Why did the Tiger eat the Dental Nurse?

Winter reading for young readers: Why did the Tiger eat the Dental Nurse?

The Kuia and the Spider, Robyn Kahukiwa, Puffin/Penguin, paperback
Just One More: stories by Joy Cowley ill. Gavin Bishop, Gecko Press, paperback
Waiting For Later, Tina Matthew, Walker, hardback
The Kiwi Kid’s ABC, Rebekah Holguin, HarperCollins, paperback
At the Lake, Jill Harris, HarperCollins, paperback
The Lost Tohunga, David Hair, HarperCollins, paperback
The Loblolly Boy and the Sorcerer, James Norcliffe, Longacre/Random House, paperback
Sacrifice Joanna Orwin, HarperCollins, paperback

Since the 1980s, New Zealand publishing for young readers has been in a golden age, with self-assured writers, confident illustrators and knowledgeable publishers and booksellers. A quick glance at some of the titles available for this winter’s reading shows just how far books for Kiwi kids have come. (The gender bias in favour of males appears to be a seasonal oddity.)

It is incredible that thirty years have passed since that classic New Zealand picture book The Kuia and the Spider first appeared. The children who read it in 1981 are now middle-aged but Patricia Grace’s tale has remained timeless. An old Maori lady sits by her stove, peeling kumara and arguing with a spider about which of them is the best weaver. When their grandchildren visit, the unlikely pair argue about whose descendants are the best.
‘My grandchildren are much better than yours.’
Robyn Kahukiwa’s pictures may be a little simple but the central figure, the old kuia, is as solid and powerful as a statue. She and her spider adversary are the stuff that myths are made of. ‘And they argued and argued and argued for the rest of their lives.’

There weren’t many locally-produced books around for Kiwi kids in the 1980s but there were some magnificent stories in school journals and readers. Gecko Press have raided the archives for some of Joy Cowley’s liveliest stories. Just One More makes 17 of these wonderful read-aloud stories available to a new generation. What was the dragon doing in the library? Can a pirate become a bus-driver? Best of all, why did the tiger eat the dental nurse? Gavin Bishop’s witty colour illustrations add to the fun

Tina Matthew has used a delicate Japanese technique of woodcut and stencil to create Later, a charming picture book about Nancy, a small overlooked girl. ‘Will you tell me a story?’ ‘Later.’ When Nancy finds that nobody in her family has time to spare for her, she climbs a tree and waits till later comes. As the moon rises, Nancy listens to the tree and watches her family, who are soon waiting for her return. ‘I know I’m small, but tonight I feel big,’ she says, having gained a better idea of herself.

Alphabet books are now as much cultural indicators as guides to the 26 letters, so The Kiwi Kid’s ABC is as likely to be purchased by a Swedish tourist as a doting grandparent. Neither will be disappointed. Rebekah Holguin’s sharp-edged illustrations depict Kiwi life, from jandals to rugby, aroha to sausage sizzle, by way of lambs and tuatara.

Brothers sharing a summer holiday at their grandfather’s lakeside home sounds like a Kiwi idyll, in At the Lake by Jill Harris, but relations between brothers Simon (14) and Jem (11) have been scratchy since their father left home to work in Australia. The discovery that their holiday spot now includes a paddock full of relocated houses, with a truculent security guard, only makes matters worse. As well as being an exciting adventure, this well-written novel has a convincing picture of young people coming to understand their emotions, and reaching out to help others.

With The Lost Tohunga David Hair concludes the fantasy-thriller trilogy begun in 2009 with The Bone Tiki and The Taniwha’s Tears. Once again young Mat finds the worlds of New Zealand’s myth and history, past and present, are flowing together, so that a visit to Taupo catapults him into a violent (and sometimes blood-drenched) adventure. The skilful interweaving of legend and reality makes for fascinating reading. As rival magicians struggle for total control, Mat has only his skill with a taiaha to depend on, when the climactic battle erupts in the Rotorua Bath House.

