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]

The Changeover

The Changeover

Margaret Mahy 1984 (re-issue 2017)
218 pages
Paperback NZ$20
Hachette

[Ebook NZ$10]

ISBN 978 1 86971 355 3

It was an amazingly enriching experience to be typing up my thoughts on The Changeover while listening to Bridget Mahy and Miranda Harcourt being interviewed by Charlotte Graham on RNZ National’s Saturday morning about both the novel and the forthcoming film. Bridget recalled her mother reading drafts to her as part of the creative process, while Miranda’s first experience of The Changeover was narrating a 20-part radio version when she was a young actor. Now she and her husband, Stuart McKenzie, are in the process of editing their finished film.   

In their discussion (which can still be heard via the RNZ website at http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday ) they mentioned the excitement for New Zealanders of encountering local places and faces in fiction. Charlotte quoted from Elizabeth Knox’s superb introduction to this edition, “I was thrilled by the appearance of the local in a book of fantasy.” Bridget responded that we all love to read some aspect of our own world or to have it come back to us through writers’ interpretations. Just so.

Much has changed since The Changeover was first published in 1984. On re-reading the first page, I was struck by Laura’s examination of her shampoo bottle, specifically the contrast between the exotic “Paris” label and its mundane footnote “Made in New Zealand, Wisdom Laboratories, Paraparaumu.”  Today’s young New Zealand readers will never experience the exciting jolt that the metaphorical “Made in New Zealand” once brought to us back then. Much of our reading material came to us from overseas and we all developed the Kiwi trick of being able to instantly spot the capitals N and Z in any page of text.

For New Zealand writers, overseas publication was proof of success. In the 1980s Margaret Mahy was one of the few who had seized that elusive golden ring. True, some of her poems and picture books had an English feel to them – a reflection of the way our schools, our culture, our world, functioned then. Yet here was The Changeover with its brazen declaration of difference. Not just made in New Zealand but in Paraparaumu; the unlikely pairing with Paris a reminder that Margaret Mahy was always a skilled practitioner of word magic.

Margaret Mahy also knew how to create plots with all the power of ancient mythology. And she knew how to create characters so real that they seemed to live in the next street.  We have all met a Laura somewhere.  In The Changeover, Laura Chant is the teenage daughter who is feeling overlooked, while her harassed solo mother, Kate, struggles to cope with all the pressures of a limited budget, thankless job, and recalcitrant car. Left to mind her young brother, Jacko, put-upon Laura becomes aware of a strange otherness – a sense of being warned of danger by her older self. The messages seem to come through her reflections in mirrors – the first of many echoes of old folk tales.

Laura is worried. Do her strange insights make her a witch? Perhaps her school prefect, the enigmatic Sorry Carlisle is a witch? Her sense of dread seems to involve her beloved brother Jacko and, sure enough, in Carmody Braque’s tiny toyshop, she senses “something very wrong and unable to conceal its wrongness.”

In a parody of the librarian stamping an animal onto Jacko’s right hand, the sinister Braque stamps his own image onto Jacko’s left hand. (Sinister indeed.) “Mr Braque pounced with great agility, like an elderly mantis on an innocent fly.” This is only one of many superb similes and marvellous metaphors that lie in wait for the reader.

In the days that follow, as all Jacko’s vigour is sucked from him, we see Laura blaming herself for failing to protect her brother and desperately seeking a way to save him.  It is marvellous – Mahyian, in fact - the way that the story uses commonplace things to suggest supernatural menace and danger: the feel of wool and the smell of peppermint. Even Laura’s homework reflects her feelings: “time divided by fear multiplied by imagination and so on.”  

 The skilful use of references to folk tales and fairy stories is another powerful aspect of The Changeover. Laura thinks of Red Riding Hood and the wolf when she sees Sorry Carlisle, while poor Jacko, his vitality being drained away, says, “I don’t like it. Fox eat up gingerbread boy.” Sleeping Beauty, Bluebeard, the looking glass, Oz, the wicked wolf, the spider’s parlour, and the three bears are conjured up throughout the story. All this timeless evocation is happening in a raw new subdivision in a city which is recognisably Christchurch; the ability to meld the mythical and mundane so seamlessly is all part of the Mahy word magic.

“Ancient symbols are committed to modern wires,” is how Laura puts it when Sorry’s grandmother swears an oath over the telephone. (In 1984 phones needed copper wires.) And so the battle between Braque and Laura, which began so simply with a stamp, becomes an all-consuming crusade which changes Laura forever.

It is also an extremely enjoyable story, still fresh after 33 years. And it will make an extremely enjoyable film.

Trevor Agnew

15 April 2017

Nonstop Nonsense by Margaret Mahy (reissue)

 

Nonstop Nonsense
Margaret Mahy, ill. Quentin Blake
Orion [Hachette] NZ$15

Reviewed by Trevor Agnew

When artist Quentin Blake was UK Children’s Laureate, he made his choice of the world’s best writers for young people, listing Margaret Mahy at the head, and particularly  praising the “humour and language in Nonstop Nonsense; not nonsense at all, a lot of the time, wisdom skewed around sideways a bit.”

First published in 1977, Nonstop Nonsense is a marvellous collection of pixilated poems and stories, all of them showing Mahy’s skilful ability to use word-play and turn ideas upside down.   

Who else could develop a funny monster story from a couple of bricks, or have a spider and fly use their time trapped in a vacuum cleaner to create a peaceable kingdom?

The poems are gems and the story of The Man from the Land of Fandango is so good that it became a picture book.

Quentin Blake’s exuberant illustrations are completely integrated into the book, making it a classic- reissued for a new generation to enjoy.

Trevor Agnew

 

This review originally appeared in Fairfax NZ newspapers in December 2015.

