, 80 pages, 
Paperback    
ISBN 978 1 77689 154 2 

 

 Bob Kerr is an unsung hero of New Zealand book illustration and visual storytelling. His three Terry Teo comics (created with Stephen Ballantyne) are kiwi classics. I still have a scrapbook I made when Terry and the Last Moa was serialised in The Listener before publication. As part of Christchurch’s 1998 Books and Beyond Festival, Bob Kerr and Margaret Mahy created the world’s biggest book, The Word-eater, set in the then Gloucester Street-based Central Library. The huge pages of text and white spaces were set up in the children’s section, so that Bob could paint in the illustrations in the very place where some of the story was set. It was a stunning spectacle, so I took my granddaughter, Poy Ling, to watch the left-handed genius at work.  (Nearly one-third of all Kerrs are left-handed.) Bob kindly allowed us both to help him paint some leaves, so do go to The Word-eater website and admire this collaboration:  

The Word-Eater by Margaret Mahy | Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi

 

Bob Kerr’s wonderful history books, such as After the War (2000), Best Mates (2014) and Changing Times (2015) bring to life an aspect of New Zealand’s past. Readers can recognise their own country in these pages.

 

More recently Bob has pioneered a way to tell a family story in a mixture of pictures, facts and imagination. Jack and Sandy (2023) was the poignant, funny and heart-warming graphic novel of his father’s wartime convoy experiences. Now Bob Kerr has created an even more exciting and colourful graphic novel about the black sheep of his family, Uncle Ron Witcombe.

 

 

‘Ron was never mentioned around the dinner table,’ recalls Bob, ‘Ron wasn’t always proper. He was a lad on the make.’

Bob has therefore had to use his imagination in places to join up the stories Ron told him in his old age. Rescued from a dull office job by joining the Air Force, Ron became a navigator on a Blenheim bomber.

 

The pictures in this book don’t just illustrate Ron’s story; they also extend it and allow the reader to follow events and spot their significance. The illustrations of a night raid over Germany show the bombers in the dark skies but they also show a pair of refugee women pulling their possessions along in a handcart. In the final frames, Ron’s plane heads home through the searchlights, while far below lies the wrecked cart.  After each night-bombing raid, there are several empty chairs at breakfast in the mess. ‘Reading’ the pictures gives an extra layer of meaning to Ron’s laconic account of flying in the obsolete Blenheims. ‘We weren’t very successful … Blenheims were shot down by the dozen.’

 

After serving on both day and night bombing raids, Ron was transferred to Takoradi.

‘Is that in Norfolk?’

‘Africa.’

Takoradi, in what is now Ghana, was the staging-post in an amazing aerial supply chain that shuttled aircraft to Egypt for the Allies fighting Rommel in the Western Desert. Planes were shipped to Takoradi, assembled and then flown across the vastness of Africa to Cairo., Ron’s skills as a navigator were vital. On the first flight from Takoradi, their bomber guides six Hurricane fighters in a series of long overland hops to Cairo.

Ghana was once known as the Gold Coast and gold was still being mined there. Ron soon found himself involved in smuggling gold ingots to Cairo. What follows is exciting, intriguing and illegal. ‘Did I feel guilty? I wasn’t really sure,’ says Ron. Then the military police come knocking on his door. Things become even more exciting, intriguing and illegal.

 Bob’s target audience is teenaged boys who don’t want to read but this book has appeal for adults (and girls) as well. There are plenty of period jokes such as the armed forces’ uniforms coming in just two sizes: ‘too big and too small.’ Peter McIntyre, the war artist, even pops in to do a lively sketch of Ron. Then there is the scene where Ron is intrigued by the crowded terrace of the famous Shepheards Hotel.

‘Who are all these people?’ asks Ron.