Another book that cried out for a sequel was James Norcliffe’s The Loblolly Boy (2009). Now, in The Loblolly Boy and the Sorcerer, we have an even more intriguing tale. The loblolly boy – a green-winged flying boy invisible to almost everyone – is currently Ben, who is desperate to return to his original body. The swapping of bodies can be done with a simple handshake but the interloper, now calling himself Benjy, is enjoying life in his borrowed body, making trouble at home and risking expulsion at school. When Benjy refuses to exchange, Ben is trapped as the loblolly boy in ‘an in-between world’. His dream has become a nightmare. Ben’s only ally is Mel, a schoolgirl he rescued from bullies in a very funny encounter. Can they use the services offered by the sinister Sorcerer, or is he manipulating them? The only advice Ben has comes from a supernatural sea captain and a singing gorilla. This is a richly detailed fantasy, one which cries out for another sequel.

Older teenagers (and adults) will find Joanna Orwin’s Sacrifice rewarding reading. Generations after a volcanic cataclysm has destroyed New Zealand, a gathering of the survivors’ descendants agrees on a mission of sacrifice. Five young men will be sent out into the Great Ocean on a double-hulled reed canoe in search of the legendary kum, a vegetable that may be able to raise the people above their grim struggle for subsistence in the swamps. Taka (16) would rather dance but as he learns how to build and navigate the great canoe, he and his four unlikely comrades become a team. They also become aware of the sacrifice that is demanded of them. What they find, when they undertake their voyage, challenges each of them to the utmost. Although Sacrifice is a lively adventure story, it is also a mature, thought-provoking novel.

Would a publisher have had the courage to produce such a book thirty years ago? Would the reading public for such a volume have existed? Books for New Zealand’s young readers have come a long way in three decades.

Trevor Agnew

Publisher details:
The Kuia and the Spider, Robyn Kahukiwa, Puffin/Penguin NZ, 32 pages, paperback NZ$19.99
ISBN 978-014050387-6
Just One More: stories by Joy Cowley ill. Gavin Bishop, Gecko Press, 91 pages, paperback, NZ$22.99
ISBN 978-1-877467-67-7
Waiting For Later, Tina Matthew, Walker, 32 pages, hardback, NZ$27.99 ISBN 978-1-921720-05-5
The Kiwi Kid’s ABC, Rebekah Holguin, HarperCollins NZ, 32 pages, paperback NZ$19.99
ISBN 978-1-86950-895-1
At the Lake, Jill Harris, HarperCollins, 192 pages, paperback, NZ$19.99 ISBN 978-1-86950-884-5
The Lost Tohunga, David Hair, HarperCollins NZ, paperback, 368 pages, NZ$24.99
ISBN 978-1-86950-827-2
The Loblolly Boy and the Sorcerer, James Norcliffe, Longacre/Random House NZ, 297 pages, paperback, NZ$19.99 ISBN 978-1-877460-69-2
Sacrifice Joanna Orwin, HarperCollins NZ, 368 pages, paperback, NZ$26.99
ISBN 978-1-86950-912-5


This review originally appeared in Winter 2011 in the Your Weekend supplement of The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Orwin Kauri: Witness to a Nation's History

KAURI: WITNESS TO A NATION’S HISTORY Joanna Orwin, New Holland, 2004, 208 pages, paperback, NZ$39.99.
ISBN -86966-037-4

This superbly presented slice of our national heritage is a certain winner when the Book Awards are handed out next year. Instead of the usual collection of antiquarian curiosities, Joanna Orwin has chosen to reconstruct the historical and cultural ecology of the kauri in succinct prose and superb pictures.

To the early Maori in the North, the mature kauri was not as important in daily life as totara, karaka or even manuka. Its great size, however, earned it respect as Te Matua o te Wao, the Father of the Forest. The kauri appeared in legend swapping its skin with the whale, and its light, straight-grained timber was used for some large war canoes.