 

The Moon and Farmer McPhee

The Moon and Farmer McPhee
Margaret Mahy, ill. David Elliot (reissue)
Random House, 32 pages, paperback, NZ$20

The combination of Margaret Mahy’s words and David Elliot’s pictures was always a dream-team event. The Moon and Farmer McPhee (2010) was the last book the talented duo created and it is splendid to see the award-winning picture book has been re-issued as a (really sturdy) paperback, ready to introduce a new generation of readers to its die-cut surprises. .

Poor Farmer McPhee, tired and irritable after a hard day’s work can’t enjoy the beauty of the moon “curved like a peeling from a silver apple.” His farm animals do appreciate it; they sing and dance in the moonlight. (Only David Elliot could draw a sheep doing handstands.)

 

Unimpressed and desperately sleepy McPhee tries to lock the animals in the barn but then something quite magical happens. Fold-out pages show him being captured by the silver light of the moon, drawn out to dance and frisk with his animals. (Only David Elliot could show a farmer in nightshirt and gumboots playing leapfrog with sheep.) Clever arrangements of folds and windows conceal secrets and add to the fun.

 

The last page, with its closing doors concealing sleeping dancers, carries a message for all bedtime readers.

Trevor Agnew

This review first appeared in Your Weekend magazine on 6th June 2015.

 

New Zealand Spring Picture Books 2013

New Zealand Spring Picture Books 2013:

by Trevor Agnew

 

Magical Margaret Mahy  Betty Gilderdale, Puffin, 120pp, pb, NZ$19.99

Henry’s Map  David Elliot, Random House, 32 pp, pb, NZ$19.99 

Queen Alice’s Palaces  Juliette MacIver, ill. Lucia Masciullo, ABC/HarperCollins, 32 pp, hb, NZ$29.99 

Toucan Can!  Juliette MacIver, ill. Sarah Davis, Gecko Press, 32 pp, hb, $34.99; pb, NZ$19.99 

BANG  Leo Timmers, Gecko, 48 pages,  pb, $19.99; hb, NZ$34.99

One Little Fantail Anne Hunter, ill. Dave Gunson, Scholastic, 32pp, pb. NZ$19.50 

The Importance of Green  Leonie Agnew, ill Trevor Pye Puffin, pb, NZ$19.99 

 

 New Zealand Spring Picture Books 2013

 As many of the late Margaret Mahy’s picture books are currently being re-issued, it is valuable to have a freshly revised edition of Betty Gilderdale’s Magical Margaret Mahy.  First published in 1987, it has always been an excellent guide for young readers, answering the questions that Mahy was always asked. (Do writers ever get rich? Are you afraid of running out of ideas?).  Gilderdale has woven Mahy’s answers (and her own deep knowledge of Mahy’s books) into a lively readable account which explains everything from the origin of the lion in the meadow to why the teachers in her stories are often “of the old-fashioned bullying kind.”  Alan Gilderdale’s illustrations of Mahy’s home and toys add to the warmth of the anecdotes. This reader-friendly paperback brings the genius of the author fresh off the page for a new generation of Mahy readers.

 

David Elliott is well-known as an illustrator of Margaret Mahy’s work, and the frisky farm animals who first appeared in their award-winning The Moon and Farmer McPhee (2010) now return in Henry’s Map. Henry is a fastidiously tidy piglet, who is upset at the untidiness of the farm he lives on. ‘How could anybody ever find anything out there?’ His solution is to draw a map “so that everyone knows what will belong where.’ First Henry draws his own sty, and then he draws a picture of himself next to it. (Young readers like the fact that Henry’s drawing and labelling techniques are – ahem – childish. His spelling is pigletish.)  The other animals are delighted by Henry’s efforts and ask to be included in his map.  ‘Now,’ he said proudly, ‘we’ll know where everything is.’

Henry leads all the animals up the hill. They look at Henry’s map and then down at the farm.

‘But we’re not there,’ bleated the sheep. The matter is sorted out with a charming and satisfying ending.  Elliot’s colour illustrations are masterful, and full of little details like Henry picking flowers to put in his sty.  Young readers delight in the moment when they find that they are smarter than the farm animals.  At the same time, they learn all the basic principles of map-making. They also find satisfaction in Henry’s dictum, ‘A place for everything and everything in its place.’

 

By happy coincidence two of Christchurch author Juliette MacIver’s picture books have appeared simultaneously. Both are excellent.  Toucan Can! demonstrates MacIver’s flair for word-play and rhythm.  Toucan can do anything. ‘With the fry pan and a stew pan, he can juggle one-hand, two hand while he cancans on a fruit can.’ Readers are invited to join in Toucan’s frolics ‘Surely, you can?’ In Sarah Davis’s strikingly colourful illustrations, dozens of cute little birds dance along, and are joined, as the rhymes accumulate, by a kangaroo, a panda and an unidentified furry creature named Ewan who has some formidable aunts. The aunts can’t dance but everyone else can, so the result is a splendid jamboree.  This is a wonderful book for reading aloud – for anyone who can cope with splendid tongue-twisters..

 

 Queen Alice’s Palaces is a witty story, told in verse, about sneaky Sir Hugh’s plan to persuade Queen Alice to build a new palace, which he can then steal.

‘Why not build one no one’s thought of before?

Something, striking, original, new!’

Queen Alice builds no less than six strikingly original palaces – all brilliantly and imaginatively realised by artist Lucia Masciullo – but there is a hitch with every one. Delightfully each hitch involves a disaster for the ‘cunning, conniving and callous’ Sir Hugh. For example, when he tests the upper floor of the knitted woollen palace, both the palace and Sir Hugh come undone. The bamboo palace comes unstrung, the cheese palace goes rancid and a fire in the cockatoo feather palace leaves Sir Hugh ‘with a mouthful of plumes and a burn on the bottom.’ Juliette MacIver is already being called a rising star in the world of picture books, and these two bouncy and funny picture books confirm the claim.

