All Categories - Flaxroots Productions

Pair of books recommended

27/9/2022

Ko Īhaka me te Manuwhiri i Puta Ohorere mai
Nā Kirsty Wadsworth, Nā Zak Waipara ngā pikitia, Nā Pānia Papa i whakamāori

He pukapuka tino pai ēnei, kua tuhi i roto i rua ngā reo, kotahi i roto i te reo Māori, kotahi atu i roto i te reo Ingarihi.
He aha te kōrero a enei pukapuka? Ko te paki o Īhaka me tana hui ki a Tariwhirimātea, me te ahua o etahi atu ngā atua – Tangaroa, Tane, Rūaumoko. Me he kapua iti kua ngaro.
Kei te mutunga ka whakaako ō mātou mō te tuawahine pono – te whaea o Īhaka!
He pikitia tino kara me ngā kupu ngawari mō ngā tamariki pakeke – me nga pāhake! He rārangi kupu hoki kei roto i te pukapuka kua tuhia i roto i te reo Māori.
He pukapuka pārekareka, he ngahau (i roto i ngā reo e rua), me he maha ngā mea hei ako mō te ao Māori.
Ka kite ahau nā te aha ēnei pukapuka i toa ai i te ‘Storylines Joy Cowley Award’.
Pai te tuhi, te whakaahua, te whakaatu.
Ka tino taunaki ahau i tēnei pukapuka takirua.

Īhaka and the Unexpected Visitor
by Kirsty Wadsworth, illustrations by Zak Waipara

These are excellent books, written in two languages, one in the Māori language, the other in the English language.
What is the story of these books? The tale of Īhaka and his meeting with Tawhirimātanga, and the appearance of other gods – Tangaroa,Tāne, Rūaumoko. As well as a lost little cloud.
At the end we learn about the true heroine – the mother of Īhaka!
There are very colourful pictures with easy words for older children – and adults! There is a glossary in the book written in the Māori language also.
An entertaining and interesting book (in two languages), and there’s lots of things to learn about the Māori world.
I see why these books won the ‘Storylines Joy Cowley Award’.
Well-written, illustrated, presented.
I strongly recommend this pair of books.

Review nā Dr Vaughan Rapatahana (Te Ātiawa)

Titles: Ko Īhaka me te Manuwhiri i Putu Ohorere Mai
& Īhaka and the Unexpected Visitor
Author: Kirsty Wadsworth; Zak Waipara illustrator
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 9781775437574
RRP: $19.99
Available: bookshops

Wartime childhood sensitively portrayed

30/8/2022

Johnathan
by Richard Brooke
with Elise Brooke

Johnathan is written from the perspective of a young boy, 4-16 years old, growing up in Yorkshire England during the 1940’s. It is based on the life of the author and published posthumously by his daughter Elise as a tribute to him. She notes that she didn’t know her father as her parents divorced when she was four years old, so the book was a revelation for her.
Johnathan lives with his father, mother and older brother (4 or 5 years his senior), in Manchester. When WWII breaks out, his father enlists with the Navy and his mother struggles to raise the two boys on her own. Johnathan describes his confusion and lack of understanding, but soon the excitement of starting school eclipses his worries. He is close to his mother, and notices that her health starts to deteriorate.
His brother is sent to boarding school, Johnathan sees his father when he is on leave and notes the arrival of refugee children from London. He is, however, largely concerned, as small children are, with their own world. As the realities of war move closer to his home, trips to bomb shelters and landing of an undetonated bomb behind his aunt’s house are described with excitement.
Then the Barton Docks are bombed and his house is destroyed. Fortunately he and his mother escape with minor injuries and receive overwhelming support from their local community and family. They move to Manchester to live with his aunt, however his mother’s poor health means that she is admitted to a hospital for a long period of time.
Johnathan is close to his aunt and uncle and has good friends at school. When his uncle becomes sick, his aunt arranges for him to be cared for by a Lord and Lady who support naval officers in need. He lives in relative luxury, but a couple of boyish mishaps, or perhaps rebellious acts, mean that he is sent away to “the Institute”. Johnathan struggles to adjust with the constant change and separation from his family.
Finally, the war is over. His mother buys a cottage and they eagerly await the return of his father. Tragically, events conspire against him and Johnathan is sent back to the Institute. Johnathan again struggles to adapt and cope with School Certificate. The book ends as he contemplates a future career.
“Johnathan” is written in conversational style in a large font and almost double spacing, and at 170 pages is an engaging read, suitable for young adults. On the downside, grammatical, spelling, capitalisation and formatting errors on every page are a distraction. Exclamation marks are overused. An editor would have quickly spotted that a whole section is repeated at the beginning and end and provided some context such as a description of the social and geographical setting.
Overall, the first-person perspective, emotional upheavals, powerful family bonds, sense of loss and phases of grief are sensitively portrayed. How children are protected, perhaps unnecessarily, from reality is revealed as he discovers the cause of his mother’s mystery illness.

