Craig Smith performs for School Holiday
Craig Smith, of Wonky Donkey fame was busy entertaining a large audience in Christchurch's Northlands Mall this week.
Agnew Reading: This site shares an enthusiasm for books. Special interests include New Zealand books and books for children and teenagers.
Good Sports: A Storybook of Kiwi Sports Heroes, Stuart Lipshaw, Puffin (2023) 208 pages, hardback, NZ$45 ISBN 978-0-14-377863-9
In Good Sports: A Storybook of Kiwi Sports Heroes (2023) Stuart Lipshaw presents lively profiles of fifty inspirational New Zealand sporting personalities. (To be precise there are 53 people because he included the four members of the footballing Cox family and rowers Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell, as well as Charisma, Mark Todd’s horse.) Lipshaw’s interest is not in gold medals or world records; rather he is intrigued by the way these people have overcome barriers to achieve their goals in their particular sporting interest.
The format is the same as in his readable Oh Boy! (2018).
Each athlete gets a two-page account of how they overcame a physical or mental
barrier and the effect it had on their lives. A colour portrait by a New Zealand artist complements each entry.
The result is not so much a set of biographies as a
collection of motivation stories to serve as an inspiration for young readers. It is nice to think of a future generation having a moment of inspiration in these pages.
A First Book of New Zealand Backyard Bird Songs,
Fred van Gessel, White Cloud/Upstart Press, 24 pages, board book, NZ$27.99 ISBN 978-1-99000-389-9
The Beach Activity Book, Rachel Haydon, Pippa
Keel, Te Papa Press, 176 pages, pb, NZ$35
ISBN 978-1-99-116551-0
The New Zealand Night Sky, Alistair Hughes, White
Cloud/Upstart Press, 40 pages pb, NZ$27.99
ISBN 978-1-77694-0110
ZIGGLE! The Len Lye Art Activity Book, Rebecca
Fawkner, Massey University Press, NZ$35
ISBN 978-1-991016-40-9
Living Big in a Tiny House, Bryce Langston, Potton & Burton, 256 pages, NZ$54.99 ISBN 978-1-98855-058-9
A pile of summertime non-fiction books provides an
invitation to all sorts of family activities. Some of the five New Zealand non-fiction
titles here were created with young readers in mind: others for adults. No
matter; all of them can inspire a family to try something new together. In fact
every one of them can.
A First Book of New Zealand Backyard Bird Songs: What
a delight it is to take this book out into the backyard and play some of the bird
calls just to see how the resident birds respond. A chance to compare and
contrast. Better than rubbing corks on bottles to lure fantails. Reviewed below, this durable board book
has profiles of a dozen familiar birds, as well as recordings of their calls.
The Beach Activity Book The great thing about this
book is that it is consciously a family book. While it is written at a level
children can understand and enjoy, it is structured and directed at family
involvement. Of course, going to a beach (or a river) is usually a family affair
so it makes perfect sense. Rachel Haydon has created ’99 ideas for Activities
by the Water around Aotearoa New Zealand’ although I suspect her ideas reading scale
runs well into three figures. Who knew you could turn a yoghurt container and a
bit of plastic wrap into an underwater viewer?
Suggestions for activities include lists of things to
look out for, ideas for activities and hints on exploring nooks and crannies.
We are encouraged to develop awareness of tides and seasons. The activities of
creatures large and small are important here. So are the landscapes they live
in and the vegetation they move among. There are many types of beaches and
watercourses to be examined. [Moomintroll readers will already know how to make
a waterwheel.] There are suggestions for experiments, collections, examples of
beach art, ideas about poems and even a guide to making your name in driftwood.
Listening, thinking and even smelling have their place in the range of things
to do.
There are lots of photos, as well as great illustrations
and diagrams by Pippa Keel.
This is a book that will go to the crib with the family
and will be used by the family.
The New Zealand Night Sky is the year’s most
handsome nonfiction book for young people. Alastair Hughes is responsible for
the down-to-earth text and heavenly illustrations as well as the amazing stellar
diagrams. He invites young readers, armed only with a warm coat and a pair of
binoculars, to explore the wonders of the stars above their heads.
“Every culture has imagined patterns in the stars.”
We can all find the Southern Cross but this guide to the nearer
constellations and galaxies encourages readers to go searching for the Magellanic
Clouds (Nga Pātari)
Orion’s Belt (Tautoru) and Antares (Rehua). Not only does Alistair Hughes
include their Māori
names but he also provides handsome diagrams of the Māori astronomers’ version
of the constellations. Thus the Tail of Scorpius is not only the bow of the great
canoe Te Waka o Tamarēreti
but is also Maui’s Fish hook. The stars of Matariki (Pleiades) likewise mark
the bow of Te Waka o Rangi.
