Wow! So love this novel – this is exciting news indeed. Congratulations Rachael.
Wellington, NZ – June 25, 2024 – Libertine Pictures has commenced production on Red Rocks, a new live-action family adventure drama series for BYUtv (USA) and Sky (NZ), with global leader in kids’ and family entertainment WildBrain securing rest-of-world distribution rights.
Adapted from Kiwi author Rachael King’s award-winning novel of the same name, Red Rocks follows 12-year-old Jake as he is drawn into a world of mythical creatures and adventure when he finds a sealskin hidden on the rocky shores of his father’s seaside home in Wellington, New Zealand. When unexpected dangers are unleashed, Jake is called upon to protect his family.
A family co-viewing series for kids 8-12, Red Rocks takes the Celtic myth of the selkies, or seal people, and transplants it into the landscape of Wellington’s wild south coast, throwing an ordinary boy into a life-changing adventure. The production team has engaged Oscar® and BAFTA-winning visual effects and props company Wētā Workshop to create animatronic seals for the series.
Set to deliver by the end of this year, the 8 x half-hour series is being filmed on location in the Wellington region and features NZ Television Award-winner Dominic Ona-Ariki (One Lane Bridge, The Commons, Savage), stage and screen veteran Jim Moriarty MNZM (Lee Tamahori’s Mahana, The Strength of Water, Vegas) and Phoenix Connolly (The Royal Treatment, The Brokenwood Mysteries, Evil Dead), with Zeta Sutherland (Power Rangers: Dino Fury, Shortland Street) as ‘Jessie’ and newcomer Korban Knock starring as ‘Jake’.
The Kai Stars of Matariki, Miriama Kamo and Zac Waipapa
Scholastic, 2024, also available in te reo Māori
My Matariki Colouring & Activity Book, illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White
Scholastic 2024
After celebrating two new books on Poetry Box, I invited children from Y0 to Y8 to write some Matariki poems.
Author Miriama Kamo and illustrator Zak Waipapa have created a terrific followup to their popular picture books, The Stolen Stars of Matariki and The Twin Stars of Matariki. In The Kai Stars of Matariki, it’s time to give thanks to Tupuānuku and Tupuārangi, the stars linked to the growing of kai in and above the ground. The story is set in Te Mata Hāpuku Birdling’s Flat, AKA the ‘best place in the world’ where lizards dart, waves smash and the cliffs are jagged. Sam and Te Rerehua often visit Grandma and Pōua who live there.
My Matariki Colouring & Activity Book is based on the #1 bestseller Matariki Around the World, by Rangi Matamua and Miriama Kamo. So many different activities for you to try: colouring in along with join the dots, drawings to do, word finds, words to complete, star patterns to create, recipes to try, crafts to create, plus many many more. The activities will take you on a Matariki journey. I love this fun-filled craft-action book!
What a glorious glittering dazzling sparkling awe-inspiring cluster of Matariki poems arrived in my inbox. What a treat to read them …. it was so hard to pick only a few to post so on this special occasion I have assembled a stellar Matariki poetry festival by and for children. Please don’t be sad if you missed out this time as I will be doing a feast of popUP challenges in Term 3 and have loads more blog ideas twinkling in my head.
Special thanks to the artists at Westmere School.
It’s not a poetry competition but I am giving books to Mushal and Bellamia. I wanted to give you ALL a copy of the ultra cool Matariki colouring / activity book!
Watch out for more popUP poem challenges next term.
There was an issue with my email address when I first posted this challenge it is paulajoygreen@gmail.com
A glitter sky of Matariki poems
Some galaxy art from Junior School at Westmere School
Dear Grandad (a poem for Matariki)
Dear Grandad,
The bed creaked
as you turned
your fragile body
You scratched your sandpaper-like skin
your joyful smile
enlightened the room
while the soft wind
kissed your cheek
you got older day by day
while telling your priceless stories
you loved to tell
you loved eating
thick ice cream
that made your teeth sting
your memory
was like dust
easily swept away
I wish I could’ve said goodbye
I love you, Grandad
by Mushal F, Year 8, Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School
Matariki at Pohara beach
The skin of the ocean
wrinkling the breeze.
The eyes of the wind skipping
on the sand.
I walk into the shallows,
Waitā holds me close.
Matariki’s breath brings warmth.
Raphe, Y8, age 12, Medbury School
Magical Matariki
Magical Matariki stars
Appearing in early June
Twinkling in the moonlight
Arriving with all its siblings
Reminding us of the people we have lost
I appear once a year
Keeping voyagers safe on journeys
I’m symbolising the earth’s elements.
Sailor A, age 9, Richmond Rd School
Matariki Light
Matariki guides kiwi to their homes in the forest.
Matariki guides me to my family.
She lights my way I write her this poem.
Iris Li, age 7, St Andrew’s School
The Brightest Star
Matariki, the brightest born star
I see you even from afar
The keeper of peace and family
I say goodbye to you sadly
I see your beautiful woven cloak
The stars I know about, everyone has spoke
Your loving and caring nature
Your brave and daring dedication
Matariki, my favourite star
and born from Tāwhiremātea
The sweet and nourishing mother
A star brighter than all the others
Matariki, the brightest star
Rests in the heavens above.
Thomas E, age 9, Richmond Rd School
Matariki Feast
Wake up early to see the stars shine
Make sure to bring food for a fabulous feast
Bring eels as a meal
But eels don’t have good eyesight
So eeling is not done
When the moon is shining bright
Potatoes with tomatoes
Chicken and rice
Is very nice
Remember those who have passed away
On this Matariki day.
Portia B Age 9, Westmere School
Matariki
Matariki mother of all stars Looks like fireflies in jars
Up in the starry night There you are glowing bright
Silently shining in the sky The time is over, time to say….