Review by Bee Greenfield

Title: Johnathan
Authors: Richard Brooke with Elise Brooke
Publisher: Elise Brooke
ISBN: 9798541054927
RRP: $28.00
Available: As paperback, and ebook. Amazon, Book depository and direct from author elisebrooke771@gmail.com

New Zealand legend revived

24/8/2022

Pelorus Jack the Dolphin Guide
by Susan Brocker
& Raymond McGrath

There’s been much written about Pelorus Jack over the 130 plus years since the first appearance of the dolphin that was to become part of New Zealand folklore for many years, spanning the turn of the centuries 1800s to 1900s.
All grandparents and many parents will most likely be aware of the name, and this picture book, just published, will introduce it to a further generation and help preserve the legend.
The story as it is told in prose by Susan Brocker, creatively mixes fact with lines designed to add character to the animal –
Once, he found a spiny crayfish hiding beneath a rock. He tried to tempt it
   out by nudging it with his nose….
   One morning the dolphin felt the pulse and vibration of a huge creature
     moving through the sea. Excited, he dashed off to investigate.
Such additions that anthropomorphize the subject seem acceptable in this case since Pelorus Jack was named by humans who came to attribute to him guardian status as he was believed to guide rather than merely accompany ships through the Marlborough Sounds.
The inclusion of snippets of history, dolphin facts, and Maori lore add greatly to the story’s appeal.
As with all Scholastic’s books, this one is attractively produced. Raymond McGrath’s illustrations are perfect, capturing the majesty of the Sounds, the sea and birdlife, and the human interaction.

Review by Emily R

Title: Pelorus Jack the Dolphin Guide
Author: Susan Brocker & Raymond McGrath
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 9781775437475
RRP: $19.99
Available: bookshops

Perceptive detective work on fascinating character

10/8/2022

Thief, Convict, Pirate, Wife – The Many Histories of Charlotte Badger
by Jennifer Ashton

The author of Thief, Convict, Pirate, Wife is a technical writer and editor with a degree in history.
It's not surprising then that the back 30 pages of the book contain notes citing sources, a 13-page bibliography, acknowledgements and an index. This is a serious and well-researched work.
The subject, Charlotte Badger, has been written about extensively, sung about, even portrayed on stage numerous times before. Convicted deportee to Australia, escaped convict, pirate – the legend has been gold-plated inspiration for novelists, balladeers, and creative writers of several genres.
But how much of it is fact? Jennifer Ashton talks about the intersection of fiction and non-fiction in her thoughtful introduction. It is a subject she returns to in the final part where she puts the story, fact and fiction, into fuller perspective.
Overall, this work sets out to establish the facts which it does, as much as is now possible, in six chapters.
After covering the background of the social conditions in 18th century England and the justice system of which Charlotte Badger was a detainee for years, comes details of the 7-month long voyage to Australia. Crowding, the dark and damp of below decks, the pitching and rolling of the small ship, inadequate food, all contributed to illness and 35 deaths – a 12% mortality rate among the prisoners.
In chapter 3 the author seeks to discover the truth of Charlotte’s life from then on – not a straightforward task because of the need to unravel fact from much fiction. The following part, which deals with Charlotte Badger’s association with Aotearoa is the result of perceptive detective work by Jennifer Ashton who has examined all available sources and pieced together details to produce the most likely scenario.
Broad indications of the latter stages of Charlotte’s life can be made as she is traceable through official records, but a deal of supposition is still necessary in order to fill in gaps.
Together, the chapters give a good summary of life as it was over the time in England, east coast Australia, and Aotearoa. Ten illustrations help add detail.
For those readers who fancy the thought of a cut-throat female wielding a cutlass and wearing a skull and crossbones decorated hat, the findings may come as a disappointment regarding Charlotte herself, but there’s still plenty in this well-researched work to inspire and inform a good deal of further fiction.

