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

 Mister Whistler  Margaret Mahy  Gavin Bishop

Mr Whistler  Margaret Mahy
Ill. Gavin Bishop
Gecko Press (2012)
Picture book, 32 pages, Paperback
ISBN  978 1 877467 91 2

This picture book was published just after the death of Margaret Mahy (1936-2012) but Gavin Bishop was able to show her its proof sheets a few weeks before she died. The same proof sheets were displayed at her funeral and memorial services which celebrated her life and achievement.

Mister Whistler is a little gem of a story about an absent-minded young man catching a train. Gavin Bishop’s evocative water colour illustrations capture both the atmosphere of the 1950s and Mister Whistler’s ebullient personality. He is so lively that he even sings and dances in his sleep. When he goes to catch the train to Whistlestop, he is so happily humming and dancing that he misplaces his ticket. (Delighted readers will spot the missing ticket.) Searching thoroughly, Mr Whistler removes his clothes in the opposite order to which he dressed earlier in the morning. Coat, jacket, waistcoat, shirt and trousers are all removed and searched. “No ticket! Nothing!” 

All through the complex process, Mr Whistler has been dancing and, to his surprise, people on the station platform have filled his hat with money. “What dancing!” they cried. “What energy! What grace!” 

Finding his ticket, Mr Whistler tucks it in his mouth while he swiftly puts all his clothes back on again. Unfortunately, in the excitement of getting on the train, Mr Whistler swallows his ticket. 

“Wasn’t it a lucky thing he’d earned all that money with his wild dancing?”

Gavin Bishop’s imaginative illustrations are a magnificent series of variations on a theme as Mr Whistler dresses, undresses and dresses again. His movements are marvellous and echo the musical notes which twine their way through the pictures. Every aspect of a 1950s wooden railway station’s architecture has been immortalised in a simplified form. (Railway stations had gardens in those days, and this one has lovely pansies.) 

Young readers who look carefully at the advertising placard on the platform will spot the lady in the poster responding to Mr Whistler’s dancing. They will also be intrigued to see who is seated in front of Mr Whistler in the train.

Mr Whistler is a wonderful farewell to Margaret Mahy.

  Trevor Agnew, 2012  [Review 2584]

Footsteps through the Fog   Margaret Mahy   Gavin Bishop 

 

Footsteps through the Fog        

Margaret Mahy
Ill. Gavin Bishop
Puffin (2012)
Illustrated story
Picture book                                       
32 pages Paperback
ISBN   978 0 143 50557 0

 

‘She should stay at home,’ said Ivy. ‘She won’t be able to see the sea.’

 

Anthea is the middle-sized one in the family of five children about to go for a walk to the beach. She is also blind.

 ‘I can’t see the sea, but I can small it and hear it,’ says Anthea, adding, ‘And anyway, I listen hard. I reckon I listen harder than anyone else.’

 Anthea’s words prove prophetic. The five children walk downhill through the settlement to the beach. The story shows Anthea using her senses to appreciate the world around her, listening, smelling and touching. ‘She could tell what was in front of her by touching the sand with her cane. She bent over and touched what her cane had discovered.’

Suddenly a sea fog rolls in, and the other children become disoriented. Max can’t see the bridge. Anthea, however, can hear the creek flowing and so leads them to it, using her cane to count the steps they have to climb. Anthea is able to guide them, using her sense of smell (the baker’s shop, a lavender bush), her memory of the street plan, and her ability to hear the rustling of trees. With her cane, Anthea counts the steps and feels the letterboxes, until she has brought everyone safely home.

 ‘Anthea rescued us by smelling and listening,’ Wendy said. 

As well as being one of those rare books with a blind protagonist, Footsteps through the Fog is also a celebration of the human senses.  Margaret Mahy’s simple but evocative prose is matched by Gavin Bishop’s colour illustrations of the autumn landscape. He is particularly good at suggesting the way the fog isolates people and confuses their senses.