Goodbye
Chloe K, 10 years old, Y6 Te Kura o Ritimana
Ururangi
The eighth star shines above like a dazzling piece of art
The “Wind of the Sky” sparkles right up high
It all started with you Ururangi.
But overall, the brightest of them all is Matariki.
Louise, Richmond Road School Age 10, Y6
Matariki
Matariki is near
The shining cluster of stars above
Brings good health and peace to the people we love Matariki is near
Time to hide away my fear
Up in the dark sky the stars are shining like never before.
Kenzie G, 10, Y6, Richmond Road School
Hiwai-i-te-rangi | Star
i can see you
through the night
glistening
twinkling
waiting
watching from above
are you
part of one of those many
clusters
we learnt about
in class?
i wouldn’t have
a clue
but
you are
glamorous
i open up my arms
and wish
to you
star
Oliver P, Year 8, age 13 yrs Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School
Matariki
Matariki stars shine bright starlight
They only come out once a year
On our Māori New Year
We celebrate our culture in June
We have delicious food
Cooked in stone and dirt
We hope they stay forever
to light the darkest sky.
Stella M Age 8, Westmere School
Matariki Haiku
Stars stars everywhere
Some stars twinkle, some stars shine
In ink black night sky!
Theo H age 9, Richmond Rd School
Ururangi
Ururangi seventh born, blowing the winds
We see you up in the sky
You guide the winds and make the day fresh
Blowing the fear away
Ururangi, the mother of wind.
Sam W age 10, Richmond Rd School
Matariki
Matariki is the Mother star
The leader of the sky
She guides the waka
over rough seas.
Matariki tells the moon
to cover the sun
Shining when she is happy
dull when she is sad
Matariki,
the Mother of the galaxy,
the rest of space.
Harriet, age 8, St Andrew’s School
Waitā
Waitā
Star of the waves
The oceans and its creatures
Wai is for waters
Tā is for salt
Waitā is for salt waters
Leigh F, 10 years old, Y6 Richmond Road School
Matariki
Me and my family were on holiday
Hugo was playing a game and I was
looking for Matariki, today I found it
Remy O, 9 years old, Year 5, Richmond Road School
Gifts From Matariki
Hiwa-i-te-Rangi youngest of them all
made my wish come true
and gave me a soccer ball
Waitī brought me a fish
and Waitā washed my dish
then Waipunga-a-Rangi made a waterfall.
George T age 10, Richmond Rd School
The Wishing Star
Hiwa-i-ti-Rangi
Wishing for people
Hiwa-i-ti-Rangi
In the night sky
Bright and shiny
like a giant night light
For the people to navigate
and the people who want their loved ones to be safe
and bright for the ones who are in a dark cave
Hiwa-i-ti-Rangi is the wishing star
Hiwa-i-ti-Rangi is ready for the people
who want to be happy.
Bellamia R age 10, Richmond Rd School
Matariki Stars
Matariki stars shine bright in the night.
Matariki stars are hot, and there are a lot.
Matariki stars are mighty bright and Waitī white.
Matariki stars glow, putting on a show, like Woah!
Matariki stars are such a sight, such a delight.
Matariki stars are close to Mars, which is large.
Matariki stars are light as they take flight.
Matariki stars start small, then stand tall.
Matariki stars binkle, tinkle, linkle, sprinkle, finkle and twinkle.
Matariki stars shine bright in the night.
By Sadie G age 7, Stella C age 6, Oscar D age 7, Leah J age 6 and Lavinia L age 6, Westmere School
Matariki Riddle
I’m a phantom at day
at night I’m shining bright
I’m named after a flower
blossoming red light.
(pōhutukawa)
Liam P, age 10, Richmond Rd School
Matariki Kai
Cooking stones
Were used
About 1000 years ago
By Māori
Who used them
To cook
A Matariki feast…
Eels
Pork
Kūmara
Potatoes
Chicken
Cabbage
And…
Moa!
Which is
Delish!
George E, Age 8, Westmere School
Who Am I?
I’m from up high
and I’ve got delicious fruit
Who am I?
What am I?
Got green on me
but mostly brown
but I never can do a frown
Who am i?
What am I?
Now finally
I can be tall
But at the end, I fall.
Who am I?
What am I?
Tell me…
Who am I?
What am I?
(Tupuārangi)
Willow T, age 8, Richmond Rd School
Waitā, the Beautiful Star
Far away in the deep and shallow seas
appears Waitā, a beautiful and shining star
from salt water
When she appears
the incredible and golden sand
up on the shore
and on the beach
waits to start glowing.
Jade B, age 9, Richmond Rd School
Matariki
Matariki is a special holiday
In which you celebrate with people,
Even though they’re far away,
The stars shine, dazzling in the sky
It’s the Maori New Year
Super special and bright,
Shining through the atmosphere
Are the Matariki stars.
You’re the special cluster,
You bring good fortune and luck,
You have a magical lustre,
You make me awestruck.
Ngā mihi o Matariki, te tau hou Māori!
Andrea S, 10 years old, Year 6, Richmond Road School
by Sadie, Westmere School
by Finnbar, Westmere School
The Dream Factory, Steph Matuku, illustrated by Zak Ātea, Huia Publishers, 2024
also available in te reo Māori, Te Wheketere Moemoea
A review
Ah! Imagine a dream factory, imagine a machine that sends dreams drifting into the town and people dream of marvelous things: tigers, rainbow trousers, cars that fly to the moon, mermaids, scrumptious cakes. Steph Matuku does just this in The Dream Factory. She lets her imagination go soaring and we get to go soaring with it. Each day when the town awakens, the people let their doing soar: they tell tiger stories, they paint unicorns and bake cakes in the shapes of flowers.