There are splendid double-page features on the Moon, the Sun,
the planets, comets and meteors. Little treasure chests of information are
scattered generously. Kiwi pride is also
touched with a portrait gallery of New Zealand astronomers and rocket
scientists. The stellar link between Pacific voyaging canoes and the Rocket Lab
launching is neatly made.
Best of all there are two star maps – Summer and Winter
versions – for junior stargazers. Stand by for an influx of aurora-seeking young
visitors heading to Lake Tekapo and the Catlins.
ZIGGLE! The Len Lye Art Activity Book is an
eye-opener and a mind-opener. I hadn’t realised that, as well as creating
lively artworks and animated movies, Len Lye was also a poet and wordsmith. “Ziggle”
is a Len Lye original, a word coined to describe the zig-zagging shapes in his
film Free Radical.
Rebecca Fawkner’s well-constructed activity book is also a
bright, lively introduction to Len Lye’s life and artistic achievement. It is
created around a range of imaginative games, exercises, experiments,
cartooning, poetry writing and artistic creation – all with plenty of ziggle. Rebecca
Fawkner credits Len Lye as an artist who “believed that art moved, art felt, art
experimented, that art was noisy, art was in the footpath cracks and art was in
outer space.” Her book is based on activities created for the groups of young
people who regularly visit the Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth and are intrigued
by his moving sculptures.
The book also relates events in Len Lye’s life to his
art. Kicking a kerosene tin was the beginning of his career as an artist, while
a childhood experience of the Cape Campbell lighthouse with its flashing light
controlled by a clockwork mechanism made a lasting impression. His poems inspired
his pictures and vice versa. Young readers are invited to write their own poems
about some of Len Lye’s pictures as well as finding what sort of pictures his
writings inspire. Then there are the waving and writhing sculptures. Each
activity suggestion is linked to some aspect of Lye’s life or work.
It is hard to portray animated films in the pages of a
book, so Rebecca Fawkner suggests that readers can see such pioneering works as
The Peanut Vendor, Free Radicals or The Birth of the Robot at www.ngataonga.org.nz (although they are more easily accessed on Youtube).
Rebecca Fawkner has done a brilliant job of showing what Len Lye achieved and encouraging young readers to follow his example. She says Ziggle! offers 65 Len Lye-inspired ways to be an artist, though I think there are many more. These range from trying rubber-band music to creating a blind 3-D self-portrait. New generations of sculptors, poets, painters and animators may find their inspiration here.
Len Lye is shown laughing on the first page of Ziggle! and
his good humour permeates all the pages which follow. His own words might
thoroughly sum up this book’s approach: “happy-go-lucky alive stuff.”
Living Big in a Tiny House surprised me. Bryce Langston is a key figure in the Small
House movement so I assumed his book (a revised version of the 2018 edition) would
mainly be of interest to architects or adults seeking a tiny roof over their
heads. What surprised me was how much interest young people show in this book.
Although the illustrations are magnificent – as one would
expect in a Potton & Burton title – it is Bryce Langston’s prose that
appeals. He is a great storyteller and, in this book, he tells the story of some
52 tiny homes. He begins with his $6,000 tent, the Lotus, which he admits taught
him “the true convenience of an inside toilet.”
Each of the tiny houses is given a four-page account and
each of them is a delightful essay. We are introduced to the owners, their
design concepts and their account of creating it and living in it. The diminutive
houses come from all round the world and the range is incredible – from rebuilt
railway carriages to converted containers, and from forest cabins to tiny
trailers. Materials include canvas, straw, mud, stone, felt and even wood.
Rasa Pescud’s colour photographs are a grand complement to
the prose, giving both the big picture and close-up details.
I suspect the young enthusiasts are initially attracted
by the idea of a hut of their own and are then drawn in by the intriguing details:
stairs that slide away, beds surrounded by plants and rooves that rise hydraulically.
With luck this book will help inspire a generation of lateral thinkers and
do-it-yourselfers, who will one day be building little houses on Mars.
Trevor Agnew
Cook Islands: Kūki ‘Airani, Jean Tekura Mason, Oratia, 2023, 48 pages, paperback, NZ$29.99, ISBN 978-1-99-004221-8
Sāmoa, Dahlia Malaeulu, Oratia, 2023, 48 pages,
paperback, NZ$29.99, ISBN 1-99-004222-5
Cook Islands: Kūki ‘Airani, Jean Tekura Mason,
Oratia, 2023, 48 pages, paperback, NZ$29.99, ISBN 978-1-99-004221-8
The book begins with the seven pillars of Cook Islands
culture: Ngakau aro’a (kindness), Kopu tangata (family), Marū (peacefulness),
Kauroro (respect to elders), Akakoromaki (patient fortitude), ‘Aka’aka (humility)
and ‘Irinaki’anga and akarongo (religious belief). The sections that follow
each show some of these in action, in village, church, school and sportsfield.