 

Another Christchurch writer is Anne Hunter, who has produced an imaginative bird identification book, One Little Fantail, based on the rhyme ‘Two little birdies.’  Thus her rhyming text introduces familiar birds:

‘With their brown feather cloaks and keen golden eyes,

They skim over tussock and soar through the skies.’ 

And which bird is being described? Dave Gunson’s masterful double-page colour illustrations should leave no doubt, but in a clever move, the Maori and Pakeha names of the birds have been carefully camouflaged in their portrait. (Kahu and harrier hawk, as young readers will have deduced.)  The twelve subjects range from pukeko to kea, and a three page fact section includes further information on all the birds.

 

Sometimes it’s the picture books with the fewest words that provide the best incentive for close reading. Leo Timmers’ BANG contains only one word but young readers will be scrutinising every page for the hilarious details of cause and effect. Eight extremely eccentric vehicles, each driven by a different animal, become interlocked in a series of rear-end collisions. Since their loads include ice-cream, paint, fish, tyres, books, dresses, baby rabbits, fruit and vegetables, each collision – with its joyously repeated signal of ‘Bang’ – leads to a new round of mayhem and coincidence.  The results are colourful, imaginative and funny, concluding with a spectacular double-page pull-out that provides a happy ending for everyone except the fish.

 

Finally The Importance of Green by Leonie Agnew, is a charming and imaginative introduction to the concept of colour, in the story of Liam ‘who could not and would not paint without green.’ When Liam runs out of green paint, life becomes difficult inside his paintings. Cars are trapped by red lights and cows have no grass. As mayhem erupts in his pictures, Liam keeps experimenting with colours but nobody wants to drink blue milk and the grasshoppers don’t like being orange. Then he adds blue paint to yellow and makes an amazing discovery that brings happiness to the cows, motorists, grasshoppers and, of course, Liam.  Trevor Pye’s imaginatively-coloured illustrations are an important element of this picture book’s appeal. A colour wheel offers young readers a guide to future art experiments.

 

Trevor Agnew

 

 

 

 

Full Publishing details:

Magical Margaret Mahy  Betty Gilderdale, Puffin, 120pp, pb, $19.99 ISBN 978-0-143-56881-0

Henry’s Map  David Elliot, Random House, 32 pp, pb, $19.99  ISBN 978-1-77553-330-6

 

  Queen Alice’s Palaces  Juliette MacIver, ill. Lucia Masciullo, ABC/HarperCollins, 32 pp, hb, $29.99  ISBN   978-0-7333-3102-2

 

Toucan Can!  Juliette MacIver, ill. Sarah Davis, Gecko Press, 32 pp,
hb, $34.99  ISBN 978-1-877467-53-0

Pb, $19.99  ISBN 978-1-877467-54-7

  

One Little Fantail Anne Hunter, ill. Dave Gunson, Scholastic, 32pp, Pb. NZ$19.50  ISBN 978-1-77543-138-1

 

BANG  Leo Timmers, Gecko, 48 pages,

paperback, $19.99 ISBN 978-1-877579-17-2

hardback, $34.99 ISBN 978-1-877579-18-9

 

The Importance of Green  Leonie Agnew, ill Trevor Pye Puffin, pb, $19.99  ISBN 978-0-143-50571-6

 

 

Bridge Books: Books that bridge the gap between Picture books and Novels

Bridge Books:  Books that bridge the gap between Picture books and Novels:

 A Lion in the Meadow  Margaret Mahy, ill Jenny Williams, Orion, 49 pages, paperback, $14.99 

Wolf and Dog  Sylvia Vanden Heede, ill Marije Tolman, Gecko, 94 pages, pb, $24.99  

Lily Gets in a Pink Pickle  Elizabeth Pulford, ill Aki Fukuoka, Scholastic, 88pages, pb, $12 

Salto-scaredypus (Dinosaur Rescue 8)  Kyle Mewburn, ill Donovan Bixley, Scholastic, 96 pages, pb, $12 

Megasaurus Mash-Up 1 (Dinosaur Rescue 1-4)  Kyle Mewburn, ill Donovan Bixley, Scholastic, 374  pages, pb, $19 

Hercules, Champion of the World  Nigel Gray, ill Heath McKenzie, Walker Books, 109 pages, pb, $14.95 

The Day My Father Became a Bush, Joke van Leeuwen, Gecko, 104 pages, paperback, $19.

 

Bridge Books:  Books that bridge the gap between Picture books and Novels

by Trevor Agnew

Call them bridge books. Call them chapter books, early readers or young novels. The name doesn’t matter; it is the function which is important.  These are the books where words carry young readers across the gaping chasm between picture books and novels.  These are the books that show children the power of words to entertain, enlighten and amuse. These are bridge books.

The pictures in Margaret Mahy’s A Lion in the Meadow are certainly beautiful but, right from its first publication in the School Journal in 1965, this story has demonstrated the combined power of words and imagination to create a gripping story.  A little boy is frightened to go into the meadow, because of “the big, roaring, whiskery, yellow lion” there. His mother conjures up a story of a dragon to scare the lion away. It works – because stories are powerful – but the lion then seeks refuge in the broom cupboard. All ends well, with the boy and lion friends, playing in a different, dragon-free meadow. This story may be nearly 50 years old, but its charm and wisdom make it fresh on every telling.

