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Fairy story based on true event

29/12/2021

The Essential Fairy
by Anna Kenna

“In the land of the kiwi the borders were shut,
planes were all grounded and services cut.
Cities were empty, people unseen.
All because of a virus called COVID-19.”

The tale in this attractive well-produced picture book is based on an event that lightened the mood of a nation coming to grips with such changed social conditions brought about by the virus; being the story of the granting of essential worker status to the Tooth Fairy, along with the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.
      Six year old Ruth’s dilemma over a lost tooth with no chance of recompense is put together with Val the Tooth Fairy’s sadness at not being able to visit her, and others in the same situation.
   A solution is needed, and it is met at the highest level.
   The story is told in rhyming couplets. Though the metre is irregular, the reading reasonably easy.
   Illustrations are suitably New Zealand. Even though the tradition of the Tooth Fairy is of Northern European origin, the pictures supporting the verses reflect the local aspect of the true event that sparked this story. Planes grounded at the airport have the koru on their tails, it’s a tui perching on a tree branch, and there’s no mistaking the cartoon-style likenesses of Prime Minister Jacinda Adern and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield.
   The book has a dedication to “all New Zealand workers who kept New Zealand running during the COVID-19 pandemic (including the Tooth Fairy).”
   So, it’s very much a kiwi story, but it would be nice to think it will follow the pandemic much further – to countries wherever the fairy herself works.

Review by Emily R

Title: The Essential Fairy
Author: Anna Kenna
Publisher: CP Books with Tiromoana Publishing
ISBN: 9781991156006
RRP: $20
Available: bookshops

1 Comment

A pleasure to have and to read

22/12/2021

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The Sea Walks into a Wall
by Anne Kennedy

The sea walks into a wall – and therein lies a whole book full of tales, in different styles and formats, all of them engrossing and a joy to read. Kennedy takes us from her earlier years in Island Bay to the outer edges of Polynesia, back and forth through time and structure.
     We start out in fresh water in Mānoa, Hawaii, about as far as you can get from New Zealand and still be in Polynesia. The stories in the first section look at ideas being considered as product, the commercialisation of thought, and the poet throws us right into it:

     The problem is – and it’s a very big problem – there is an art school
    at the fucking polytech.
     The art school is in an old chip factory, it is loud, fun and shocking,
    and history and memory,
    ...
    The seven members of the polytechnic executive committee
    with their various
   chief executive academic provost professor business-partner headdresses
    hear about the goings-on
    at the art school – the entertainment, reflection, representation – and they are
    filled with dread.
    They are careful never to stray near the old chip factory
    especially after dark.
      (‘Light On in the Garden’ pp. 20, 21)

Warning: the ending is not a happy one.
The second section comes closer to hints on survival in a totally screwed world, including dealing with new improved bits of civilisation you neither want nor need. This story begins in the section ‘Action’, pulling us along subsequent pages with the refrain “You’d go down there and you’d.”
      Island Bay has a new sea wall.
   Old sea wall, new sea wall.
   The sea used to love the wall.
   Now it hates the wall, it hates
   on it.
   The sea crashes its glass onto the bar.
   You watch from afar.
   You’d take it all back if you could. Everything.
   You’d go down there and you’d.
   Island Bay has a new sea wall.
   It’s the wall to end all walls.
               (‘The Sea Walks into a Wall’, p 50)
‘Warp and Aho: A Part-life in Flax, for Eileen Te Aho’ is a truly magnificent talking tāniko, precisely spaced and presented, although interrupted periodically by rude colonial noises. Like other tāniko, its layout is a crucial part of the story, and although the poet makes it clear that  “I will be quoting substantially     from the harakeke”, you can see that “the conundrum      holds everything in check” ... (p 71). You will need to read the whole story, stand back and admire it, then read it again.
This is a great collection of poems/ stories/ tidal events – a pleasure to have and to read.