‘The usual suspects…’ replies Mr Fish, the Dutch jeweller, who is Ron’s partner in crime. Young readers will enjoy scrutinising the double-page illustration of the terrace to decide exactly which ones are the spies, double agents and arms dealers but they will need an adult to explain Mr Fish’s quip.

 

Bob Kerr has not just created an interesting, lively story that appeals to all ages; he has provided an unexpected insight into how people behaved in wartime. His researched has enabled him to produce atmospheric illustrations of every aspect of Ron’s life, from sailing P-class yachts in Evans Bay to strolling through the mud-walled city of Kano. (‘It’s not Lambton Quay,’ says Ron.) Bob even made visits to Cairo and Takoradi which have resulted in some richly detailed scenes such as the fishing boats at Takoradi, the slave-fort in Axim and the bustling markets of wartime Cairo. There are even maps showing areas Ron visited in Africa and Cairo, as well as contemporary documents, advertisements and letters.

 

The Takoradi  Run is an enthralling book which can be read for pleasure or used as an entry point for further historical research. It is also a gift to future generations from a very artful dodger, sympathetically brought back to life by his talented nephew.

  Trevor Agnew 

21 April 2026 [Review 3826]

 

P.S. If you want to know more about Bob Kerr, try this Spinoff article, and video where fellow artist Toby Morris talks with Bob Kerr:

https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/02-11-2019/terry-teo-the-great-new-zealand-comic

 

Enemy Camp  David Hill

 

Enemy Camp

David Hill (2016)
Novel, 260 pages, 
Paperback       
 ISBN 978 0 14 330912 3

Enemy Camp

This novel is set during a tragic and little understood event in New Zealand’s wartime history: the Featherston shooting. It is told in diary form by Ewen MacKenzie, a 12-year-old schoolboy. Ewen’s father, Jack MacKenzie, invalided back from Greece, is one of the New Zealand soldiers guarding Japanese prisoners at the nearby P.O.W. camp, “the first one for Japanese prisoners in the whole British Empire.” Since Ewen is also interested in the day-to-day events (and gossip) around him, we gain a good picture of wartime civilian New Zealand: the blackout precautions, the Home Guard exercises, conscientious objectors, the arrival of US soldiers, casualty lists, school air-raid drills and other ways that war changed people’s lives. “Dad has turned our whole front and back section into a vegetable garden, because so many things are hard to get in the shops.”

 

When his teacher makes him start his writing in October 1942, Ewen duly notes the irritations of wartime shortages; in fact, his diary is an Army notebook obtained from his father. “Mr White says we we’re living at a special time in a special place, and someday we’ll feel glad we recorded it.” We learn that Ewen’s friend Barry has a stutter and that Barry’s brother Clarry (10) is recovering from polio and needs metal leg-braces and crutches to walk. Ewen’s journal records stages in Clarry’s struggle to walk normally, Barry’s battle with his stutter and Ewen’s own changing attitude to girls in general (and Susan Procter in particular).

 

Ewen and Barry regularly cycle out to the camp, towing Clarry in an improvised trolley. At first, the Japanese prisoners, seen through the barbed wire, seem unimpressive. “The first four hundred were mainly workers who had been building airfields…Dad says there were architects and engineers and even teachers among them. They’ve been no trouble.”

 

Using his position as a guard, Jack introduces the three boys to the English-speaking Lieutenant Itoh, whose own son is the same age as Clarry. It is arranged that Itoh will give them language lessons. “Good for both sides,” says Jack. (Always a shrewd observer, Ewen notes that it is the men who have seen war service, like his father and Mr White, who are less judgemental about the enemy prisoners.)

Communication and understanding (or the lack of it) is the key theme in the story. Ewen, initially sceptical, finds himself intrigued by what he learns from the lessons with Itoh. From Mrs Procter who has lived in Japan, the boys (and the reader) learn about the Japanese military concepts which are creating disputes among the prisoners. Itoh (loosely based on the real Lieutenant Adachi) is moved by Clarry’s courage as he struggles to walk unaided.