But there is a twist, a kink, a startle, when a kererū flies into the dream factory and drops a feather. Catastrophe! Ah, what happens next when the dream factory runs amok is genius!
The secret to every good children’s picture book is a combination of charismatic ingredients. One is writing that flows like honey as this book does. So many charasmatic options but, for me, one is the arrival of surprise, as when the swirling dream mist switches to dark cloud jolt.
Another vital ingredient are illustrations that satisfy your eye and enhance the story. Zak Ātea’s terrific artwork does exactly that. She uses a sublime combination of a mood-rich, colour palette and fascinating detail – an exquisite mix.
Children’s picture books have the ability to lift you out of glum and slumber, and make your skin prick and your heart tingle, until you let out a long sigh of satisfaction. Steph’s The Dream Factory does exactly that. This is a book to read and reread to your tamariki, mokopuna and to yourself. I adore it.
Steph Matuku (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama, Te Atiawa) is a freelance writer from Taranaki. She enjoys writing stories for young people, and her work has appeared on the page, stage and screen. Her first two novels, Flight of the Fantail and Whetū Toa and the Magician were Storylines Notable Books. Whetū Toa and the Magician was a finalist at the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. In 2021, she was awarded the established Māori writer residency at the Michael King Centre where she worked on a novel about post-apocalyptic climate change.
Zak Ātea Komene is an illustrator and visual artist living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. Her work includes editorial illustration, children’s book illustration, artist book design and fine art practises created through digital and traditional painting and drawing mediums. Through her work she explores the intangibles of our world, and the complexities of self within both a worldly and Te Ao Māori lens with a focus on colour, texture and multimedia practises. Her illustrations for The Dream Factory have been shortlisted for the 2024 NZ Children and YA Book Awards.
Huia page
Two conversations
Steph Makutu
What draws you to writing for children? I love your opening dedication to ‘the kids at Vogeltown School’ in The Dream Factory.
Why do I write for children? I like writing across genres and mediums because I get bored doing the same thing over and over. I’d like to write a book for adults one day – it seems easier than writing for children! I spent a lot of time reading when I was young. It was a safe place for me. Perhaps I’m just trying to recreate that sense of safety and security. I was at a children’s writers conference a couple of years and the joke was that you write for the age you were when you peaked in life. I like to think for me it was around 14 or so! My own children went to Vogeltown School in New Plymouth, and it was a marvellous school with an excellent staff and a cool, relaxed atmosphere. They deserved a book dedication!
You write for different ages across genres, always achieving a sweet alchemy of storytelling features. What are some key ingredients in a charismatic picture book?
Now please bear in mind that I am not an expert. All my writing is done on vibes. I don’t have any academic qualifications to back up anything I say, but it just kinda feels right. In my mind, a picture book tells a story with words, and tells a story with pictures. Sometimes those stories are the same, and sometimes they are different. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get two stories intertwined to make a glorious whole. I think a picture book draws on all the tools in a writer’s toolbox. Metaphor, poetry, alliteration, allegory, lyricism, onomatopoeia – all the big words. You’re writing not just for little kids who might not be able to read at all, or who might only be able to pick out a couple of words here and there, but also for the teachers and parents who may have to read that book over and over a thousand times. So it has to be compelling, it has to be fun, and interesting to look at, and I think its neat if you can find something new in every reading. I like busy picture books. Picture books are the hardest things to do well. This is not vibes. This is fact.
Writing on vibes rather than rules and set models is so important. I reckon people have done it across time. What were some delights and surprises in writing The Dream Factory? Did you have a starting point?
The pandemic lockdown inspired the story of The Dream Factory. That sense of every day being the same, dull, boring – yet scary – day on repeat. Hideous. I knew I didn’t want a singular protagonist that saves the day. The town was the protagonist, and the day was saved by a random event. Because that’s life, isn’t it? So many things happen that you have zero control over. Your rent goes up, you get sick, you win the lottery, your oven breaks. In The Dream Factory, the factory breaks down, has a terrible effect on everyone, and then gets fixed. Nothing anyone can do about it. It just happens. Just like life.
The best surprise was having Zak Ātea consent to illustrating it. It was a thousand times better than anything my own head could have dreamed up. She is fire.
Indeed. Zak’s work is breathtaking! What captivates you as a reader of children’s books. What have you read in the past year or so that has really stuck?
I’ve been reading a lot of books on economics and politics this year. I write sci-fi books set on other worlds, and it’s helpful to have an understanding of economic and political systems so that I can create coherent, believable, alternate societies. Boring! I’m boring myself just talking about it.
But my favourite kinds of children’s books are magical and scifi ones. I’m not interested in contemporary, everyday events. Give me dragons and portals and dystopian worlds please! Take me out of this place and put me somewhere else.
And to rephrase my first question. Why does children’s literature in Aotearoa matter so much?
It’s funny isn’t it, the rhetoric the government spews about wanting to increase literacy rates in schools, and yet they put the absolute minimum into funding school libraries and librarians and the people who write the books that children are reading. Funny, not. Children’s lit matters, not just because we want to increase literacy rates. Because we want our kids to see themselves on the page, and to deem themselves worthy of being written about. Our kids should feel like they too can be writers one day, and that their experiences are interesting and book-worthy! A child who loves reading grows up into an adult who loves reading. And those adults buy books and support the industry. Children’s lit is a gateway drug to a lifetime of learning and pleasure. It’s the most important thing in the world.
And a big toast to that! Learning and pleasure, let’s keep singing that vital combination from the rooftops.
Zak Ātea
I adore your illustrations for The Dream Factory. Can you tell me what media you used? I am always curious what illustrators use to create their artworks.