Sylvia Vanden Heede’s Wolf and Dog (translated from the Dutch by Bill Nagelkerke) is a witty tale of two cousins: Dog who lives in a basket and menacing Wolf who lives in a forest and is wild. Wolf mocks at Dog’s possessions (like his cap and Guard Dog sign) while secretly lusting for them. Dog is fascinated by Wolf’s rough ways and fleas. When Dog cooks him some bacon, Wolf eats it straight from the pan! This tale, full of word-play and puns, is ideal for young readers, especially those with rough friends.

Elizabeth Pulford’s Lily Gets in a Pink Pickle has a highly appropriate title because little girls adore pink, and this book has pink-edged pages and a twinkly pink cover. Lily is a trainee angel at Amelia’s Angel Academy who always has cute mishaps, which turn out well anyway. Will Frumplepuss cause trouble at the Cherub Cat Show? The tone may be twee but Pulford knows how to tell a story and Aki Fukuoka’s pictures are charming. There are five earlier volumes in the Littlest Angel series for those who get hooked.

Kyle Mewburn’s Dinosaur Rescue series has more boy readers than girl readers because of its cheerful concentration on farts, snot and dinosaur droppings.  Salto-scaredypus is the eighth in this gleefully anachronistic series, which now has 120,000 copies in print and fans from Canada to Slovenia. Arg is a bright Neanderthal lad with a Swiss army rock and a low-brow family, who hinder his high-minded efforts to save the dinosaurs from extinction. It’s all messy, slap-stick fun, and Donovan Bixley’s brilliant illustrations add a whole new dimension to the silliness with features like ‘The Dos and Don’ts of Mammoth Hunting.’ For newbies, Volumes 1 to 4 have been bundled into Megasurus Mash-up 1. These are books that make kids want to read.

 Nigel Gray tells the story of Hercules, Champion of the World in a cheerfully flip way that lures young readers deep into Greek mythology. “Hercules was one of those kids who is best at everything. (Don’t you hate them?)” is a typical comment. When Hercules lies on his funeral pyre, a friend asks if it’s a good idea to start smoking at his age. The bits in between are just as amusing but also re-spin a good yarn.

 The best writers are those who can make an unpleasant subject readable. Joke van Leeuwen’s The Day My Father Became a Bush (another Bill Nagelkerke translation) faces up to the baffling world of war. “Before my father turned into a bush, he was a pastry chef,” says Toda, who learns about military camouflage when war overtakes her country. She becomes a refugee and has to avoid irritating those who care for her. Her list of things to avoid includes “not saying ‘thank you’ enough,” and “singing songs they didn’t like.” Her identity reduced to a number, forced to learn a new language (which the reader too has to pick up), Toda reflects the experiences of the world’s refugees. Her simple childish viewpoint makes sense to the reader, as Toda describes the turmoil of war as seen by one of its victims. The down-to-earth common sense which enables Toda to be reunited with her family also makes this a warm and touching story, which emphasises the power of words. It is a perfect example of a story that builds bridges.

 Trevor Agnew

Note: This review was first published in Your Weekend Magazine, The Press, Christchurch on 15 June 2013.

 

FULL  PUBLISHING  DETAILS:

A Lion in the Meadow  Margaret Mahy, ill Jenny Williams, Orion Early Reader/ Hachette NZ, 49 pages, paperback, NZ$14.99  ISBN978-1-4440-0926-2

Wolf and Dog  Sylvia Vanden Heede, Gecko, ill Marije Tolman, 94 pages, pb, NZ$24.99   ISBN 978-1-877579-38-7 

Lily Gets in a Pink Pickle  Elizabeth Pulford, ill Aki Fukuoka, Scholastic NZ, 88 pages, pb, NZ$12  ISBN 978-1-77543-099-5

Salto-scaredypus (Dinosaur Rescue 8)  Kyle Mewburn, ill Donovan Bixley, Scholastic NZ, 96 pages, pb, NZ$12  ISBN 978-1-77543-121-3

Megasaurus Mash-Up 1 (Dinosaur Rescue 1-4)  Kyle Mewburn, ill Donovan Bixley, Scholastic NZ, 374  pages, pb, NZ$19  ISBN 978-1-77543-121-3

Hercules, Champion of the World  Nigel Gray, ill Heath McKenzie, Walker Books, 109 pages, pb, NZ$14.95  ISBN 978-1-921529-89-4

 The Day My Father Became a Bush, Joke van Leeuwen, Gecko, 104 pages, paperback, NZ$19.99  ISBN 978-1-877579-16-5  

 

 

 

Picture Books: Summer Holiday Reading 2012 
By Trevor Agnew

 [First published in Your Weekend Magazine, The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand]

2012 has been a great year for Christchurch’s Gavin Bishop. Not only has he had two new books published (Margaret Mahy’s Mr Whistler and Footsteps Through the Fog) but four of his earlier works have also been re-issued.  The most welcome of these is the paperback edition of Piano Rock: a 1950s Childhood. 

This memoir of Bishop’s early years in Kingston, on the southern shores of Lake Wakatipu, is a reminder that Bishop is a brilliantly evocative writer as well as one of the best children’s book illustrators in the world. (He also won an award for its design.) Here is life in the 1950s, with coal ranges, knitted pullovers, school concerts, steam trains, kerosene lamps, Pixie Town and girdle scones (recipe included). Both young readers and adults will be captivated by Bishop’s ability to recreate the smells, moods, fears and joys of his rural childhood, especially the climactic Guy Fawkes bonfire, where 8 year old Gavin’s imagination runs away with him.

Katarina (1990) is Bishop’s pictorial retelling of the remarkable odyssey of his great-aunt, Katarina (Catherine) McKay, 1842-1935, a Tainui Māori, who in the 1860s made the journey from the Waikato to Fortrose in Southland, to be re-united with her Scottish husband. (Intriguingly Bishop later discovered that the moko he created for the picture of his great-grandmother, Irihapeti, was identical to one she wore in real life.) The illustrations, re-scanned from the original artwork, are powerful and moving, as is Katarina’s life of devotion to her family. As Katarina puts it, “I’ve been too busy looking after my kids to die.”