The status of kauri changed in 1772, when a French naval officer noted kauri as “very suitable for making ship’s masts.” The expanding timber trade for masts and spars changed the local Maori economy. As Waaka Vercoe of Tauranga said ruefully, “…it was all right for you [Hokianga] people, you could cut down one little kauri sapling and you’d get two or three muskets – we had to cut twenty tons of flax.”

Note that quotation. Orwin enjoys letting people speak for themselves. When Titore sold spars to the Royal Navy, he declared, “Here are some trees for your battle ships”. We also read the words of millers, ship-builders, Maori and Dalmatian gum-gatherers, bullock-drivers, scientists, furniture-makers and bush-men. You can almost hear this book talk.

Every page is rich in lively detail. The care given to the selection and captioning of pictures is also impressive. The sequences of photos showing gum gathering, kauri rafting, and the dramatic use of timber dams are particularly well done.

Orwin has an ability to draw connections and give insights into unexpected relationships. Thus she directs readers to the kauri’s companions: not just the carnivorous kauri snail but also the world’s tallest moss, delicate orchids and fragrant mairehau. Kauri gum has been used for fabric dope for aircraft wings, marine glue, dentures, linoleum, printing ink, Pears soap, cigar holders, jewellery, and furniture restoration. Violin-makers valued its fine varnish. “They still claim that the kauri gum varnishes produce the best sound,” says Milan Jurlina, a former gum trader, who owns the largest remaining gum stockpile.

Above all Orwin values accuracy. She debunks the nonsense about kauri masts at Trafalgar. Less romantically, kauri provided railway platforms in Sydney and warehouse beams in San Francisco. Kauri’s influence on our housing and furniture is also shown.

Kauri is a model of how to present research information, and how to draw readers into the unexpected excitement of a subject. For example, the last war between Maori groups took place as late in 1898, when two hapu of Ngati Hine fought over their gumfield rights with firearms. Orwin doesn’t just retell yarns; she has a photo of one of the war-parties and names those killed, before peace was made at Poroti.

Her account of our changing attitudes to kauri forests, from destruction to conservation avoids over-simplification. It is also very readable: “Invading deer, goats, and possums rampaged through the forests like soccer hooligans on package tours.” She also explains why there is no Kauri Forest National Park and probably won’t be for some years. That jewel will only be placed in the National Parks’ crown when Treaty negotiations are completed.

Orwin combines the awareness of an historian, the perception of a novelist and the understanding of a scientist with her depth of knowledge of things Maori. With its excellent maps, good use of illustrations, lively text and superb design, Kauri is a book worthy of its subject.

This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch on 13th November 2004.

Kauri in My Blood Joanna Orwin

Kauri in My Blood Joanna Orwin, Scholastic, (My Story series), 2007, 223 pages, paperback, NZ$17.
ISBN 1-86943-761-9

While local author Joanna Orwin was researching her award-winning history Kauri: Witness to a Nation’s History (2004), she met Ruth ‘Micky’ Murray, a 93 year old who had spent her childhood in bush camps “She wore trousers, rode horses, swore like a trooper and spent time exploring and hunting in the bush.” With Micky’s permission, Orwin has used some of her memories in writing this exciting and readable novel about family life in the kauri milling days of the Coromandel.

Laura Findlay, a witty, intelligent girl, begins her diary in 1921 as she is preparing for her Proficiency Exam. “I always have to be careful not to catch the nib of the pen and send a splatter of ink across my work.” When her father, who operates a steam hauler, has health problems, her mother has to work in a bush cookhouse, and Laura becomes her offsider.

Laura’s diary gives a vivid picture of her school life and work among the bushmen, with pack horses, bush remedies, steam lokies, and the last bullock team all making their appearance. Laura’s descriptions of the dramatic methods of getting the giant logs downstream by the use of dams and controlled floods make for lively reading. Kauri in my Blood is both a lively story of a young girl’s efforts to obtain a horse and a vivid recreation of the atmosphere of the 1920s.

This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch on 14th July 2007.

