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Entertaining and thought-provoking story

26/1/2023

Nikolai's Quest
by D. Robinson

The subheading of this YA book, a search for answers and belonging, sums up the storyline very well.
Nikolai and Anna are brother and sister in an orphanage in St Petersburg. Or, are they truly orphans? Who is the man they see outside the gates watching them – could he be their father, or is he really dead as they’ve been told? That’s one of the answers they want to know.
Their search for the truth involves a map, secret tunnels and political intrigue. Working around the system, they use methods of information gathering that readers of the target age will identify with. I liked the fact that senior students at the orphanage work with the pair to bring about the conclusion. While all the children hope to find relatives or to be taken into new families, any threat is from outside the walls. Within the institution there is a sense of belonging – a family for children without one.
The novel is realistic, helped by front papers showing a map of the orphanage’s layout and copies of birth certificates for both children.
The New Zealand link to the story is that Nikolai and Anna are to be adopted by a Kiwi couple and brought here to live.
Along with the entertaining and thought-provoking story there’s an opportunity to learn a little about Russian history of the last century.
The cover, book design, and readable writing are all good and suitable for YA readers. A slight disappointment is that, despite a note that the book is written in UK English, US convention is used in the case of honorifics.
Recommended as a very good read for ages 10 to 16, or beyond.

Review by Jacqui Lynne

Title: Nikolai's Quest
Author: D. Robinson
Publisher: Rose & Fern Publishing
ISBN: 9780473633158
RRP: $20
Available: E-Book on Amazon, paperback from bookstores, Amazon and publisher www.roseandfernpublishing.nz

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Picture book chuckles

18/1/2023

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Who Took the Toilet Paper
by Amy Harrop & Jenny Cooper

Three things little ones like in a picture book –
– a story in verse form
– toilet humour
– great illustrations
This new title from Scholastic has all three.
It’s centred on the Bear family’s privy in the woods. Sorry, ‘privy’ is not a term used in the text. Toilet, dunny, loo, yes.
So, plenty of toilet humour – literal in this case.
Rhymes? Amy Harrop’s verses lay out the dilemma. While Father Bear sits, bum getting numb, the rest of the family, all busy creatures, race around trying to come up with a solution to the mystery, and his problem.
   We heard him growl and grumble,
   “What is this silly caper?
   I’ve been looking everywhere…
   Who took the toilet paper?”
That’s 2 of the 3. So to the illustrations. Jenny Cooper’s imagination excels here, making them a winner with children. The faces of the characters express the various responses beautifully.
The story might not be Dad’s favourite, for good reason, but the rest of the family should chuckle over this one.

Review by Emily R

Title: Who Took the Toilet Paper
Author: Amy Harrop & Jenny Cooper
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 9781775437659
RRP: $21.99
Available: bookshops

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Recommended to anyone

11/1/2023

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Mountains, Volcanoes, Coasts and Caves: Origins of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Natural Wonders
by Bruce W. Hayward
With aerial photography by Alastair Jamieson and Lloyd Homer

This is a truly wonderful book. A comprehensive journey though Aotearoa New Zealand and the many and varied geological points of interest.
Covering the country from Northland to the Bluff including Stewart and Chatham Islands, the construct is not unlike that of the many illustrated ‘places to vist’ volumes we see. In this one, though, instead of merely showing the beautiful scenery, the author looks underneath to divulge how it has been created. Despite having not had the opportunity to experience previous publications by Bruce Hayward, it is obvious to me from the outset that he possesses a vast scope of expertise in this area.
This approach is assisted ably by the beautiful photography and clear illustrations that accompany each short chapter. The photography, as mentioned in the introductory page, is astounding and it comes as no surprise that both contributors, Alastair Jamieson and Lloyd Homer, are highly respected in their own right.
In addition to being a thoroughly enjoyable read, this book is extremely educational and would be valuable required reading for anyone studying the geology of our unique country. There is also a full glossary of the more scientific language to help the reader gain a full understanding even if fresh to the subject.
From cooled lava flows to glacial moraine, wind and water erosion to plate movement and earthquakes, this volume has it all and my initial response was that a light had been shined on some very familiar sights, completely altering my appreciation of them. It mattered not that I had little or no previous knowledge or interest in any of the above, I found myself engrossed within a few pages.
I would recommend this book to anyone and most especially to anyone who would like to learn more about what has gone and is going on under our feet.