It’s all digital using Procreate and a bit of photoshop. I’m an oil painter by trade, and sadly oil painting isn’t feasible when you’re illustrating a book like this (maybe one day I’ll try it), so I try to mimic the effects of painting and layering in my digital work. I create alot of my brushes I use in Procreate from real life textures to get the desired effects, there’s just so much you can do with technology, then I work it like I would a normal painting, I pretend every layer is wet, and I build it up overtime.
I love the way you catch and enhance the story’s mood so exquisitely, so richly. What mattered to you as you created your visual feast?
Atmosphere mattered the most to me, dreams are atmospheric, theyre visceral and fleeting, so I was trying to find a way to show that. I wanted the visuals to feel thick and heavy, but for the age group of tamariki we were aiming at, it also needed to be soft and smooth, nothing harsh.I wanted it to feel like you could reach out and touch everything. I love intangibles, the feelings that are evoked with certain colours, textures and shapes, so that plays a huge part in the illustrations as well, but overall it was ALOT of trial and error.
Illustrators are such vital contributors to the charisma of children’s picture books. Do you have some favourites, whether local or overseas, contemporary or less recent?
It’s gotta be Oliver Jeffers, he captures everything perfectly, he’s a real visual communicator, not just for kids, but he somehow gets adults (me) to enjoy his books and work too. He’s the kind of all encompassing artist that makes magic happen. Another is Molly Mendoza, look up their work, their work in children’s books and graphic novels are out of this world. Closer to home here in Aotearoa, big fan of Phoebe Morris, ever since uni I quietly looked up to her and her illustrations, her visual world is a personal fave of mine.
by Phoebe age 11, Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School
Every now and then I am going to post popUP challenges – sometimes inspired by a children’s book I am reviewing. The first one was inspired by the beautiful A Stone is a Story, by Leslie Bernard Booth, illustrated by Marc Martin. Even before I opened the book, my mind was drifting into how a stone might become a poem. So I decided to give children from Y0 to Y8 an opportunity to write some stone poems!
You can watch Lesley read the story here and fine excellent teaching resources here.
My review here.
What a treat to read the poems children sent in. There is a cluster of poems from Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School and one from Westmere School. I loved how some poems told a story, some poems painted stone pictures, some poems chose a poem form (acrostic) and all the poems used vivid words and strong verbs. I have picked some favourites to post and am sending a copy of one of my books to Shakiah and to Miha.
Keep an eye and ear out for my next popUP challenge – I am hot potato keen to post more poems and give more books away.
A Stone is a Story, by Leslie Bernard Booth, illustrated by Marc Martin
Simon & Schuster, 2023
Stone Poems
A Life of a Stone
Once, I oozed out of a volcano
I was fiery red
and burning hot.
I dried,
found a spot
to cool down.
I waited and waited.
After years of waiting
a flood came
and swept me away.
I tumbled and crashed
and everything seemed blurry.
I woke up,
buried in sand
my surface scraped and crumbled.
Days went by –
seaweed covered me,
bones and rocks
all piled on top of me.
One day, a child
swam down
and picked me up.
Now,
I live on a shelf
with the child’s collections
of shiny shells
and glimmering rocks.
by Jessica P, 9 yrs, Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School
Shakiah’s Stone Poem
I am a smooth stone
splashed from a huge volcano
into fast currents
in the deep sea
I was carved by dangerous waves
and driven to shore
I waited
until a young girl
swept me up
and studied me
she put me
in the light
to see my beautiful colours
pink as a flamingo
and white as sheep’s wool
Shakiah DF, 10yrs, Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School
The Mysterious Rock
I slip on a slimy gooey rock
I pick it up
It is light green
and white like snow
I wonder where it has been
and where its family is
It slips out of my pocket
It splashes into the lake
as shiny as a disco ball
Bailey M, 10yrs, Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School
The Secret Stone
I am a stone
as small as an action figure
waiting to be found on the lakeside
Once,
I was thrust up by the waves
crumbled up on the sand
wishing my family was with me
as rough as the ground
round like a small bouncy ball
as shiny as silver tinfoil
Mia O, 10yrs, Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School
How a Stone Lives its Life
I am a stone
I’ve been played with thousands of times
I am a stone
I live in big blue lakes, long winding rivers, on the sand or rocky shore
I am a stone
I was found by cavemen
I am a stone
my wrinkles were formed by water
I am a stone
that has been shifted all over the world
I am a stone
that has been stuck in car tyres, shoes and bags
I am a stone
and that is how a stone lives its life
Flynn A, 10yrs, Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School
The Stone
I am a stone kicked by bored children
I am a stone covered in moss from cold lakes
I am a stone carved by cavemen
I was a stone
until I got licked
by a raging volcano
Haon K, 10yrs, Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School
by Elena age 11, Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School
The Stone
Letters engraved in stone.
The future lies in our hands,
the future that lies within us
How will yours turn out?
Just think.
Letters engraved in stone.
Miha K, age 8, Westmere School
Diamonds
Diamonds shimmering in the sun
Imagine touching the hard shiny crystal
April is the month of the diamond
Millions of dollars for dazzling diamonds
Once lived in the ground
Never crushed
Diamonds shimmering in the sun.
Finn C, age 8, Westmere School
A Stone Poem
Sparkling stones, in the sun
Touch them, they can feel rough or smooth
Obsidian is as black as the night
Never touch a sharpened stone
Every stone is special in its own way
So shiny, little stones.
Ele S, age 7, Westmere School
Sapphire
Sapphire crystals glisten blue, as blue as the sky
They don’t blend in, they don’t stand out
They are both and neither
Pointy, hard, smooth
It is Sapphire
September is its special month
No matter how it looks
This stone is its own
As precious as a new-born kitten
Sapphire.