 Kiwi Moon (2005) is the most perfect blending of Bishop’s 

story-telling skills and his artistic talent. On 
one level it is a beautiful tale of Little Kiwi, a rare white kiwi, and his relationship with Te Marama, the moon. The brave bird not only saves his mother from hunters’ dogs but also guides a little lost girl, a Pakeha settler, to safety. Because Little Kiwi only comes out at night, all the illustrations show night scenes, with mono-prints of plants, insects and trees. Interspersed among these are beautifully detailed ink and watercolour pictures of Māori life which tell another story without words.  Fighting between Māori and Pakeha has led to destruction and loss of life. The trees are cut down and fire rages through the bush. Bishop’s intertwined stories reach a connected and hopeful conclusion, making it a beautiful parable of New Zealand’s past (and perhaps) its future.

In Counting the Stars (2009) Bishop continues his re-telling of Māori legends and illustrating them with colourful mono-prints. The four stories tell of the separation of Earth (Papa) and Sky (Rangi), the war among the birds, Kae’s theft of a pet whale and the love of Hinemoa and Tutanekai. Each is vividly told and illustrated.

Peter Gossage has retold fifteen Māori legends in his long picture book career but The Giant of Lake Wakatipu is the first one to be set in the South Island. Using his familiar ‘stained-glass’ style of illustration, Gossage shows how the beautiful Manata was saved from Matau the giant by her lover Matakauri.  As Gossage shows, Matau’s grim fate still projects its mythical power in the pulsing waters of Lake Wakatipu.

   

Mokena Reedy’s popular Timo and the Kingfish (2000) has been revised, and given handsome new colour illustrations by Jim Byrt.  Timo ignores both safety rules and Māori protocol when he goes fishing out at sea, thus endangering the life of his dog Pou. Fortunately, Tangaroa is impressed by Timo’s courage, and Pou has a life-saving talent, so all ends well. This book will be a lively springboard for discussions of the issues involved. 

(An identical Māori language edition is also available.)

Remember that November began life as New Zealand’s contribution 

to an international anthology of peace stories. Jennifer Beck uses the framing narrative of a young girl’s contribution to a speech contest, reminding her listeners that, on November the 5th 1881, an armed advance on the village of Parihaka was met by passive resistance. The story is told briefly but with power. Lindy Fisher’s dramatic collages use such powerful symbols as the plough and the white feather to reinforce Te Whiti’s famous instruction: “Be you steadfast in all that is peaceful” (An identical Māori language edition is also available.)

Kiwi Play With Me is a magnificently illustrated counting book created by Lyttelton artist, Helen Taylor. “I’m a little kiwi. Will you play with me?” A kiwi chick, who invites friends to come and play, is

 joined by one kea, two bats, three frogs and, so on, up to ten kauri snails. Taylor has managed the difficult feat of bringing all 56 examples of New Zealand fauna together in one glorious picture at the conclusion. The elegant shapes and dramatic colours of Taylor’s illustrations are skilfully complemented by her bouncy verse narrative.

The Best-Dressed Bear (2002) is another re-issued classic, featuring 

Diana Noonan’s well-loved teddy bear and his owner Tim.  Tim is a little concerned that he is outgrowing his favourite clothes and he doesn’t want Mother to give them away. Luckily Tim thinks of a solution: his teddy bear can wear them. “But just until he gets too big for them!”

This logical and amusing solution makes both Tim (and his readers) feel warm and contented. Elizabeth Fuller’s delightful pictures add to the pleasure.

Reading (and in the case of the classics, re-reading) these New Zealand picture books has given me enormous satisfaction. These are truly books that can be enjoyed by all ages.

Their high standards of design and presentation mean that there is a skilful marriage of good story-telling and inspired art.  New Zealand’s high reading standards are based on a foundation of good books about our own country, and these nine picture books are exemplars.

Kiwi Play With Me is a magnificently illustrated counting book created by Lyttelton artist, Helen Taylor. “I’m a little kiwi. Will you play with me?” A kiwi chick, who invites friends to come and play, is joined by one kea, two bats, three frogs and, so on, up to ten kauri snails. Taylor has managed the difficult feat of bringing all 56 examples of New Zealand fauna together in one glorious picture at the conclusion. The elegant shapes and dramatic colours of Taylor’s illustrations are skilfully complemented by her bouncy verse narrative.

Trevor Agnew, Summer 2012

Full Publishing Details:

Katarina, Gavin Bishop, Random House (NZ Classic), 30pp, pb, NZ$19.99

ISBN 978-1-86979-064-6

Counting the Stars: Four Maori Myths, Gavin Bishop, Random House, 48pp, pb, NZ $19.99   ISBN 978-1-77553-017-6

Kiwi Moon, Gavin Bishop, Random House, 32 pp, pb, NZ$16.99

ISBN 978-1-86979-074-5

Piano Rock: a 1950s Childhood, Gavin Bishop, Random House, pb, 120 pages, NZ$24.99   ISBN 978-1-77553-257-6

Kiwi Play With Me: A Kiwi Count-Along Book, Helen Taylor, Puffin, 32pp, pb, NZ$19.99   ISBN 978-0-143-5049-5

Remember that November, Jennifer Beck, ill. Lindy Fisher, Huia, 32 pp, pb, NZ$20

ISBN 978-1-77550-010-0

The Giant of Lake Wakatipu, Peter Gossage, Puffin, 32pp, pb, NZ$19.99

ISBN 978-0-143-50560-0

Timo and the Kingfish, Mokena Potae Reedy, ill. Jim Byrt, 32pp, pb, NZ$20

ISBN 978-1-77550-046-9

The Best-Dressed Bear, Diana Noonan, Elizabeth Fuller, Scholastic, 24pp, pb, NZ$19.50

ISBN 978-1-77543-139-8

 

 

 

 

 

Best New Zealand Picture Books of 2012

Best New Zealand Picture Books of 2012: 

by Trevor Agnew

 

New Zealand picture books are like a grape harvest. Publishers try to produce books that will tickle the palates of young readers and their parents. Since tastes vary, there will never be agreement on what is ‘best,’ but the 2012 picture book harvest has been a good one, with many books to savour. 

