There’s a Crab in my Castle! He Pāpaka kei taku Pā!

 There’s a Crab in my Castle! 
He Pāpaka kei taku Pā!
Dawn McMillan,
Illustrator: Nikki Slade Robinson
Oratia Books (2024)
Picture book, Paperback,
32 pages
ISBN 978 1 99 00 4263 8

 

‘There’s a Crab in my Castle!’

‘He Pāpaka kei taku Pā!’

This funny bi-lingual picture book has both English and Māori text on the same page. Dawn McMillan uses verse to tell the story of a day at the beach seen – and this is important - through the eyes of an imaginative young girl. The girl builds a sandcastle and tells a story about each creature she sees on the sand or in the water. The crab is a king in the sandcastle while the flat sea biscuit is pretending to be the castle carpet. She sees busy sandhoppers cleaning the great hall. Her imagination paints vivid pictures:

‘Hermit crabs are climbing up the castle walls.’

‘Ko ngā kāunga e piki kē ana i nga pātū e te pā.’

The shellfish are enjoying a rock concert in the rock pool. The starfish is the star of course, while everyone likes the singing of the rock lobster.

The kina (sea urchin) surprises everyone by dancing on the kelp.

‘Kina’s dancing to the beat.

Ko kani a Kina ki te taki.’

As the tide comes in, the party comes to an end and the girl is called home for tea, but as the water washes his castle away, the crab makes a demand for a new one in the morning.

She promises to make ‘a castle fit for a king! He pā e tika ana mō te Kīingi!’

Nikki Slade Robinson’s charming colour illustrations really capture the mix of reality and fantasy which is the basis of this story. The girl’s lively imagination is reflcted in these lively pictures of sandhoppers with brooms, and a lobster clutching a microphone. The splendid endpapers show the joys of a day at the beach.

The Māori translation is by Stephanie Huriana Fong.

A couple of fact pages – Tidal Tidbits – provide brief profiles of each of the sea creatures featured in the story from limpets to stingrays. For those of nervous disposition the crab holds up a placard, ‘Nobody gets eaten in this book! Kāore tētahi e kainga i tēnei pukapuka.’

 

Trevor Agnew

23 October 2024  [Review 3721]