Layla M, age 8, Westmere School
Diamond
Dazzling, demanding diamond
Iconic, icy ice
Amazing, awesome antique
Madame, magical miracle
Open the oval gift
Never-ending sparkling stone
Dazzling, demanding diamond
Stella S, age 9, Westmere School
Pounamu
Precious olive green pounamu
You can find a perfect pounamu in a rushing stream
It can be carved into various shapes
Smooth and very heavy
Spirits live within
Presented as a perfect gift.
Florence D, age 8, Westmere School
Sapphires and Stones
Sparkly stone shimmers
Amazed animals stare
Pounamu earrings stand out
Pounamu pendant hangs down
Happy humans buy
Iconic jewels twinkle
Ruby earrings rattle when the wind comes inside
Excellent stones to buy!
Lily F, age 8, Westmere School, Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School
Brown Bird, Jane Arthur, Penguin Books, 2024
When a tree is hit by lightning, sometimes it bursts into flames on the inside. I read about it on the internet. A tree can burn for a long time, inside-out. If you glanced at it, you’d never know it was on fire at all
That’s how I felt sometimes.
Jane Arthur, from Brown Bird
A review
Rebecca is eleven years old and is a girl after my own heart. Jane Arthur has created a character that will haunt delight transfix you. Rebecca is awkward and weird. She has nightmares and tricky feelings, and loves reading and baking in equal measures. I still recognise myself in this girl, teetering on the cusp of adolescence, caring what other people think of her. I just love her!
I have a weak spot for how children books begin: the title, the cover, the first sentence, the opening paragraph. The cover of Brown Bird features an exquisite artwork by Devon Smith, the image of the girl resonant with feeling, especially the eyes. There is also a map of Rebecca’s new neighbourhood, showing everyone who lives in Mount Street. And the first sentence is particularly excellent. I love long sentences that flow like a honey river, establishing delicious rhythm and mood. Yes! Jane aces her entry point into the narrative with this beginning:
The morning I met Chester was hot and still, one of those very-summer-holidays kinds of mornings when you wake up early and see the day spread out ahead of you like a vast, glinting sea, if the sea was something calm and full of sensible options for passing the time, rather than a dark, deep pit of unknown danger.
We get a taste of what is to come: place, character, mystery (so who is Chester?), a spike of tension (‘unknown danger’), a cool simile (‘the day spread out ahead of you like a vast glinting sea’). Already I am hooked, knowing I am in the hands of a word artisan, in the company of a character I want to spend time with.
It’s the school holidays, but Rebecca’s Mum has to go to work, so she hangs out at neighbour Tilly’s place. Tilly sounds perfect – a novelist with loads of books to her name – she doesn’t pressure Rebecca to play board games or go on bush walks and talk talk talk. Rebecca can read a mountain of library books and do a solar system of of baking. Happy days! But these holidays, the sweet summer rhythm changes with the arrival of Chester, Tilly’s nephew.
Ah, the rocky terrain of childhood! What a difference doing things we love makes. What a difference friendship makes. What a difference family and neighbourhoods can make. Enter this gorgeous prismatic novel and you enter the delight and difficulty of being human. Enterprising Chester is inspired by Rebecca’s baking skills and invents the Odd Jobbers. They swap some yumtummy cookies for some odd job cash. And yes, food is such a comfort as you read the character-rich story: apple and cinnamon muffins, lemon syrup cake, carrot cake, pikelets, plum jam and whipped cream. But then we reach the tree-is-hit-by-lightning moment.
So much to love about Brown Bird – it’s warm and spiky, sad and glad. I love how we get to meet and know the neighbours a little, stepping into their lives as Chester and Rebecca catalogue paintings, pick plums, sow seeds, weed. I am so moved when Roxy the artist gives Chester a moonstone and Rebecca their painting of a girl riding a sparrow. Brown Bird is a book of self discovery, a book of of thorns and a book of roses. It is a book to treasure, whatever age you are.
Photo credit: Tabitha Arthur
A conversation
I am a big fan of your poetry and a big fan of Brown Bird. What drew you to writing for children?
I love children’s books! In fact, after working in bookselling and then in children’s book publishing, I co-founded The Sapling a few years ago because I wanted to spread the word about how cool they are. So it feels inevitable that I would write for children one day.
What are two or three key words when you write a children’s novel?
Character and emotional truth.
Two strengths of the book, I reckon! What were some delights and surprises in writing Brown Bird? Did you have a starting point?
The biggest surprise was, firstly, the fact I finished writing a whole novel, every single bit of it. Beyond that it has been the reader response. All the adults who’ve said they wish they’d had the book to read when they were eleven. And that it has made them both laugh and cry, which is so beautiful – and the fact they’ve all cried at different moments in the book. I find that fascinating. I didn’t even realise I’d written a single crying moment! The girl who wrote to me saying she felt like she was Rebecca as she read it: delightful.
My starting point was wanting to depict a very shy, anxious child. I wasn’t sure what would happen in the story but I knew I wanted to have the chance to show child readers, You’re not alone if you feel like this too.
Exactly! Children don’t fit into square living and learning boxes. I love how you thank librarians, book champions and books in your Acknowledgements page. Why does children’s literature in Aotearoa matter so much?
I possibly went a little mad with power in that Acknowledgments section! I thought it was such a good opportunity to showcase and thank all the many people who are involved in the making and promoting of books, from production and editing, to print and courier, to selling and recommending, and more. I love the book industry and the people who choose to work in it. I wish it were better supported financially by the government (that’s putting it mildly – I can go on about this for hours) so all kinds of book-related careers were more sustainable. People talk about how literacy matters, but they don’t back it up with investment in the arts. Who writes the stuff? Make it make sense. We want to be able to read, but what? AI-created or copyright-free business documents about rugby and mining? We want to measure our kids but deprive them of pleasure and aspiration? Argh, I don’t know. I’m just going to keep doing my emotion-centred, language-loving thing on the smell of an oily rag, I guess.