Margaret Mahy’s stories, both posthumous titles and reprints, have been the most popular. Atmospherically illustrated by Gavin Bishop, Footsteps through the Fog is Mahy’s tribute to the human senses. A family of five children, visiting the beach, are engulfed by a sudden fog, and become disoriented. “The fog’s just swallowed the world,” wails Max, but his sister Anthea leads them all to safety. Although the story never states directly that Anthea is blind, the reader is aware that she has been listening intently on the way to the beach. Now Anthea uses her hearing to find the stream and bridge, her memory to count the perilous steps – all 23 of them – and her sense of smell to locate the gardens and bakery on their way home. All royalties from this book go to Royal NZ Foundation of the Blind. A complete Braille alphabet is included so young readers will be able to ‘read’ the title embossed in Braille on the front cover.

Mr Whistler is a young man who adores music; he even sings and dances in his sleep. When he goes to catch a train, Mr Whistler mislays his ticket and has to strip off his clothes to search for it, right down to “his elegant spotted underpants.”  Young readers take great glee in the dressing and undressing of Mr Whistler, and they also enjoy the superior pleasure of knowing where the ticket is all the time. Margaret Mahy has put some amusing twists at the end of her tale, and Gavin Bishop’s stylish 1940s period illustrations conceal yet another surprise for Mr Whistler.

 A pleasant surprise in 2012 is the return of Whitcoulls to publishing, marked by Read Me Another One, Please!, a well-packed anthology of New Zealand stories and poems, selected by Belynda Smith and Dorothy Dudek Vinicombe. The stories and poems are widely selected and even include some complete picture books, such as Gavin Bishop’s version of Chicken Licken and Dorothy Butler’s Birthday Rain, which will now delight a new generation of readers. Other writers represented include Michael King, Margaret Mahy, Tessa Duder and Joy Cowley. Every one of the 33 offerings has its own illustrations, nearly all in colour. This collection deserves its title and is also the best value of the year.

Naughtiness has always appealed to young readers, and I Love Lemonade, by husband and wife team Mark and Rowan Sommerset, sees the return of Little Baa Baa and Quirky Turkey, whose exploits in Baa Baa Smart Sheep won the 2011 Children’s Choice Award.  Determined on revenging himself, Quirky offers Baa Baa a glass of refreshing lemonade. “It looks a bit like pee,” says Baa Baa, and in a quickfire conversational exchange, the sharp-witted sheep confuses the turkey into having a drink. “Guzzle, guzzle, guzzle,” will be a catch-cry among the young readers who will find an extra (naughty) surprise at the conclusion of this improper tale.

Gecko Press has had such success in marketing English translations of award-winning foreign children’s books that a Ph.D. thesis is being written on their influence. A handsome example of Gecko’s non-fiction picture books is the French Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals, by Hélène Rajcak and Damien Laverdunt. This large format hardback uses a witty mixture of scientific text and comic book to record the extinction of some 27 species, from the Sicilian dwarf elephant to the Pig-footed bandicoot. The lively presentation includes maps, glossary, time-lines and some droll speech balloons: “Hello, I’m Charles Darwin. I don’t know it yet but I’m going to become a very famous scientist.”  This book is ideal for future famous scientists who don’t know their Dodo from their Moa.

Two of Sweden’s brightest talents combine in the endearing illustrated story The Best Singer in the World by Ulf Nilsson, with pictures by Eva Eriksson. The six year old narrator has the tiny part of Mole in his school play but is tormented by stage fright. On opening night, the play is saved by the thoughtfulness of his young brother, when the pair combine in an unscheduled, very amusing (and slightly naughty) performance, to the delight of audience and readers alike. This may be the best book about singing in the world. It’s certainly the funniest.

 Maori titles are the specialty of Huia Publishers, and their young people’s books for 2012 included Julian Arahanga’s lively war biography Born to Fly  the story of Flying Officer Porokoru ‘Johnny’ Pohe’s flying career. A bomber pilot in World War 2, Pohe was shot down and later took part in the ‘Great Escape’ of 1944, with tragic consequences.  Andrew Burdan has illustrated Born to Fly in the dramatic black-and-white style of the old Commando war-comics. Many key Maori aspects of Pohe’s life are subtly included in the well-researched text and pictures; when Pohe enrolls at Te Aute College, the spirits of Sir Peter Buck, Sir James Carroll and Sir Apirana Ngata are looking down at him. This is the ideal book for people who think they don’t like reading.

The best picture book of the year is Glyn Harper’s Le Quesnoy: the story of the town that New Zealand saved.  A First World War story, it unusually, has a civilian as its narrator. The unnamed French girl is six when the Germans occupy her home town of Le Quesnoy with its elaborate ancient fortifications. “It was a terrible time for us. The Germans took anything they wanted…Anyone who complained was thrown into jail.”  She describes the events of the final week of the war when, rather than shelling the city, New Zealand soldiers used scaling ladders to cross the city walls and force the Germans to surrender. Not one civilian died. Glyn Harper knows how to tell a story and he carries his deep military knowledge lightly as he sketches in the broad outlines of the tale. Christchurch artist Jenny Cooper’s colour illustrations capture the drama of the action, along with the picturesque nature of its setting. The human cost of the action is not glossed over; in the final picture the little girl is laying poppies on one of the 130 New Zealand graves. Le Quesnoy is a well-designed book with its text and illustrations perfectly matched. Handsome and moving, it is an exemplar of the New Zealand picture book.