Review by Mary Cresswell

Title: The Sea Walks into a Wall
Author: Anne Kennedy
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 978 1 86940 958 6
RRP: $24.99
Available: bookshops

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Twists and turns in enjoyable read

16/12/2021

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The Lighthouse
by Christopher Parker

Separated by hundreds of miles, yet drawn to each other by forces they can’t understand, Amy and Ryan spend a magical day together and quickly forge a deep connection. But all is not as it seems….
This is a love story. Not just romantic love but a daughter and son’s love for their mother and father, a father’s love for his son, a father’s love for his daughter. A mother’s love for her daughter. A love of duty, of place. And between two young people who discover each other in strange times.
I enjoyed this book. Its twists and turns I can’t describe as they would become spoilers. Just know there was a moment when realization struck me and I swore out loud because of the unexpectedness. This rarely happens for me when I read. Usually, I can spot plot points a mile away so thanks to Parker for the joy of discovery.
I found the main characters loveable, very human in their flaws, and Parker is a deft hand at dialogue. If I found some of the dialogue repetitive and some over-writing in exposition, it wasn’t really at the expense of the story itself, but I did skim read once or twice. In counterbalance, I read frantically once too, desperate to find out what came next. I have to say, when I closed the final page, my thought was, this would make a great film.
The spooky development of the story was great and its buildup believable. I would read anything else by this author. It was fun to live in his imagination for a day. Thanks to Christopher Parker for an enjoyable read.

Review by T J Ramsay

Title: The Lighthouse
Author: Christopher Parker
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 9780995149502
RRP: $30
Available: bookshops

0 Comments

Different is good

9/12/2021

1 Comment

A Peacock in the Pantry, and some Rare Breeds on a Canterbury farm
by June Allen
inspired by Glenda Goatley and her fluffy friends

It’s a children’s book, but not as we usually know it.
Not a picture book, though there are pictures – coloured photos of birds and animals on a particular Canterbury farm.
It opens with a story of a raid by a bird thief. That is, it is the bird who’s the thief. Then the text moves to an explanation of various residents of the farm – rare breeds being safeguarded as part of a managed breeding programme for posterity.
Along the way it’s informative. I learned, among other things, about non-flying ducks; then read about several animal characters – a sheep with horns a metre long, a pig that plays like a dog, a donkey that rounds up ponies.
So, it’s a children’s book with a difference. Different is good. A Peacock in the Pantry reminded me of School Journals. Remember those?
The educational intention is supported by the addition of a one-page vocabulary with explanations.
A good gift for 8-12 year olds with an interest in bird and animal life, and conservation.

Review by Emily R

Title: A Peacock in the Pantry, and some Rare Breeds on a Canterbury farm
Author: June Allen
Publisher: Kwizzel Publishing
ISBN: NZ print: 978-0-473-57764-3. Amazon print: 978-0-473-57765-0
RRP: $NZ22.00 Direct sales: $NZ24.50 incl postage in NZ
From Amazon $US12.35 + freight
Available: author https://juneallenstories.weebly.com/
Email: kwizzelnewzealand@gmail.com
Glenlothian farm https://www.glenlothianfarm.co.nz/
Wheelers https://www.wheelers.co.nz; All Books www.allbooksnz.com;
Writers Plot bookshop https://writersplot.org.nz; Amazon.com

1 Comment

Beautiful artwork

2/12/2021

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What Colour Is The Sky?
by Laura Shallcrass

If I was expecting vibrant shades of blue and white, or pink and apricot, even purple, I was wrong.
The artwork is beautiful – bold and delicate – yes, definitely beautiful. But while the artwork is most pleasing, I am left confused.
So, to look at this book as a whole, it’s most attractive with its hard cover. But appealing to what age group? The writing is simple, the plot or intention perhaps not entirely suiting the simplicity of the writing.
We get to hedgehog, and I searched hard for what I expected the NZ hedgehog to look like. Is he the creature with the big ears and fluffy fur loosely curled beneath the branches of a tree? My expectation was of a spiny animal with almost unnoticeable ears, a white chin ruff, tightly curled into a ball.
Back to the sky colour. To me, it is sombre, muddy shades of blue-ish green. Again, the artwork is beautiful, and the clouds delightful.
So, for Ruru the sky is deepest blue - because it is night time and he is generally around at night time? This is clarified in the interesting Learning Notes at the end of the book, but perhaps could have been explained earlier. These notes are of interest particularly for me as I had no idea about the way each animal interprets colour and why.
But for a younger reader? This brings me back to the targeted audience.
When I asked a group what colour the sky was their replies were immediate and identical. Blue.

Review by Susan Tarr

Title: What Colour is the Sky?
Author: Laura Shallcrass
Publisher: Beatnik Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9951423-3-6
RRP: $30
Available: bookshops

0 Comments

Fairy story based on true event

A pleasure to have and to read

Twists and turns in enjoyable read

Different is good

Beautiful artwork

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