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A satisfying, meaty read

30/3/2015

Collected Poems 2008-2014
by Mercedes Webb-Pullman

  I have read many of Webb-Pullman’s poems in publications and usually find something to appreciate in all of them, and I like many in their entirety, too. So, anticipation. A good solid collection is what I expected, and that’s what I got. I expected to say, on a casual run-through, that Collected Poems 2008-2014 is a satisfying, meaty read.
  The Singing Bones …We sing of tides, slow shifts that claim us…
  And in many ways, it is a satisfying, meaty read. How could it be otherwise with a writer of this competence? So well-read. Such an extensive vocabulary. Her passion for detail and dissection.

That satellite as it stitches time and place together –
Will it teach drabardi how to wring water from stone?
Webb-Pullman is frank and fearless, and each poem carries its publication details like an endorsement. And yet, overall, in some strange manner, this collection lets her down. It’s like a private album, a scrapbook, where you stick everything as it comes to you – chronological order. So what gets lost is any ranking of the items; any readerly sense of relative importance. So you turn the page and there’s a silly parody of Larkin.
  … you needn’t have kept the keys
to the other country.
Bridges never burn easily.
Sometimes the glass remains empty.
Lonely people don’t live longer
that’s only how it feels.
I think Webb-Pullman needed an external editor who could have assisted in finding a thematic arrangement that would have suited a better intention. Not to collate together all her poems ‘lest we forget.’ But to display a selection that would have allowed easier comparison of this and that, encourage a better appreciation of her style, her thoroughness, the deep intensity she offers that needs space to be defined.
  And at these stars
darkness must stop. From this one sky
stars synthesize oceans of sound
in whose white shine the cave
slides open…
I would have liked a clustering of poems that offered contrasts throughout the entirety of what’s put together here. Perhaps I have worked with books too much. I know that content and format have to co-operate and co-exist; that overall the product has to demonstrate flow and unity. To be organic, in the sense that Coleridge intended.
  The tohunga said the omens are right
  the full moon of autumn reddens the beach
  waves lick at the rocks. You feel the wind bite
  like a taniwha.
Here, that flow and unity has been lost through the petty irritations of what hasn’t happened. Minor details that jar. For example, there’s no imprint – an ISBN, but no details on the title page reverse of who by and where published – a mandatory statement.
  Then those tags of who had previously published what poem and where. Distracting. Almost they dare you not to approve of Webb-Pullman’s poems, admire her skills, the expertise of the poet. Yet for me that external endorsement is an unnecessary flourish that gets between me and the poetry. I’m being coerced into admiring Webb-Pullman’s undoubted skill at putting words together when what I wanted to do was dip and browse, read once, read twice, come up with my own evaluation and a private list of favourites.
  What would I choose? I don’t know. I was unable to come to any clear-cut decision. The literary and historical references sometimes make what I am appreciating come across as a workshop exercise where technique triumphs over feeling.
  Harnessing what is written to a name, an event, a style or form of expression.
  The decision to put together a collection of poem might have been correct. How it was done seems, ultimately to have failed the poetry and the poet.
  Images flicker into black and white
  color fades, gone the scents of
  horses, dogbush, dust
  trailing hoofbeats, laughter, whips…

Review by Jenny Argante

Title: Collected Poems 2008 - 2014
Author: Mercedes Webb-Pullman
ISBN: 9781503070578
Publisher: Bench Press
Available: Unity Books, Wellington; POD and Kindle on Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/dp/1503070573/; Bench Press www.benchpress.co.nz

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Ideal for toddlers

25/3/2015

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Buzzy Bee’s Birthday Party & Buzzy Bee’s Food Shapes
by Joy Cowley
Illustrations by Richard Hoit

You can hardly go wrong buying these two books as presents for toddlers – the main character is New Zealand wooden toy icon Buzzy Bee, and the author is Joy Cowley, who has written hundreds of children’s books, many of those award winning.
    Joy Cowley really ‘gets’ the way to write a book for very young children, with simple vocabulary, repetition of sentences, and minimal detail, which allows the point of the story to be clear to small children.
   These books introduce early maths skills of counting and shape identification. They are simple stories with a funny end (at a toddler level of humour!).
   The characters will be recognised by parents and grandparents as well known New Zealand children’s wooden toys, and children will also recognise them from their popular television show.
   Being small, easy to hold board books with colourful illustrations, these books are ideal for toddlers. With their simple language, they may also be good for children who are starting to learn to read for themselves.