Trevor Agnew
Over 70 years ago, two Samoan women visited our classroom
at Sawyers Bay School and talked to us about life in their home village. They
told us of their fale (houses) with their open walls. Our jaws dropped. It was
our first realisation of different ways of life in other countries.
It introduces the Samoan culture, customs, traditions, language and food, both to young people in other countries and to young Samoans living overseas. The text is bilingual with English and Samoan pages facing each other. Lively fact boxes offer information on everything from the ecologically-important manumea (tooth-billed pigeon) to the types of siva (dance performances). There is even a box for Samoan values: Fa’aaloalo (respect), Alofa (love), Tautua (service) and Usita’i (discipline).
The book begins with the pillars of Fa’asāmoa – the
Samoan way of life – emphasising the importance of the family, the village, the
language, the church and food. There is a good summary of the sorry history of
New Zealand’s 20th Century relations with Samoa, and a useful introduction to
the geography and economy of the islands. A quick guide to the Samoan alphabet
and language includes useful words and a pronunciation guide.
The best part of Samoa concerns the Samoan people
and their activities, such as tatau (tattooing), singing, story-telling, mat
weaving and sport of all kinds, including fautasi (longboat racing) and the
joyous kilikiti. That’s an amazing amount to pack into 24 x 2 pages and Dahlia
Malaeulu – a great storyteller - has succeeded brilliantly. The selection of colour
illustrations is particularly good, again with an emphasis on people and their
activities.
Best of all there are several pictures of fale. Did you know that they have no walls? The section on Samoan climate explains why not.
Trevor Agnew
A First Book of New Zealand Backyard Birdsongs,
Fred van Gessel, White Cloud Books/Upstart Press, 2023,
24 pages, board book, NZ$28
ISBN 978-199000-389-9
This is a board book with a difference.
A First Book of New Zealand Backyard Birdsongs
introduces young people to the CALLS of a dozen New Zealand birds. It’s a sound
guide. Each of the twelve backyard birds – morepork, kaka, kingfisher, grey
warbler, waxeye, bellbird, tui, fantail, chaffinch, blackbird, starling and
song thrush – has its own double page of colour photographs and descriptive
text. So far, so familiar.
Then comes the surprise. A side-mounted speaker – an extension
of the cover – has 12 colour-keyed buttons each with a bird portrait. Press the
morepork’s button and there is a clear cry of ‘more-pork’ or ‘ruru’. Each call
lasts about ten seconds, which is a good sample.
Fred van Gessel’s description of each bird includes the Māori
name, a brief description their appearance, preferred diet and usual habitat.
As one who has spent four decades recording birds, his main emphasis is,
sensibly, on the birdcalls.
The text may be a little difficult for young readers but it
provides a great chance for parents to interact with their youngsters and discuss
the various birds and their habits. Is this bird in your backyard? Does the
starling (tāringi) really produce ‘noisy chortling, whistling and singing’? Was
James Cook right about the bellbird (korimako) sounding ‘like small bells most
exquisitely tuned’?
Press the button and find out.
This book is a companion volume to the author’s A First
Book of New Zealand Bird Songs (2021) and A First Book of Australian Backyard
Bird Songs (2019).
The system uses two LR44 1.5 volt batteries, so if young
listeners prove too keen, anyone with a small philips screwdriver can replace
them. The batteries, I mean.
Trevor Agnew
Trust Yourself
First: Cultivating Self-Awareness, Confidence and Resilience
Doris Sew Hoy
New Degree Press 2022
200 pages, paperback £12 (UK)
ISBN 979-8-88504-078-5 (pb)
The enforced isolation of the Covid lockdown forced many of us to re-examine our lives. It also gave us time to complete projects we had only dreamed of. Doris Sew Hoy did both.
She has written a book,
Trust Yourself First,
which incorporates what
she has learned in her twin
careers as an economist
and as a freelance
executive coach.
Trust Yourself First is about cultivating healthy relationships through trust. It also passes on what Doris has learned about clear thinking, thought-leadership, connecting with yourself and harnessing your full personality. She also shares the most useful tools, techniques and models that have helped her coaching clients develop their potential, both professionally and personally.
Doris
Sew Hoy is a direct descendant of the famous Otago Chinese merchant and gold
dredger, Choie Sew Hoy (1838-1901) – he was her grandfather’s grandfather. She was
born at Outram in New Zealand. There her father, Jun Yip Sew Hoy, and mother,
Lai Kum Hong, ran a market garden on the Taieri Plains and raised seven high-achieving
children.