Review by Bronwyn Elsmore

Title: Thief, Convict, Pirate, Wife – The Many Histories of Charlotte Badger
Author: Jennifer Ashton
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 9781869409579
RRP: $35
Available: bookshops

YA novel with local setting

30/7/2022

Just Keep Going
by Donna Blaber

Since Becky arrived in New Zealand recently, she’s felt she is in a foreign country, far from the UK home she knows.
True, her Dad is here, but his focus is on his second wife, Becky’s stepmother, and their baby. She has no friends her own age and the pandemic with its lockdown, and the added complication of the MIQ draw, increases her sense of isolation.
She does, though, have a windsurfer and there's a great local beach where she can use it. Not only does this entertain her, but it presents challenges and leads to a mystery.
The story is a very readable light adventure featuring, as well as the joys of windsurfing, environmental concerns, a dolphin that seems to want to communicate something, and a couple of baddies to add to the intrigue. Add to those, a mystical/magical element – not overdone, so acceptable even to sceptics.
The language is colloquial and chosen for the intended audience of 11 to 14 years – yeah na, chur bro.
Just Keep Going is set in Northland, in the Whangarei-Tutukaka-Ngunguru area.
For those who may need a little help with some terminology, probably overseas readers, there’s a short glossary at the end. The book is attractively produced.
Though Just Keep Going fits into the ‘Just’ series of YA titles, this is a stand-alone book.

Ed note: Just Remember, another title in the series was reviewed by FlaxFlower in August 2021

Review by Emily R

Title: Just Keep Going
Author: Donna Blaber
Publisher: Lighthouse Media Group
ISBN: 978-1-927229-78-1
RRP: $25.00
Available: bookshops

Standing on the shrinking shore

14/7/2022

No Other Place to Stand: An Anthology of Climate Change Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand
Editors: Jordan Hamel, Rebecca Hawkes, Erik Kennedy, Essa Ranapiri
with a foreword by Alice Te Punga Somerville and afterword by Rod Carr

We are all children of the land. Most of us have long, long forgotten the fact, and this collection is an emphatic reminder of where we came from and where our responsibilities lie.
Appropriately, the call is led by poets of the Pacific, the people who are standing on the shrinking shore, watching the waters crawl up around their ankles; Karlo Mila says, ‘we are the canaries in the coal mines of climate change’ (p 93, ‘Poem for the Commonwealth’).
The collection of 91 poems is a response to a call in 2020 for submissions giving experiences of our threatened world, specifically in New Zealand, when bushfires across the sea were visible here and the pandemic began to take off. It is not a how-to guide on correcting the past, nor is it for the most part an exercise in laying blame: it is a collection of experiences and impressions.
The poems themselves have shapes that range from formal to informal: there is Brent Cantwell’s terzanelle ‘the sounds of Mallacoota’ (p 74) and Craig Santos Perez’ recycling of a Neruda sonnet (p 43). There are concrete, experimental poems from, among others, Tate Fountain (p 157, ‘Countdown’), Tru Paraha (p 134, ‘in my darkling universe’), and Frances Libau (p 199, ‘Escape the Weather’).Tara Black (p 168, ‘Just Right’) presents scenes from a graphic novel. And there’s everything in between: the collection could be used as an illustration of styles.
The poems’ awesome variety of images speak from the vocabulary of Aotearoa, the vocabulary of islands all over the Pacific, the vocabulary of the world-weary, and the vocabulary of an iPhone world. There’s a huge variety of conditions and situations described, and many ways of describing them. Cindy Botha vividly illustrates the awfulness of it all in her image of ‘Hermit Crab in a Doll’s Head’ (p 102); Roman Parrott’s ‘Burn’ (p 138) gives words to a scary and uncompromising over-soul.
So what single message does the book have? The word if floats through the poets’ remarks but goes all over the place from there: if we do this, if we change that, if we stop doing the other.My (personal) reading keeps coming back to a failure of faith: since we can’t erase consuming greed from the human race, retroactively or otherwise, we can at least try to honour each other, even if we do have a private grumble once we get home.
   There’s too much expressed here to pick and choose evidence from individuals; rather, I’ll just quote (in its entirety) Craig Santos Perez’ sonnet mentioned earlier, ‘Love in a Time of Climate Change’:
   I don’t love you as if you were rare earth metals,
   conflict diamonds, or reserves of crude oil that cause
   war. I love you as one loves the most vulnerable
   species: urgently, between the habitat and its loss.

   I love you as one loves the last seed saved
   within a vault, gestating the heritage of our roots,
   and thanks to your body, the taste that ripens
   from its fruit still lives sweetly on my tongue.