 

Tensions rise as new prisoners arrive in the camp. “The Japs are ashamed of being prisoners and not dying in battle; the guards are feeling they’re being sneered at and ignored by people who should be obeying them,” is Ewen’s summation.

 

Finally the three boys literally walk into the final deadly confrontation, providing the reader with a vivid account of the tragedy and its effects.

 

Enemy Camp is not a re-hash of newspaper clippings; rather it is a well-constructed historical novel, recreating some of the attitudes and actions of the period, with a wide range of interesting characters, each with their own motivation. The various points-of-view are well presented, and readers will gain a good understanding of the issues involved.

 

Note: A History Study Resource based on the 1943 Featherston incident is at http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/classroom/incident-at-featherston

Another YA novel, Dreams of Warriors, by Susan Brocker (2010) also deals with this topic. The similar Cowra breakout took place in NSW over a year later in August 1944.

 

 Trevor Agnew 
19 Feb 2016

 

 DAVID HILL

 

The Road to Ratenburg
  Joy Cowley   Gavin Bishop 

 

 

The Road to RatenburgJoy Cowley (2016)
Illustrated by Gavin Bishop
Novel, 192 pages, Gecko Press
ISBN 978 1 776570 75 1

 

 

The Road to Ratenburg

‘The sky filled with thunder and the ground shook beneath our feet.’

This lively novel for young people starts with a bang as an apartment building is detonated into rubble. Made homeless by the demolition, a family of rats begin their quest for a new home. Their epic adventure is narrated by Spinnaker Rat (of the ship rat clan) who addresses the reader in the dignified and slightly pompous style of Papa Moomintroll.

 

Spinnaker even provides his own book review and health warning: ‘This book has in it much danger and some moments of sheer terror; but all of it is history, meaning it is in the past and therefore of no threat to you. I suggest, however, that it is not to be read to furry youngsters at bedtime, or to the elderly who still have nightmares about cats and dogs and wicked traps.’

Spinnaker’s travelling companions are his resourceful wife, Retsina, and their four charming ratlets, Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. (Retsina was raised behind a Greek restaurant and wanted something classical for her children.) Also tagging along is the annoying and egotistical Jolly Roger, a rather unreliable ship rat, with piratical leanings.

 

It is Retsina who suggests that they should travel to the fabled city of Ratenburg, where legend says their ancestors were taken by the piper who led them out of Hamelin. Young readers may have their doubts about this story but Spinnaker is confident that Ratenburg will have ‘granaries full of corn and peas, dairies stocked with cream, butter and large round cheeses.’

 

The rats are aware that they will face many dangers, not only from cats and dogs but also the ever-present ‘humming-beans’ (human beings). Another problem is that no rat has ever returned from a trip to Ratenburg, so details of the many perils are scanty. Using a map which includes ancestral knowledge and advice, the travellers begin by stowing away on a train, fully aware that they will face perilous pines, a bottomless bog and a voyage across an eel-infested lake. (Their user-friendly map of the route is on pages 26-7.)

The quest is an exciting one, with the added bonus that the young reader knows more than the self-important Spinnaker. Retsina is a wise and courageous figure, the bravest animal heroine since Mrs Frisby. Also, the four young rats quickly become separate personalities as they face the various dangers in their own way.

 

Joy Cowley has written a fresh and fast-moving action story with interesting characters and a genuine twist in the tale’s ending. This book is an exemplar of the young novels which transport young readers from picture books into the wider literary world.

 Gavin Bishop’s charming illustrations should overcome any ratophobia. He has carefully distinguished the rats so that we can recognise Retsina’s necklace, Roger’s scarf and (of course) Spinnaker’s spectacles perched on his nose. With its accessible prose, vivid pictures and handsome presentation, this book is a perfect invitation to take a rat’s eye view of the world.

 

Trevor Agnew 

14 Feb 2016 [Review 2916]

 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