 The book also contains information about the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, as well as a complete Braille alphabet pressed into the back cover flap. Braille symbols on the front cover spell out Footsteps through the Fog. Copies of this book are also available in Braille, large print and audio versions.

  Trevor Agnew                                 

6 October 2012  
[Review 2606]

 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.

Awards:
Winner: Noma Concours Prize for Children’s Picture Books (Japan) 1982
Finalist: NZ Post Children’s Book Awards: Picture Book of the Year 1983

 

 

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

A Apple Pie  Gavin Bishop

 

A Apple Pie
Gavin Bishop
Oxford University Press                                

Alphabet book (1987)
32 pages
0 19 558164 4 [English edition Hb]
7 50072 531 0 [Chinese edition Pb]

 

This is an alphabet book based on the traditional nursery rhyme but with remarkable pictures which have given it classic status. There are dancing ducks, exercising elephants, kissing kangaroos and racing rabbits. Gavin Bishop’s skilfully detailed illustrations are a delight. The be-shawled crying cow reaches for a box of tissues, while the octopus opening the pie stretches over three pages.

For those who don’t recognise the animals, their names are concealed upside-down in a corner of each page.

 An ideal format for small hands.

 An identical Chinese language edition was published in 1995 by Zhong guo shao nian ertong in Beijing.

  Trevor Agnew

 

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

The Gavin Bishop Treasury 
 Gavin Bishop 

The Gavin Bishop Treasury Gavin Bishop 
 Puffin/ Penguin Random House (2024) 
Hardback, Picture book collection, 256 pages 
ISBN 978 1 77695 738 5 

This splendid collection brings together five of Gavin Bishop’s original picture books and five of his retellings of classic tales. All of course are illustrated by Gavin Bishop. 

The ten books which make up this collection are all as colourful and dramatic as when they were originally published. [See reviews below]

The ten are: 

1. Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant (1981) 

2. Bidibidi (1982) 

3. Mr Fox (1982) 

4. Chicken Licken (1984) 

5. A Apple Pie (1984) 

6. The Three Little Pigs (1989) 

7. Little Rabbit and the Sea (1997) 

8. Stay Awake, Bear! (2000) 

9. The Three Billy-Goats Gruff (2003) 

10. Rats! (2007) 

This collection introduces a new generation to Gavin Bishop’s inspired storytelling and pictorial genius.

Trevor Agnew 
16 October 2024 [Review 3724]

Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant
Gavin Bishop

 

Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant        

  

Gavin Bishop (text and ill)
Oxford University Press, 1981
Picture book 32 pages, Paperback
ISBN 978 1 86941892 2

Grumpy Mrs McGinty finds life difficult, mainly because of her sourpuss approach to life. Her situation improves marvellously when a cucumber seedling she plants in her garden becomes a giant. Soon it overshadows her house and then the suburb. The amazingly complex plant soon brings her fame and friends. 

‘She was the pride of the street.’ 

By the end of the story the plant has been taken away (by hot air balloon) to a botanical garden, but another seedling is growing in Mrs McGinty’s garden…

Gavin Bishop’s exuberant drawings include several Christchurch features, particularly the old Edmond’s Baking Powder factory with its ‘SURE TO RISE’ slogan on the roof, which may have inspired the plant’s growth. Some of the other buildings found in the Linwood area of Christchurch are immortalised in his pictures.

As always, the tiny details of Gavin Bishop’s pictures reward closer scrutiny; Bidibidi, the famous sheep, appears on Mrs McGinty’s calendar, while the neighbourhood children will amuse Maurice Sendak.

Regularly reprinted, Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant is a beloved classic.

 Winner: Russell Clark Award for Illustration, 1982

Note: A digital version of Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant can be seen as part of the New Zealand National Library’s contribution to the International Children’s Digital Library at:

http://www.natlib.govt.nz/en/digital/2recent_books.html

Trevor Agnew

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 to 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 is 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.