Qualifying
for a year as a American Field Service Scholar in a St Louis, Missouri high
school, was the first step in a journey that led Doris to a degree in economics
at Otago University and post-graduate study at Durham University. She worked as
an economist for the London Stock Exchange from 1986. A new door opened for
Doris when she realised that many in the stock exchange lacked understanding of
how the business actually worked.
‘I was getting annoyed at the number of times
I had to correct people’s misinformation and misunderstandings.’ Appointed to a position where she was
responsible for educating, informing and motivating people, Doris developed her
ideas about the coaching of executives and undertook further study and research.
Trust Yourself
First is a clearly
written summary of what she has learned about human behaviours, emotions and interactions
in the two decades she has spent as a freelance executive coach.
Doris unpacks her professional toolbox and demonstrates the
various techniques, mind-maps and
exercises she has found most effective in enabling people to examine their lives.
Each chapter offers readers a chance to examine
their own actions and feelings, ambitions and uncertainties, from a fresh
perspective.
The text is arranged in three main sections following her
ACB model of personal growth and change..
Part 1, Awareness, invites readers to examine themselves
and look at who they are and how they got there
Part 2, Choices, looks at the options facing us, our own
strengths and weaknesses, the values we hold and the outcomes we hope for.
Part 3, Behave, asks us what we intend to do when we have
finished reading the book. Are we going to learn from the exercises? Will we change
our attitudes and revise our priorities? How can we improve our communication
skills, gain a better understanding of our emotions and live a healthier life?
This is not a dull text-book. This may sound daunting in
summary but Doris keeps things clear and well-organised as she moves through the
various exercises. Doris intersperses her teaching points with her own
experiences so that her lively personality becomes an integral part of the
book.
Trust Yourself
First is an interesting and challenging book with a readable style and a
big message.
Or as Doris, herself puts it, “I hope my book inspires you to reflect on your own life and where you
want to go next, become your own best friend and cultivate the relationships
you would like in your life.”
ISBN 979-8-88504-707-4 (Kindle Ebook)
ISBN 979-8-88504-186-7 (Digital Ebook)
This is Farewell:
Readings and Meditiations on Death and
Dying
Pinky Agnew (ed)
Mrs Black Books (2023)
Paperback, 196 pages, NZ$35 plus p&p
ISBN 9-788-47365-826-7
We are all going to die. We are also all going to be
involved with funerals. Publishers, however, shy away from books about death,
so there is a definite lack of useful books for those who suddenly find themselves desperate for the right word to say
as they farewell a loved one.
I was blessed with three enormously talented sisters. The
youngest – Pinky Agnew – has excelled as a writer, actor and comedian but her
true forte is as a celebrant. She has a flair for the right word at the right
time as she helps people mark the key moments in their lives. She was not only
aware of the dearth of anthologies dealing with death, but she did something about putting
matters right. This is Farewell is the result.
Drawing together material she has been gathering for
years Pinky has created an anthology of thoughts about our final farewell. In poetry
and prose people down the centuries have expressed their deepest feelings of grief,
anger, resignation and acceptance when someone they loved has died. The result
is timeless and moving. Their words speak to us as we encounter similar painful
situations, and they help us to order our own thoughts.
While many of the selections are suitable for reading at
funerals, tangi and memorial services, this anthology will earn a much wider
readership, providing comfort and easing grief.
The arrangement of the collection is particularly useful.
The reflections and poems are grouped by theme, so that the readings support
and develop each other. Thus, Kelly Ana Morey’s poem about the death of her
mother faces Bub Bridger’s farewell to her father.
Difficult areas such as suicide or the death of a child
have strong collections with personal reflections and comforting perspectives.
The selection is wide-ranging in time and space. Many familiar
voices are here (W.H. Auden, the King James Bible, along with fresh voices (Light
a Candle by Paul Alexander) and surprising writers (Jo Jo Moyes, Joyce
Grenfell!) each with their special insights. There is a strong New Zealand presence,
as well, with Brian Turner, Lauris Edmond, Hone Tuwhare, Ruth Dallas, Glenn
Colquhoun, Joy Cowley, James K. Baxter, Ruth Gilbert, Barry Crump and Ursula
Bethell. Even Te Rangi Pai’s heart-stopping Hine E Hine is here, in both Maori
and English.
This book’s production values are high. (Credit here to
Christine Cessford and Sophie Miller.) The pages are a comfortable size while
the print is clear and easy to read. The Acknowledgements section makes it
simple to locate the sources quoted. Best of all there is a triple index, so
you can search by title, first line or author’s name.
This is Farewell is, as they say, available from all good bookshops, or you can order it from Pinky Agnew herself. Her website is www.pinkyagnew.com
“It’s incredibly
moving seeing poems being read at these times of great importance – weddings and
funerals. You walk around a graveyard and see poems engraved on tombstones. A
person’s last message to the world. And why is that? Poems are the bridge
between then and now. It’s around us all the time.”