Mophead Selina Tusitala Marsh
Mophead (2019)
Selina Tusitala Marsh
Auckland University Press
88 pages, hardback, NZ$25
ISBN 978 1 86940 898 5
Do you want to hear a story/
Um, OK
When I was 10 …
This unusual illustrated
story or picture book (or more accurately a graphic memoir) is the author’s
cleverly constructed and charmingly-illustrated account of how she came to
accept herself, her appearance and her identity. Selina Tusitala Marsh - who was the New Zealand Poet Laureate from 2017 to 2019 - begins her story by telling how 'when I was 10 I was teased for having BIG hair.'
She describes her hair as ‘wild Afakasi hair’. (Afakasi means a Samoan person with some
European ancestry.) She tells how she got thick wavy hair from her
Samoan-Tuvaluan mother and thin curly hair from her New
Zealand-Scottish-English-French father. ‘My
hair was so wild that it defied gravity.’ Teased and called ‘mophead’ and ‘golliwog’, Selina tied her hair in a tight bun and her classmates
stopped calling her names. ‘I was the
same.’
A turning point in Selina’s life was a visit to her high
school by poet Sam Hunt. ‘He was tall and
thin. He had WILD hair and WILD words.’
Impressed by the way that Sam was happy to be different, Selina made a
life-changing decision. ‘I was going WILD.’
Using a few apt words and her quirky illustrations, Selina sketches in her
writing career, her inspiring discovery of other wild women (from Queen Salote
to Maya Angelou) and what she calls ‘the
wild words of Pacific Island women poets.’
When invited to perform her poetry for such celebrities
as Queen Elizabeth II and President Barack Obama, Selina is always told, ‘It’s formal. You’ll need to tie your hair
back.’ (Her various responses make this book a joy to read aloud.)
As New Zealand’s 11th Poet Laureate, Selina is given a
tokotoko (carved ceremonial walking stick) which incorporates a traditional
Samoan fly-whisk (fue) made from coconut fibres. To Selina’s delight, the
tokotoko reminds her of a mop.
The story ends (and begins) with Selina’s return to her
home on Waiheke Island, with her tokotoko. A small boy mistakes it for a mop
and Selina asks him, ‘Do you want to hear a story?’
Mophead is a book for all ages. Its text is exceptionally
well-constructed with never a word wasted (as might be expected from a poet). A
powerful message is conveyed with wit.
The lively line illustrations and dramatic lettering,
which make the book such fun to read, are all by the author. The rear endpapers
add another whole layer of enjoyment.
It was an exciting experience to read Mophead in December 2019, because I quickly realised that it was a winner, a book young people (and adults) would enjoy reading. In fact, Mophead won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award and the Elsie Locke Award for Non-fiction at the 2020 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Mophead also picked up a 2020 Storylines Notable Book Award in the Non-fiction category. A winner, indeed. |
Wot Knot You Got? Mophead’s Guide to Life
Selina Tusitala Marsh
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Wot Knot You Got?
Mophead’s Guide to Life
Selina Tusitala Marsh (2023)
Auckland University Press
Creative Playbook
112 pages, Paperback
ISBN 978 1 86940 954 8
‘Kids are so smart; adults, not so much.’
This delightful book for young readers is hard to label
and easy to read. The poet, Doctorr Selina Tusitala Marsh, better known as
Mophead, the author of the delightful Mophead books, has now taken over the
role of Agony Aunt, offering advice to the young and perplexed. The result is
what she calls a ‘creative playbook.’ (An excellent label).
It is natural that someone with a head of hair like
Mophead uses the term ‘knot’ as a synonym for life’s problems. ‘One day I
woke up to find a big knot. The more I ignored it, the bigger it got,’
writes Mophead, while her exuberant drawings show expanding knotted hair
destroying her happiness and self-confidence. She appears, crouched in a dark
corner, feeling, ‘NOT good … NOT kind … NOT brave … NOT right.’
Her bleak mood lightens when her alter ego, Mini Mophead,
reminds her, ‘You’re not the only one with knots. Kids send you theirs all
the time!’
This is followed by a burst of colour: a double page of
children’s letters to Mophead. (Several are reprinted as an endpaper.) Many
mention problems and Mophead offers some ways to think about them. Henry asks
how Mophead would cope with a ‘devorce between her parents.’ Mophead
replies ‘You come from two people who love you the MOST. If they split,
don’t forget you’re the BEST OF BOTH.’
She then offers a diagram of herself showing the features
she has inherited from her Mum (soft brown skin, loud Samoan laugh, big
heart, helpful hands) and those from her Dad (loves reading, likes being
alone, big heart, brainy in a non-schooly way). The next page has a similar
diagram for the reader to add their own hair and write in the features they owe
to each parent.
Similar exercises are applied to other knotty problems,
voiced by children.
‘What do you do when you’re stuck?’
‘What if your own ideas stink?’
‘People don’t like me.’
Mophead responds vividly, offering practical steps, using
catchy metaphors and cute cartoon diagrams, tossing in puns – and she does the
whole thing in rhyming couplets! She deals with everything from How to be a
good friend to How to write a letter of apology. By the end, the reader will
have good ideas about how to untangle every knotty problem from a Snot Knot to
a Hairy McScary Knot.
The author’s illustrations, diagrams and Mini Mophead
cartoons are eye-catching and amusing but, more importantly, they are also
helpful and positive,
Wot Knot You Got? has to be the best creative
playbook ever published in New Zealand.
Or the world.
Trevor Agnew, 19 October 2023 (Review 3592)
|
It
was an exciting experience to read Mophead in December 2019, because I
quickly realised that it was a winner, a book young people (and adults) would
enjoy reading. In fact, Mophead won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award
and the Elsie Locke Award for Non-fiction at the 2020 New Zealand Book Awards
for Children and Young Adults. Mophead also picked up a 2020 Storylines
Notable Book Award in the Non-fiction category. A winner, indeed. |
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