Good! We want to foster a love of learning and discovering, the joy of reading, the electricity of knowledge. I also loved this in your Acknowledgements page: “Thank you to other writers for writing the books that made me into a reader, which made me into a writer.” What captivates you as a reader of children’s books. What have you read in the past year or so that has really stuck?
I try to mix up my reading, alternating adult fiction and non fiction, poetry, and children’s fiction, and mixing short books and long, and serious and light, and different perspectives and voices. Which means I haven’t read as much children’s fiction over the past couple of years as I probably should have. Earlier this year I read all of the My Happy Life series (by Rose Lagercrantz) to my six-year-old and they remain perfect for his age – especially the first two in the series – and we could barely get through a page without him piping up with an anecdote from school about how entirely relatable things were. I was so impressed by The Grimmelings by Rachael King. Below by David Hill: riveting. The Observologist by Giselle Clarkson is singular and genius. Dazzlehands by Sacha Cotter and Josh Morgan: cackles on every page. Paku Manu Ariki Whakatakapōkai by Michaela Keeble and Tokerau Brown: groundbreaking.
Jane Arthur is a published poet, children’s writer and editor. She was born in New Plymouth, and lives in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Jane won the 2018 Sarah Broom Poetry Prize, judged by US poet Eileen Myles. In 2020, she was awarded an Emerging Writers Residency from the Michael King Writers Centre, and was a “40 Under 40” inspiring alumni of the University of Auckland.
A founding editor of children’s literature website The Sapling, Jane has twice served as a judge for the New Zealand Children’s Book Awards (in 2020 she was convenor of the judging panel), and as a judge for the poetry category for the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Brown Bird is her first novel for children.
Jane’s website
Penguin Books page
The Kai Stars of Matariki, Miriama Kamo and Zac Waipapa
Scholastic, 2024, also available in te reo Māori
Scholastic have released two new books as we celebrate Matariki.
Exciting news! Author Miriama Kamo and illustrator Zak Waipapa have created a terrific followup to their popular picture books, The Stolen Stars of Matariki and The Twin Stars of Matariki. In The Kai Stars of Matariki, it’s time to give thanks to Tupuānuku and Tupuārangi, the stars linked to the growing of kai in and above the ground. The story is set in Te Mata Hāpuku Birdling’s Flat, AKA the ‘best place in the world’ where lizards dart, waves smash and the cliffs are jagged. Sam and Te Rerehua often visit Grandma and Pōua who live there.
At night they go hunting for eels. It’s time to stock up on kai ready for the Matariki feast: ‘a time when we stop our mahi and focus on whānau,’ Grandma says. She tells the tamariki it is time ‘to plan for the future and give thanks for all our blessings’.
Ah. The eels are plentiful, and are dried and frozen ready to be cooked for the celebration. But! Calamity! Catastrophe! A group of patupaiarehe, the fairy folk, are gleefully schlurping up the tuna. What to do? Sam and Te Rerehua draw upon grandma’s wisdom nestled inside them and come up with a cunning plan.
This is a cool book to read, in a whizz, in a gulp, with a gasp and a smile, and yes, I especially love the ending!
Miriama Kamo is an award-winning journalist. She was the anchor of TVNZ’s flagship current affairs programme Sunday and Māori current affairs programme Marae. Miriama has worked on many of TVNZ’s key programmes including 1 News at 6 as a newsreader. She has published several books with Scholastic NZ, including the bestselling Matariki Around the World.
Zak Waipara is a former NZ Herald graphic artist and HOD of Animation at Animation College. Zak Waipara (Rongowhakaata, Ngati Porou, Ngati Ruapani, Ngati Kahungunu) is now Digital Media lecturer at AUT. He has worked as a designer for Māori Television’s children’s show Miharo, illustrated comics and a range of books, and created animated music videos. He is also the illustrator of Horeta and the Waka and Īhaka and the Unexpected Visitor (Scholastic NZ). Born in Milton, in the South Island, Zak now lives in Auckland.
My Matariki Colouring & Activity Book, illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White
Scholastic 2024
My Matariki Colouring & Activity Book is based on the #1 bestseller Matariki Around the World, by Rangi Matamua and Miriama Kamo. So many different activities for you to try: colouring in along with join the dots, drawings to do, word finds, words to complete, star patterns to create, recipes to try, crafts to create, plus many many more. The activities will take you on a Matariki journey. I love this fun-filled craft-action book!
Isobel Joy Te Aho-White is an artist of Māori, British and Danish Ancestry. My tribal affiliations are Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa, and I whakapapa to matakite and healers. I see myself as part of a fabric that is made up of my tūpuna – this guides how I experience the world around me. I currently live and freelance in Pōneke/Wellington city and hold a bachelor’s degree (hons) in graphic design majoring in illustration from Massey University.
A Matariki Poem challenge
I would like to give these two books to one young reader and writer! Send me a Matariki poem.
Your poem might shine like the stars or tell a Matariki story or hook up a Matariki memory or remind you of someone or a Matariki feast or be in the shape of a star or a kete or share some wonders of Matariki. It is your poem to shone and sparkle as you want! Have fun!
I will post some poems and give away the books.
Deadline: Monday 24th June
Send to: paulajoygreen@gmail.com
Include: name, age, year, name of school
Don’t forget to write Matariki poem in email subject line
I will post some Matariki poems that week and have the two books to give away!