 

Trevor Agnew, 20 November 2012

 

[First published in Your Weekend Magazine, The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand]

 

FULL PUBLISHING  DETAILS:

The Best NZ Picture Book of 2012:

Le Quesnoy: the story of the town that New Zealand saved, Glyn Harper, ill Jenny Cooper, Scholastic, $20
 

The Rest:

Mr Whistler, Margaret Mahy, ill Gavin Bishop, Gecko, hb, $34.99

Read Me Another One, Please! selected by Belynda Smith and Dorothy Dudek Vinicombe, Whitcoulls, hb, $29.99

The Best Singer in the World, Ulf Nilsson, ill Eva Eriksson, Gecko, hb, $34.99; pb, $19.99

I Love Lemonade, Mark and Rowan Sommerset, Dreamboat Press, hb, $29.99

Footsteps Through the Fog, Margaret Mahy, ill Gavin Bishop, Puffin, pb, $20

Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals, Hélène Rajcak and Damien Laverdunt, Gecko, hb, $37

Born to Fly, Julian Arahanga, ill Andrew Burdan, Huia, pb, $25

NZ Young People’s Books: Best of 2012

By Trevor Agnew 

Published in Your Weekend Magazine, (The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand, Nov 2012)  

Best Books for Kiwi Youngsters: 2012

Publishing trends 2012
 

By Trevor Agnew   

2012’s most heart-warming publishing event was the return of a once famous imprint. Whitcoulls, under its new ownership, has returned to publishing with a magnificent hardback anthology of New Zealand stories and poems, Read Me Another One, Please! selected by Belynda Smith. Authors include Margaret Mahy, Roger Hall, Joy Cowley and Bill Nagelkerke. The best story is Granny Alex, by Tessa Duder, where a young woman swimmer, training for the Olympics, is encouraged by her grandmother. Satisfyingly, Tessa Duder’s beloved classic Alex (1987) is being re-issued by Whitcoulls Classics.

The darkest aspect of 2012 was undoubtedly the death of Margaret Mahy, a brilliant writer, whose high level of creative genius remains unequalled. Margaret’s unique way with language can be sampled in the new paperback edition of her collected verse, The Word Witch, which has a CD of her reading a dozen of the poems.  

Meanwhile Margaret’s prolific output means that her titles continue to appear posthumously. Footsteps in the Fog is an atmospheric celebration of the senses, with a blind girl leading her siblings to safety through dense fog. Mr Whistler is a gleeful picture book about an absent-minded

dancer who mislays his train ticket and has to undress on the station platform to find it (much to the joy of young readers). Both these books are illustrated by Gavin Bishop. It has been an excellent year for Bishop, whose Counting the Stars: Four Maori Myths has just appeared in paperback, while his 1999 masterpiece, The House that Jack Built, has been re-issued in a sumptuous hardback, a reminder of just how important good illustration and book design are.

 In November 2012, the German firm, Bertelsmann, owner of Random House, took over the British firm Pearson, owner of the various Penguin imprints. The promise is that Random House and Penguin will retain their distinct editorial identities. The concern, however, is that as the big firms swallow each other up, fewer books for young people will be produced. Ray Turton, editor of Magpies magazine, which reviews Australian and New Zealand books for young people, feels that over recent years “big publishers don’t know where their industry is going. They’ve been running round like hens with their heads cut off.” Turton warns that large corporations will always concentrate on mass-market books with larger print runs. “Everyone wants the next Hunger Games or Harry Potter.”

New Zealand has a proud tradition of small publishing firms producing high quality books for the young.  In its thirty years of existence, the tiny Wellington publishing firm of Mallinson Rendell produced only about seven titles a year, but the remarkable quality of publisher Anne Mallinson’s judgement was reflected in book prizes and export orders.  When Mallinson Rendel closed its doors in 2009, its titles were purchased by Penguin. Lynley Dodd’s menagerie of cats and dogs thus migrated to Puffin, which has just issued the witty Slinky Malinki, Early Bird. Yet, even though the future of Hairy Maclary and his friends is now assured, would such a long-running series have been brought into existence and nurtured without the support of a visionary like Anne Mallinson?

Longacre Press, the small Dunedin publisher co-founded by Paula Boock, was another small firm that punched above its weight. Taken over by Random House in 2009, Longacre still appears as an imprint on novels like James Norcliffe’s The Magic Flute, a fantasy that pitches modern Kiwi kids into Arcadia. Another Longacre title is Kate De Goldi’s The ACB with Honora Lee, the superbly-presented story of a girl coming to terms with her grandmother’s dementia.

The good news is that new ‘little’ publishers keep popping up.  Several well-designed picture books have come from the Duck Creek Press, a branch of David Ling Publishing, including the stylish That Dog at the Beach by Janene Cooper and Evie Kemp (a sequel to their award-winning A Dog Like That).

Another recent arrival, Dreamboat Press, is a husband and wife operation, based on Waiheke Island. Mark and Rowan Sommerset have only produced five picture books so far but have already won awards. Their latest, I Love Lemonade, has the slightly naughty flavour that young readers adore.

All publishers need a point of difference to survive.  Wellington’s Gecko Press has concentrated on providing English language translations of award-winning foreign titles, both non-fiction, such as the French Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals, by Hélène Rajcak, and fiction, such as the hilarious Swedish illustrated story The Best Singer in the World by Ulf Nilsson.

