Nanny Mihi’s Harvest: Te Hauhake a Nanny Mihi       
Melanie Drewery  Suzanne Simpson

 

Nanny Mihi’s Harvest:
Te Hauhake a Nanny Mihi     

Melanie Drewery,
Ill. Suzanne Simpson
Oratia Books (2024)
Picture book, Paperback,
32 pages
ISBN: 978 1 99 004257 7   

 

‘What are we going to grow?’ ‘A feast.’

‘He aha ngā kai ka whakatupuria?’ ‘He hākari’

This picture book is a bilingual account of a year in the life of the ever-busy Nanny Mihi, this time concentrating on her vegetable garden. The text, written in English and Māori on facing pages, follows the seasons.

In Spring Nanny’s two mokopuna (who are the joint narrators) come to stay for the school holidays. Nanny soon has them digging her gardens, planting out seeds and labelling them. The weeds go to the hens, with Nanny reminding her helpers, ‘Katia te keti! Shut the gate.’

Each season finds the grandchildren helping Nanny with different tasks in her gardens. In summer they are bringing in the surplus vegetables and preserving them. Autumn see them storing the potatoes and kumara. Seeds are gathered and labelled.

Winter brings disaster. The grandchildren forget to shut the gate and the hens raid the garden. The mokopuna are mortified but Nanny is amused. She shows them how the carrots have only lost their tops and there are plenty of carefully preserved vegetables stored away earlier in the year.

Just as Nanny Mihi predicted, they have a feast.

‘A year-long feast and we grew it all ourselves.’

‘He hakāri o te tau,ka mutu, nā tatou anō i whakatupua.’

Once again Melanie Drewery has used a simple plot and Nanny Mihi’s enthusiasm and experience to introduce young readers to an important aspect of Māori life and custom. The writer’s clear prose style, makes the Nanny Mihi stories easily accessible to younger readers.

 The cheerfully stylised colour illustrations by Suzanne Simpson are bright and amusing, especially when the hens gather.

The te reo Māori translation is by Kanapu Rangitauira.

 

Trevor Agnew 

15 June 2024  [Review 3674]