Review by George Hollinsworth

Title: Mountains, Volcanoes, Coasts and Caves: Origins of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Natural Wonders
Author: Bruce W. Hayward
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 9781869409678,
RRP: $69.99
Available: bookshops

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Lengthy & detailed memoir

3/1/2023

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Every Sign of Life, On family Ground
by Nicholas Lyon Gresson

When does a family history and memoir became a troubling exposé, or even a settling of scores? Nicholas Gresson’s lengthy book on his extended family, and his own journey around the difficult dynamics of his parents’ life, is certainly a troubling one. While the book is centred around his father’s suicide and mother’s character flaws, the aspects of his own history become secondary.
The Gresson family has a long association with the law, and the male side has provided generations of judicial figures. This is certainly worthy of an historical examination, but Nick Gresson doesn’t follow them into the law; even though he seems to have a fascination with aspects of it, it’s as a layman. The first part of the book also discusses other family members, especially a distaff side for which he holds a lot of affection. This is mostly based in the affluent Fendalton area of Christchurch.
Indeed, having some historical knowledge of Canterbury, if not the social dynamics of Christchurch city, makes it easier to follow the early parts of the book. Young Nick’s school days are interesting, as part of the social elite, including at Christ’s College. Then, with his father’s move to Auckland, after becoming a High Court judge, Gresson was able to escape the social conventions of Christchurch education. But he doesn’t head to university to study law, and, after a brief stint at the Fisher & Paykel firm, goes on the O.E. to London. Yet, once again he doesn’t stay on the career path, and in the mid 1960s he becomes a sailor on the other side of the Atlantic, on German registered ships.
The part of the book which follows his shipping days from New York down to various South American ports, and back, is probably the most interesting subject matter in the book. Certainly there are many adventures, and narrow escapes, and there are also numerous sexual liaisons with women in each port. In fact, there is a certain matter-of-factness, or brevity in this description, which may have helped in the rest of the book. But for all his travels in South America, and time spent on Thursday Island, off the Queensland coast, there are still the troubling letters from home.
It is in 1967 that Gresson finally returns home, and to Auckland, where he finds his father worn down by his mother’s invective and carping criticism. On page 450 Gresson refers to his mother’s ‘social character’, which is apparently based on something called the ‘ton principle’. This seems to be a set of attributes borrowed from the English elite, and creates some very judgemental attitudes and pointed criticisms. Maybe this explains part of what living in 1950s Fendalton was like. But other people growing up in Christchurch were also subject to puritanical and judgemental treatment that affected their later lives. The Gresson family life just became toxic, but Nick not only exposes the emotional cruelty of his mother, he goes on to implicate his sister as carrying on the strain.
Nick’s father Terence was the defence lawyer in the infamous Parker-Hulme murder trial in Christchurch. And Nick continues to hold a fascination with such trials, even trying to track down Juliet Hulme, in her new identity, when visiting Scotland on holiday. Perhaps his most interesting intervention was in the Arthur Allan Thomas case, when he helped track down a useful witness, as well as holding up a sign in support of Thomas while walking across the North Island. He claims the interviews that he conducted, and were sent to the Prime Minister, were influential in the royal commission being set up to exonerate Thomas. But it was actually his sister’s husband, a prominent Queens Counsel, who would be more directly involved in the review of the legal case. So the book remains a very lengthy and detailed of someone close to the action, but essentially a prodigal son.

Review by S A Boyce

Title: Every Sign of Life, On Family Ground
Author: Nicholas Lyon Gresson
Publisher: Quentin Wilson Publishing
ISBN: 9780995143777
RRP: $69.99
Available: bookshops

Comments

Entertaining and thought-provoking story

Picture book chuckles

Recommended to anyone

Lengthy & detailed memoir

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