The Guardian of the Land, Joanna Orwin, 1985, 2005

THE GUARDIAN OF THE LAND Joanna Orwin, HarperCollins, [1985], Collins Modern New Zealand Classics series, 2005, Auckland, New Zealand, paperback, 231 pages, NZ$16.99

ISBN 1-86950-575-1

SEA OF MUTINY Ken Catran, Random House, Auckland, New Zealand, 2005, paperback, 152 pages, NZ$18.95 ISBN 1-86941-707-0

THIRD DEGREE Tania Roxborogh, Longacre, Dunedin, New Zealand, 2005, paperback, 153 pages, NZ$18.95 ISBN 1-877361-10-0

LAND OF MILK AND HONEY William Taylor, HarperCollins, Auckland, New Zealand, 2005, paperback, 160 pages, NZ$16.99 ISBN 1-86950-549-2

Great teenage reading:

Has there ever been a better time for young New Zealanders to read novels? Of the four selected this month, three are set in New Zealand, three are by writers connected with Canterbury and all four are well-written stories aimed at teenage readers.

Ken Catran’s Sea of Mutiny is full of surprises about the Bounty mutiny, not least how young some of those involved were. Only 14 when he first sailed on the Bounty, Midshipman John Hallett was one of the 18 loyal men set adrift in a small boat with Lieutenant William Bligh, when Fletcher Christian seized the ship. Hallett, a sharp observer, tells of Bligh’s amazing seamanship – navigating a crowded open boat on a 48 day voyage from Tonga to Timor – and reflects on Bligh’s unusual personality, and whether mutiny could have been avoided.

Catran has researched well and creates a lively picture of the hard life at sea, and the dramatic contrast with Tahiti, seen by the crew as a sailors’ paradise. This fast-moving action story offers fresh insights into well-known events.

The main characters of Joanna Orwin’s The Guardian of the Land are also young but soon find themselves facing adult challenges. Searching for an ancient whale tooth pendant, Rua and David are repeatedly thrown back in time, experiencing some of Kaikoura’s turbulent past. They hunt seals with Ngai Tahu, witness a brutal massacre by Te Rauparaha, join shore-whalers harpooning a sperm whale and encounter racial prejudice and injustice.

Joanna Orwin’s deep knowledge of history and science are reflected in this richly detailed novel.
First published twenty years ago, its message remains timeless. Respect for the land, its past and its power, brings Maori and Pakeha together in a lively conclusion. The pendant which lies at the heart of the story can be seen in the Canterbury Museum, in Christchurch.

A minor burn, while poaching an egg, triggers a rush of memories for Ruth in Tania Roxborogh’s Third Degree. Now a student at Massey, Ruth recalls being badly scalded when she was ten and spending months in hospital. Children’s wards were once grim places and Roxborogh (using some of her own experiences in this story) has created a sharply drawn and sometimes very funny group of child patients, who show that the mind is as easily scarred as the body. To fill the gaps, Ruth has to ask her family about the past and soon realises that memory is a complex matter. Her mother has her own secrets and revealing the truth proves painful for both. The excitement, as Ruth puts together the jigsaw of her memories, makes this a gripping novel of healing and acceptance.

The charitable gesture of shipping British orphans to the Empire after World War Two led to some injustices. William Taylor’s ironically titled historical novel, Land of Milk and Honey, is based on genuine events, which adds to its grim flavour. Jake is not an orphan; his mother died in the bombing of Coventry and his father hopes he will prosper in New Zealand. Only 14 when he arrives at the Pearson’s run-down dairy farm in Taranaki, Jake is forbidden to go to school and is brutally ill-treated by both Mr Pearson and his son Darcy. After a failed escape attempt, Jake finally finds sanctuary with the peppery local doctor. When Darcy is released from Borstal, he attacks Jake again and the ensuing violence means that Jake has to face up to its corroding effects.

While there are shocking scenes of savagery in this novel, Jake is able to come to terms with what has happened, and his efforts to resume a normal life are successful. This historical novel, one of Taylor’s best, has a strong message for the present day.

Trevor Agnew

First published in The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand, on September 17th 2005.