A Stone is a Story, by Leslie Bernard Booth, illustrated by Marc Martin
Simon & Schuster, 2023
Poets sometimes start with an object, a thing, a very ordinary thing, perhaps something they spot on a walk or out the window or in their memory banks. I have just read a beautiful picture book called a A Stone is a Story and I began to daydream about a poem called ‘A Stone is a Poem’.
Even before I opened the book, my mind was drifting into how a stone might become a poem. So I decided to give children from Y0 to Y8 an opportunity to write some stone poems! Over to you what you write: what you see or imagine or describe. Whether it is a little story or a little rhyme. Whether it uses facts or is make believe.
The choice is yours!
The picture book, A Stone is a Story, carries a stone across times and across places, from the time of the dinosaurs to the time a child picks it up and holds it in their hand. You get to see what happens when rain and ice and wind shape the stone. You get to follow it rushing down the side of a mountain in a river. You can almost read the story in one breath it is so beautifully written. And the illustrations are outstanding – smudgy moody watercoloury deliciousness. What a precious book indeed.
A Stone is a Poem challenge
Deadline: Sunday 23rd June
Send to: paulajoygreen@gmail.co.nz
Include: name, age, year, name of school
Don’t forget to write stone poem in email subject line
I will post some stone poems the following week and have a few books to give away!
Leslie Barnard Booth is the author of A Stone Is a Story and One Day This Tree Will Fall. She grew up in the Pacific Northwest, attended Pomona College and later earned an MFA in creative writing and an MS in education from the University of Oregon. Leslie lives in Portland, Oregon, and loves exploring the natural world with her family. Visit her site.
Marc Martin is an illustrator, artist, and book maker. He is the author and illustrator of A River, Masters of Disguise, The Curious Explorers Illustrated Guide to Exotic Animals A to Z, Max, and Lots, among others. Marc is based in Melbourne, Australia. You can learn more about his work here.
A Stone is a Story page
The Grimmelings, Rachael King, Allen & Unwin, 2024
The year before my transplant I did the first draft of a children’s novel that was inspired by my Glaswegian grandmother and the various times I have spent in Scotland. I was mourning the way her past is an empty hole to me, how I knew neither her stories nor her ancestors. I wrote the novel on multiple wings of uncertainty, knowing I had difficult terrain ahead, yet I loved writing it. I still haven’t had the courage to pick it up and see what I think. One day.
I was wondering how reading Rachael King’s new novel, The Grimmelings, would affect me as it is steeped in Scottish connections. Ah. I love the book so much: the setting, the characters, the premise, the language, the rhythm, the issues, the mythology, the way the contemporary is holding hands with the past, the denouement. This is a book to devour: it will sizzle and fortify and haunt. Yes, think of The Grimmlings as a supernova haunting. David Mitchell of Cloud Atlas fame loved it, Bren MacDibble who wrote the sublime The Raven’s Song and How to Bee loved it, along with stellar authors Tania Roxborough, Elizabeth Knox, Rachael Craw, Stacy Gregg, Zana Fraillon. And I agree with the blurb, fans of Susan Cooper and Katherine Rundell’s children’s books will love it. Two all-time favourite authors of mine.
The Grimmelings is prefaced with a perfect quote from Nick Cave: “We all live our lives dangerously, in a state of jeopardy, at the edge of calamity. You have discovered that the veil that separates your ordered life from disarray is wafer thin.” Nick Cave, from the film, This Much I Know to Be True (2022).
The novel also provides sweet opening hooks in the first sentence: “The same evening Josh Underhill went missing, the black horse appeared on the hill above the house.” Thirteen-year-old Ella adores horses, especially her piebald pony, Magpie. She lives in the South Island high country with her mum, sister and grandmother, and a stable of horses for their riding school. That a boy goes missing disturbs the community, especially as Ella’s father had gone missing six years ago. Ella is troubled by the black horse, the arrival of a strange boy called Gus, and by a stream of unsettling images along with a building sense of foreboding. By things she cannot fathom.
We are stepping onto the thin “edge of calamity”. Rachael braids the unearthly with sinister edges, glints and glimmers of a faerie world, nagging questions. She has steeped the situation and the characters within Scottish folklore, drawing upon the figure of the ominous kelpie, to build plot and tension. And yes, expect a deft rhythm that heightens the accruing mystery, the heart-in-your-mouth effect as you read, the eeriness.
The characters – this prismatic family of women and girls – underline how the tmulti-faceted shape of characters can move a narrative from the ordinary to the charismatic. How what we think and do and feel is a complex tangle of hope, fear, sadness, gladness, discovery, difference, learning, speaking, listening, feistiness, error, persistence. And how love, empathy and courage can be such a strong and fortifying familial and indeed societal, glue. A subterranean narrative thread that sticks to you.
Ella’s grandmother, AKA Griselda, AKA Grizzly, brings her Scottish wisdom and innate strength. I love this woman! What I especially love, apart from her tenacity and tenderness, is how she hides Scottish words in Ella’s pockets for her to find and treasure. Words are indeed treasure in The Gremmelings. They are keyholes and talismans. Rachael begins each chapter with a Scottish word and definition, and then draws them into the narrative to enhance the Gaelic layerings. For example: “Glisk: a fleeting glimpse of sunlight through cloud; a flash of hope in the heart“. She also uses te reo Māori words to deepen the narrative’s attachment to place.
I felt bereft when I finished the book, and carried its rhythms for the rest of the weekend, the voice and persistence of Ella and her astute sister Fiona echoing. Yes indeed, The Grimmelings is a supernova haunting which will set you alight.
A conversation
What draws you to writing for children?
I’m nearly out the other side of raising children (mine are14 and 17) and one of the things I have loved most about parenting is sharing books and stories together. Reading children’s books sparks ideas for my own, and also fuels a desire to write really good books that might shape children’s worldviews or introduce them to new ideas, like books did for me as a kid.
