This Land Aotearoa Ko Aotearoa te Whenua Nei by Christine Dale, translator Kiwa Hammond, OneTree House, 2023
This Land Aotearoa Ko Aotearoa te Whenua Nei is like a travel book for children as it moves across the land from beach to coast. There is a degree of anticipation as you read: start at the beach, turn the page and you are beside the mountains, turn the page and you are with the dark cave, and then turn again and you are in the bush. A single sentence keeps you moving and anticipating. It is like a picture book with photograph stopovers. Look at the beach and the sea is shimmer blue, look at the alps and the mountains are icy topaz, look at the caves and the dark is glow-worm blue, look at the bush and the ponga are green gleam.
The photographs are mostly sourced from Shutterstock.
An additional highlight is Kiwa Hammond’s translation into te reo Māori. Kiwa was the winner of the 2019 NZCYP Te Kura Pounamu Award for his translation of Reina and Robyn Kahukiwa’s Te Haka a Tānerore.
The book would be a valuable classroom aide, a steeping stone to poems, stories of land and sea, research of land and sea, travel anecdotes, te reo Māori, artwork, miniature travel guides by children. A guide to looking and exploring, a homage to beauty, a symphony of home.
Christine Dale is a children’s illustrator, author, and publisher. She has created six children’s books herself and published many more as a Director of OneTree House. Christine served as the Chair of the Storylines Management Committee for 3 years and is currently a member of both the NZSA and the Manuscript Assessors Association. She lives in Auckland.
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