 Huia Publishers focuses on Māori titles, and their young people’s books this year include such lively war biographies as Born to Fly (about Johnny Pohe) and Victory at Point 209 (Moana Ngarimu), both illustrated by Andrew Burdan in war-comic style.  Huia also a shrewdly reversed Gecko’s technique, by producing Te Haere ki te Rapu Pea, a Maori language version of Michael Rosen’s 1989 classic, We’re All Going on a Bear Hunt, evocatively illustrated by Helen Oxenbury.

Some publishers find that series help ensuring repeat custom. Little girls adore Elizabeth Pulford’s Littlest Angel series, where Lily Gets in a Pink Pickle is the sixth volume. Kyle Mewburn’s cheerfully anachronistic Dinosaur Rescue series reached Number 7 with Scuto-Stickysaurus. Meanwhile Chris Gurney’s up-dated fairy tale, The Frog Footy Player is the 14^th in the Kiwi Corkers series.

Some publishers give books special features to encourage buyers. Jenny Cooper’s splendid picture book, Do Your Ears Hang Low?, includes a CD of the Topp Twins performing the song (as a sequel to the same team’s 2011 version of There’s a Hole in My Bucket). Pio Terei is the vocalist on the CD which comes with Stevie Mahardika’s If You’re a Kiwi and You Know It. Several books now offer stuffed toys, like Craig Smith’s Willbee the Bumblebee. The Wonky Donkey meanwhile goes one better; as well as a stuffed toy, it now offers a miracle of paper engineering, The House that Wonky Built. Junior engineers who enjoy the classic, The Little Yellow Digger by Betty and Alan Gilderdale, can now own a trace ‘n’ race excavator toy version, which comes complete with the book. There’s even The Little Yellow Digger Activity Book.

As the publishing market-place shrinks, many frustrated, would-be writers try printing and selling their own books. Some of their efforts are dire but a few are excellent, like Brent Leslie’s self-published Jock Logan and the Sea Devil, a vivid account of a lad’s seagoing encounter with Count von Luckner.  Craig (Wonky Donkey) Smith created his own company in Queenstown to publish Kaha the Kea, illustrated by Bruce Potter. Like many other publishers, Craig feels the need to bring electronic media and the printed page together. Thus purchasers of Kaha the Kea can also enjoy an animated version on their iPad or computer.

And which of this year’s books will the young readers of 2062 be reading with pleasure?  My pick is David Hill’s best novel yet, a powerful story of dissent and its consequences, My Brother’s War.  The year’s best picture book also deals with the First World War: Glyn Harper’s handsome and moving Le Quesnoy: the story of the town that New Zealand saved, illustrated by Jenny Cooper.

Trevor Agnew

November 2012  

Book list: The Best of 2012:

Le Quesnoy: the story of the town that New Zealand saved, Glyn Harper, ill Jenny Cooper, Scholastic, NZ$20

My Brother’s War, David Hill, Puffin, pb, NZ$19.99
 

The Top Two Dozen of 2012:

Slinky Malinki, Early Bird, Lynley Dodd, Puffin, hb, NZ$24.99

Mr Whistler, Margaret Mahy, ill Gavin Bishop, Gecko, hb, NZ$34.99

Kaha the Kea, Craig Smith, ill Bruce Potter, Craig Smith Publishing, pb, NZ$26

If You’re a Kiwi and You Know It, Stevie Mahardika, Scholastic, pb, NZ$21

The Little Yellow Digger Activity Book, Scholastic, pb, NZ$10

Do Your Ears Hang Low?, ill Jenny Cooper, Scholastic, pb, NZ$26

That Dog at the Beach, Janene Cooper, ill Evie Kemp, Duck Creek Press, hb, NZ$29.99

Te Haere ki te Rapu Pea, Michael Rosen, ill Helen Oxenbury, Huia Publishers, pb, NZ$20

 I Love Lemonade, Mark & Rowan Sommerset, Dreamboat Press, hb, NZ$29.99

The House that Wonky Built, ill Katz Cowley, Scholastic, hb, NZ$29

The Best Singer in the World, Ulf Nilsson, ill Eva Eriksson, Gecko, hb, NZ$34.99; pb, NZ$19.99

The Littlest Angel 6: Lily Gets in a Pink Pickle, Elizabth Pulford, Scholastic pb, NZ$12

Dinosaur Rescue 7: Scuto-Stickysaurus, Kyle Mewburn, Scholastic, pb, NZ$12

The Frog Footy Player, Chris Gurney, ill John Bennett, Scholastic, hb, NZ$18.50

Footsteps Through the Fog, Margaret Mahy, ill Gavin Bishop, Puffin, pb, NZ$20

Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals, Hélène Rajcak & Damien Laverdunt, Gecko, hb, NZ$37

The Word Witch, Margaret Mahy, ill. David Elliot, HarperCollins, pb, NZ$40

Read Me Another One, Please! selected by Belynda Smith & Dorothy Dudek Vinicombe, Whitcoulls, hb, NZ$29.99

Born to Fly, Julian Arahanga, ill Andrew Burdan, Huia, pb, NZ$25

Victory at Point 209, Kawata Teepa, ill Andrew Burdan, Huia, pb, NZ$25

Jock Logan and the Sea Devil, Brent Leslie, Brent Leslie Books, pb, NZ$20

The ACB with Honora Lee, Kate De Goldi, Longacre [Random House], hb, $34.99

Alex, Tessa Duder, Whitcoulls Classic, pb, NZ$19.99

The Magic Flute, James Norcliffe, Longacre [Random House], pb, NZ$19.99