Awards:
Winner: Noma Concours Prize for Children’s Picture Books (Japan) 1982
Finalist: NZ Post Children’s Book Awards: Picture Book of the Year 1983

 Trevor Agnew, 2014

Mister Fox  Gavin Bishop

Mister Fox
Gavin Bishop
Oxford University Press, 1982
Scholastic, 2001
Picture book, 32 pages
ISBN 1 86943 462 5 (English ed)
ISBN 1 86943 512 5 (Māori ed)

 

 ‘One day Mister Fox found a fat juicy bumblebee so he popped it in his bag.’

Gavin Bishop retells and illustrates an old folktale about a fox who is defeated by his own greed. He goes from house to house looking for toothsome creatures to pop into his bag.  As each creature escapes from his bag, Mister Fox, pops another in, with a pig replacing a rooster and so on. After some deliciously sinister
repetition, Mister Fox finds a very large dog in his bag. The ending is satisfyingly traditional.

The beautiful illustrations include skilfully drawn vignettes of some typical New Zealand homes and Christchurch landscapes. The details of wallpaper, fabric patterns, and plants all reward careful study. The ‘little pink woman’, for example, has a pink house with strawberry patterned wallpaper, a pink spa pool, pink carnations and–of course–a pink pig.

In 2001 a Māori language edition of this book, Ta Pokiha, was published by Scholastic, paperback, ISBN 1 86943 512 5, with Māori translation by Katerina Mataira.

Trevor Agnew

 

Taniwha Gavin Bishop

Taniwha Gavin Bishop Author-Illustrator: Gavin Bishop Penguin (2025) 66 pages, Hardback ISBN 978 1 77695 744 6

‘Some taniwha are monstrous creatures and can’t be trusted. Others are kaitiaki who do their best to protect people and the land and sea.’ Gavin Bishop has spent his lifetime writing and illustrating books that open up Māori life, beliefs, history and legends to young readers. His latest creation looks at the world of the powerful supernatural creatures known to the Māori as taniwha. In Taniwha (2025) he has assembled a monstrous regiment of over two dozen taniwha from land, sea and river, and recounts their exploits, with imaginative and dramatic colour illustrations, in this hefty hardback. Taniwha can be protectors and guardians but they can also be violent enemies, especially if they are not treated with due respect. The quality of Gavin Bishop’s art work is such that the fact that he is also a talented writer gets overlooked. These retellings are fresh and vivid. The descriptions of some taniwha are magnificently chilling. Of the Rangitikei monster, Tūtaeporoporo, Gavin Bishop writes,‘… he grew large as a whale, sprouted bat-like wings, a lizard’s tail and his head was like a featherless bird’s head with a mouth like shark’s teeth.’ The cover illustration shows this taniwha swallowing an entire canoe full of warriors in one mouthful. There is something gruesomely adorable about Bishop’s scraperboard illustrations of the taniwha Hotupuku’s exploits. ‘Some of the toa were trampled. Others were swallowed whole.’ After his defeat of this war party, the triumphant taniwha is shown with the skulls of his victims swinging from his belt. When Hotupuku is finally defeated and disembowelled, there is a double-page illustration of the contents of his stomach spilling out: bones, weapons, garments, heads and hands. Rather than being material for a nightmare this is a reminder that monsters can be overcome. ‘After they had buried the bodies, the warriors feasted on the flesh of the taniwha.’ This stunningly beautiful book, designed by Vida and Luke Kelly, also has a glossary, a useful reading list and a stunning map which locates each taniwha from Rakiura to Mangōnui. Gavin Bishop points out that taniwha still play a role in New Zealand’s life and law, and he even offers advice on how to placate them. ‘Usually, taniwha behave well if they are respected. Some will even kindly warn you if something unpleasant is about to happen.’ Above all Taniwha introduces young readers to some famous and infamous taniwha of Māori tradition and sets each into their geographic location. Taniwha is a taonga. Trevor Agnew, 3 Oct 2025 (Review 3809)