Review by Annie Whiterod

Buzzy Bee’s Birthday Party
Buzzy Bee’s Food Shapes
Author: Joy Cowley; illustrator Richard Hoit
Available: bookshops

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Adventure and intrigue

16/3/2015

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Outlanders
by Margaret Beames

It is good that books by this popular Author are being republished and are again available to be enjoyed by a further group of readers. This one was first published in 2000 by Scholastic, and was a finalist in the NZ Post Children's book awards in 2001.
In Outlanders, a "long winter", the result of a cosmic event, has altered life on Earth. But there is a community of people who have isolated themselves in the DOME and have managed to live a very successful life for several generations, apart from the world they once knew.
Outside in the wasteland is another community, also surviving, though with much less, and without the benefits of creature comforts or the technology that was once known on Earth.
It is inevitable that these two communities will eventually come into contact and this comes about through the inquisitiveness of our young heroine, Rhiane A'Dare, who manages to spend three days on the outside. On returning, Rhiane faces the Dome people with what she has seen.
The story has adventure, a touch of romance, intrigue, and the odd twist that makes it very readable. I recommend it to younger teenagers from intermediate level up to young adults, who enjoy a touch of science fiction that could contain a grain of truth.

Review by Merilyn Mary

Outlanders
Author: Margaret Beames
Publisher: Rangitawa Publishing
ISBN: 978-0994108876 (paper only)
Available: from the author [email protected], from Rangitawa Publishing, and from Amazon.

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Book brings first-hand learning into focus

10/3/2015

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The Emotional Challenges of Immigration Strategies and stories of those who stayed
by Ellie Baker

When I took on this book for review, I thought it would contain all sorts of advice I didn’t need. After all, I had immigrated almost half a century before and I think of myself as a Kiwi. Most of the time, anyway. Occasionally someone comments on my accent (usual example: “Where are you from?” someone asks. “Auckland,” says I. “Oh, yes, well, I mean, ah, you have an accent…”). I forget I’m different, forget I stand apart by my accent and occasionally by my reactions. This little book brought all the learning I’ve done into focus.
Important example: when my children were small, I was acutely aware that my parents lived in another continent, another hemisphere. No ringing up for a handy babysitter. No getting advice over cups of tea. No support network of any kind. It was tough. I’d forgotten how tough until reading this book and realising how isolated I’d been at that time and how important my friends became. How useful this book would have been to me back then. How useful it will be to people like me new to a chosen country.
Ellie Baker has included a huge variety of subjects that impact the immigrant, more than I would have guessed prior to reading it. The chapter on overseas visitors is priceless and made me yearn for the times when my late parents came out here, throwing our lives into chaos in our struggle to give them a wonderful time.
Another subject I loved reading about was the farewelling of your overseas visitors. She talks of PLT (pre-leaving tension – lovely, isn’t it). Those silly thoughts…this is the last lunch we’ll have…this is the last night, I must make it fantastic…tomorrow she’ll be gone – that sort of thing.
The actual leaving can be fraught. My mother and I had a pact. We arrive at the airport, busying ourselves with the minutiae of baggage and boarding passes until we find ourselves at the yawning opening which swallows up passengers. The one of us leaving turns to the other with a quick hug and says, “See ya,” and walks through without looking back. It’s the surgeon’s scalpel that heals. We did that for decades. So good, so very very good. It certainly suited us although maybe there are people out there who enjoy the crying, long hugs, more wailing, promises over and over again to return the visit etc. but, for the life of me (as my mother would say), I can’t imagine it’s actually enjoyable… “See ya.” And turn away towards the life you’ve chosen.
There are several notable chapters, the one on marriage (immigrant vs mixed, meaning only one is an immigrant) and the one on separation and divorce are excellent and full of experiences of the various people Ellie Baker interviewed (I could add a few experiences of my own here…). In fact, these interviews make up a good proportion of the book. Often her interviewees don’t agree. Of course, we always get Ellie’s own first-hand experience story.
Each chapter always ends with a short set of bullet-points about the topics covered. Then a list of strategies for coping in difficult circumstances. Somehow that synopsis lets it all fall into place. Each time.
Know an immigrant? Make a present of this book. It certainly made me laugh, cry and remember.

Review by Kina

The Emotional Challenges of Immigration, Strategies and stories of those who stayed
Author: Ellie Baker
Publisher: Smeaton Publishing
ISBN 9780473286989
Printed paperback, Kindle e-book, Smashwords ebook
Available from: Amazon, Fishpond, www.migrantemotions.com, Carsons bookshop Thames, Chapters Bookshop Pukekohe, Whanga Books Whangamata

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A satisfying, meaty read

Ideal for toddlers

Adventure and intrigue

Book brings first-hand learning into focus

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