   I love you without knowing how or when this world
   will end. I love you organically, without pesticides.
   I love you like this because we’ll only survive

   in the nitrogen-rich compost of our embrace,
   so close that your emissions of carbon are mine,
   so close that your sea rises with my heat.

Review by Mary Cresswell

Title: No Other Place to Stand: An Anthology of Climate Change Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand
Editors: Jordan Hamel, Rebecca Hawkes, Erik Kennedy, Essa Rana
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 978 1 86940 955 5
RRP: $29.99
Available: bookshops

Simple tale will appeal

4/7/2022

Kororā and the Sushi Shop
by Linda Jane Keegan
Jenny Cooper, illustrator

You’ll likely remember hearing and seeing in the news a while back about penguins that took a liking to the shelter provided by a Wellington sushi shop. It’s the sort of lighter item that we latch onto to help balance the usual heavier fare, and this one was picked up and reported in several overseas countries as well as here.
Three years on, the story pops up again, in the form of a picture book, promoted as “a New Zealand story inspired by true events”.
Over 24 pages, the basic story of a pair of little blue penguins, kororā, is told in rhyming couplets –
              Waddling her way to the sushi shop door,
            she found a wee gap to squeeze under the floor.
      Kororā tucked herself in for a rest,
      and transformed the hideaway into her nest.
It’s a simple tale that will appeal to small children. They will learn from it too – the last page of ‘penguin particulars’ contains facts about these little seabirds.
The illustrations are excellent, setting the scene for the events very well.

Review by Emily R

Title: Kororā and the Sushi Shop
Author: Linda Jane Keegan; Jenny Cooper, illustrator
Publisher: Scholastic NZ
ISBN: 9781775437185
RRP: $19.99
Available: bookshops

Stories ideal length to pick up

23/6/2022

Pocket Money & Other Stories
by Vivienne Lingard

The 21 stories in this collection might have been written or selected to present a balance, they being neatly divided in terms of first and third person narration, and with males and females as central figures – their ages spanning the life range though with a preference for youngish adults.
The characters are New Zealanders but the settings of the stories are also fairly even divided between this country and overseas locations. In New Zealand people live in or visit Dunedin, Wellington, Napier, Nelson-Motueka, Manawatu or pop up on the Heaphy track. Elsewhere we meet them in London, Delhi, Prague, Rome, New York.
Their voices vary, particularly and appropriately in those with first-person narration.
In one respect, however, they depart from this spread. The human subjects are Anglo, European – apart from one story, there is little mention of Aotearoa as a Pacific nation.
Despite this, I find two I particularly enjoy are set elsewhere – a woman visits New York with her brother, “forty-two, but he could have been nine”; and in the very short How To Make A Bear, a woman talks to a pair of children in a train on the Piccadilly line. The best of human nature is reflected in these two tales.
Overall, they tend towards the vignette or slice-of-life style short story. Art is a recurrent and well-handled theme, a reflection no doubt of the author’s background as an artist. In broader subject matter, though there are such situations as broken marriages and family problems, they largely avoid the darker areas of human society.
Why, then, the dark and depressing cover, I wonder? In one tale, Ways of Riding a Storm, there’s a description of a picture that makes a woman shiver – “a skinny girl standing in a dark alley, teardrops spilling from wide googly eyes…it was ugly and downright depressing.” Not exactly the cover pic but close enough to accentuate the question why?
The stories in this collection are all of an ideal length to pick up and read in a break, or in bed – none too long. The beginnings pull the reader into each, and all reward the time spent.

Review by Norma D. Plum

Title: Pocket Money & Other Stories
Author: Vivienne Lingard
Publisher: Artistry Publishing
ISBN: 9780473619336
RRP: $37.99
Available: bookshops

Beautiful book to celebrate new holiday

9/6/2022

Matariki Around the World
by Rangi Matamua & Miriama Kamo
with Isobel Joy Te Aho-White