What were some delights and the challenges in writing The Grimmelings?
So many of both! The challenges were the usual – finding the time and headspace (I had to quit my job before I could fully immerse myself in the task) and the delights were many. I read something like 40 books by children’s authors the year I wrote my first draft, and thinking deeply about story and writing fed into the book. I loved getting to know my characters – they felt like real people to me. I was quite sad to say goodbye to them! I had a couple of moments where I strongly believed the story already existed and I was just discovering it: once when I was writing and a knife appeared out if nowhere that came in handy later, and most dramatically, one of the characters didn’t even exist in the first draft but I got a distinct sense that he had been hiding there all along and I just hadn’t seen him (he’s quite slippery so that doesn’t surprise me).
What captivates you as a reader of children’s books. What have you read in the past year or so that has really stuck?
I love books that aren’t afraid to delve a little deeper into character and that resonate on a deep level, with layers that can be enjoyed by readers of different ages and abilities. I especially appreciate books where the prose is thoughtfully crafted. That doesn’t mean they have to be overtly literary or lyrical but where you feel that no other words could do. It takes a lot of skill to write something with simple prose that captures a moment or a thought succinctly and uniquely.
My favourites of the last few years: The Owl Service by Alan Garner, Bone Music and A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond, Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, October, October by Katya Balen, The Raven’s Song by Zana Fraillon and Bren MacDibble, Penelope Lively’s early novels for children, AF Harrold’s dark linked-but-standalone illustrated novels (with Emily Gravett and Levi Pinfold), Lucy Strange’s Sisters of the Lost Marsh, Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr (which I plan to write about soon), The Skull by Jon Klassen, and Claire Mabey’s upcoming The Raven’s Eye Runaways. I hope that’s not too many! I’m drawn to quite dark, mystical stories I think.
And to loop back to my first question. You are such a strong advocate of children’s books and authors – why does children’s literature in Aotearoa matter so much?
It matters for so many reasons! Our government is looking at overhauling literacy education and yet their ‘Teaching the Basics Brilliantly’ doesn’t mention libraries or librarians once, and the only time the word ‘book’ comes up is in this phrase: “Without the ability to read a textbook, students can’t be expected to understand history or social studies.” So much research shows that reading books for pleasure is the best way to build literacy, and that doesn’t take into account all the other benefits of reading. Reading is so important for children that I feel that children’s books are the most important books there are, and so we owe it to children to write and publish the best books we can – books that credit their intelligence but also entertain them. After all, if we want the ‘adult’ book industry to continue, we have to build the readers of the future. I feel like that point gets overlooked a lot when media outlets are worried that stories about children’s books aren’t getting enough clicks, or that somehow children’s books are inferior, so they don’t cover them. They need to think ahead.
Rachael King is a writer, reviewer, former literary festival director and ex-bass player living in Ōtautahi Christchurch. She’s the author of two novels for children: Red Rocks, which won the Esther Glen Medal, and The Grimmelings, published in 2024. Her adult novels, The Sound of Butterflies and Magpie Hall, were published in nine languages altogether. Red Rocks is currently in development for Sky TV by Libertine Pictures. Rachael received a Waitangi Day Honour Award in 2020 from the New Zealand Society of Authors for her work at WORD Christchurch bringing Behrouz Boochani to New Zealand. In 2023 she was named Best Reviewer at the Voyager New Zealand Media Awards.
Allen & Unwin page
Dunedin-based book publisher Exisle Publishing has launched an international Children’s Publishing Academy aimed at supporting budding children’s book authors.
The Children’s Publishing Academy provides a forum where authors can have the opportunity to learn from a leading children’s publishing professional as well as from other published authors.
‘Breaking through as a children’s author is incredibly difficult,’ shares Exisle Publishing’s founder and CEO Gareth St John Thomas. ‘Many talented and passionate writers miss out simply because the barriers to entry are so high. We started the academy to change that.’
‘At the Academy, writers are invited to exercise their creativity to come up with a compelling pitch that makes publishers pay attention.’
Exisle Publishing previously launched the Exisle Academy a community which provides online instruction to writers who want to get published and offers both free and paid assessments.
‘With Exisle Academy, our goal was to train the next generation of authors, enabling them to navigate the confusing and challenging world of writing and publishing, and share their message with the world.’
‘We have published some of our students’ work,’ says Gareth, ‘but we are also pleased when they are published elsewhere. We are focused on making sure their voices can be and are heard and the Children’s Publishing Academy has been launched to focus specifically on children’s authors.’
Exisle is kicking off the launch of the academy with an international writing competition. Writers can participate free of charge at https://childrenspublishingacademy.com/pitching-competition/
Children’s book authors worldwide are invited to pitch their story with the chance of winningdevelopment opportunities through the Academy, as well as their choice of 3 books from the EK Books catalogue. Successful pitches will be published by Exisle Publishing under the EK Books imprint.
‘We have found lots of great talent through the Exisle Academy. Now, we are excited to be launching an academy specifically targeted at children’s authors.’
One success story from the Publishing Academy is Harriet’s Hungry Worms by Samantha Smith.
‘Samantha Smith partnered with our team to develop her book, Harriet’s Hungry Worms,’ says Gareth.
She took advice across the entire publication process, from editing the story to partnering with illustrators. The result was a publishing contract with EK Books.
‘Her book is now in bookstores and libraries worldwide and has been featured by media including the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and The Sunday Telegraph.’
Judged by Exisle’s Gareth St John Thomas and children’s book author Dimity Powell, submissions are open until June 30, 2024, and winners will be announced in August.
Poetry Box 