From the first sight, and touch for even the feel of it is seductive, I was in love with this beautiful book, published in good time for the first celebration of Matariki as a national public holiday,
My admiration grew as I read through the 80 pages, the first section of which gives a simple explanation of the cluster of stars we know here as Matariki, and the stories of the legendary figures which make it up. All are given their own story, placing them within the wider scope of Maori cosmology.
If you know any of the Matariki songs that have become popular over the past few years, you’ll find yourself singing to yourself as you turn the pages – Tipuānuku, Tipuārangi, Waitī, Waitā…
The accessible language of the text makes it especially suitable for children, but it should appeal to all ages, even up to grandparents. The conversational tone lends itself to reading aloud to little ones.
Each story is accompanied by stunning supporting illustrations – note the appropriate choice of colour in each. The only reservation I have here is, even though beautiful artistically, the coloured print of some of the text against the background artwork may be difficult to read by those with poor sight or in low light levels.
The first section, to page 37, deals with Maori lore, then it moves to corresponding stories of the same star cluster in other cultures in each inhabited continent. In the Pacific, we learn of Matariki equivalents in Cook Islands, Tahiti, Hawaii, and Australia. Asian legends are from Japan, China, and India. Further stories from Africa, Europe, Scandinavia, North and South America tell how the group is viewed in other cultures. Between them there are many similarities.
The book also includes a short glossary of terms used and an index for quick reference.
Full praise must be accorded to the team – authors, Rangi Matamua and Miriama Kamo, and illustrator Isobel Joy Te Aho-White. In spite of my slight reservation mentioned above, I’d like to nominate the publishing team for a design award. This is a volume that may be produced with children in mind, but it can take its place with pride on any coffee table in the country.

Review by Bronwyn Elsmore

Title: Matariki Around the World
Authors: Rangi Matamua & Miriama Kamo, with Isobel Joy Te Aho-White
Publisher: Scholastic NZ
ISBN: 9781775437420
RRP: $34.99
Available: bookshops

Novel sparks memories of 1970s & ‘80s

1/6/2022

If That’s What It Takes
by Les Allen

Les Allen’s book rollicks through the New Zealand of the 1970s and 1980s in 231 pages and some 97,000 words. In the main it is a nostalgic evocation of what many of us remember as ‘the good old days’ when a fax machine was a novelty; when hair was long; when trousers were flared; when only cissies drank stubbies or wine; when ladies brought plates to functions; when evenings before the TV ended (much earlier than at present) with ‘Goodnight Kiwi’, and when overseas experts knew much more than we did about anything that wasn’t involved with agriculture or rugby.
The story revolves around a Northland lawyer, Jim Mansell, who appears able to solve the problems of anyone who consults him, through a mixture of tactical ‘nous’, good fortune, loyal staff and an absolutely unsustainable workload.
He needs to do so because the villains of the piece, who range from Mansell’s crooked law partner to a ruthless captain of industry by way of a plethora of hard-hearted bureaucrats, feckless farmers, rugby-obsessed teenagers, dodgy financiers and ethically-challenged real estate operatives have all adopted, as a motto and modus operandi, the slogan of the title — “If That’s What it Takes”.
Throughout, the villains are deep-dyed and black, and Mansell and his faithful legal executive, Natalie, and his ever-resourceful secretary Kelly, battle on through setback, betrayal and disaster. They are aided by the peripatetic Rory, reputedly a private investigator, who seems never to have had any training in those dark arts, and Tony, the law firm’s accountant who is an ever-present figure of doom.
The story develops against a background of New Zealand icons: an idyllic landscape with Land Rovers, Holden Commodores, Morris Marinas to the fore, and self-taught engineers, a ‘Dally’ who has prospered through hard work and shrewdness, several ex-rugby players, and the odd boat-owning fatcat.
The work isn’t without its drawbacks. Time intervals tend towards the unrealistic and/or contrived and some episodes and characters appear to offer little to the story as a whole, but generally the book presents a pre-Internet New Zealand that seems much more than forty years ago. Or am I showing my age?

Review by M J Burr

Title: If That’s What It Takes
Author: Les Allen
Publisher: Illustra Press
ISBN: 978-0-473-60765-4
RRP: $37.95
Available: bookshops

FlaxFlower Reviews

Reviews on this page are of New Zealand books – that is, written by Kiwi authors.
They are written by independent reviewers not known to the authors.

Join the posting list
If you'd like to receive an email when a new book review is posted, please respond via the CONTACT function above.

If you are a Kiwi author
and would like your book reviewed send an email via this site and you’ll be sent further details. Give details of genre, length, short description, and formats available – print, ebook (Kindle, Kobo etc). You will need to provide one book free to the reviewer.

If you’d like to be a reviewer
send an email via this site giving details of your experience/expertise what genres interest you, and the formats you will consider – print, ebook (Kindle, Kobo etc). If possible, include a URL of one of your published reviews.
Offer only if you take the task seriously and are certain you will deliver the review.

Archives

September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013

Categories