Image: Tina Tiller

BooksOctober 4, 2022

The Unity Books children’s bestseller chart for September

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Image: Tina Tiller

What’s the best way to get adults reading? Get them reading when they’re children – and there’s no better place to start than Unity’s top-selling kids’ books.

September has been a time for children’s writing and publishing in Aotearoa. When co-editors of Annual Ink publishing imprint Susan Paris and Kate De Goldi spoke with Kathryn Ryan on RNZ’s Nine to Noon about the literacy crisis and the lack of brave children’s publishing for middle grade readers (aged 9 – 11), some of our children’s writers got offended, as reported on Newsroom.

We’d say it’s possible for there to be brilliant Aotearoa books published, including the delectable chocolate box of literary treasure that is Annual 3, and also have room for more. It’s a fact universally acknowledged in this editorial room that while we enjoy the odd fart up a tree gag we’d eagerly embrace more and braver books for kids (and their adults). You can read Susan Paris’s essay on this subject right here on the Spinoff.

AUCKLAND

1 Big Ideas For Curious Minds: An Introduction to Philosophy by Alain de Botton and Anna Doherty (Affirm Press, $40, 9+)

Children always have the best questions and often the most interesting answers. This book nurtures that curiosity and introduces schools of philosophical thought to extend on that natural instinct to to ask “but why?” Quite enjoy the tomey feel of this too: it has a dark, almost serious cover with a sense of old-school heft about it.

2 Atua: Maori Gods & Heroes by Gavin Bishop (Penguin, $40, all ages)

We’re pegging this pukapuka down as the children’s book of the year. It was the big winner at this year’s New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults and for good reason. It is large in format and in scope: sharing the stories of Atua Māori for young and old to get immersed in together.

3 Maui & Other Legends: 8 Classic Tales of Aotearoa by Peter Gossage (Penguin, $40, 3+)

Is an Aotearoa bookshelf complete without this book? Not really. Get it now.

4 Spark Hunter by Sonya Wilson (Cuba Press, $25, 9yrs+)

A magical adventure survival story featuring fairies, this celebrated YA novel is set in Fiordland. Here’s the first part of the blurb:

“Nissa Marshall knows that something is hiding deep in the forests of Fiordland National Park – she’s seen their lights in the trees. But what are they, and why does no one else seem to notice them?

When Nissa abandons her school camp to track down the mysterious lights, she finds herself lost in a dangerous wonderland. But she’s not the only one in danger – the bush and the creatures are under threat too – and she wants to help. What can a school kid do where adults have failed, and can she find her way back? In Fiordland, the lost usually stay lost.”

Gripped already? Us too.

5 Noisy Book by Soledad Bravi (Gecko Press, $25, 0-3yrs)

The most fun is when you train your baby to howl like a wolf. “And the wolf goes OOOOOO!”

6 Crane Guy by Sally Sutton illustrations by Sarah Wilkins (Picture Puffin, $20, 2-5yrs)

Get high with Crane Guy! Sally Sutton is a genius. Her punchy explorations of the world of large-scale building and planning (see: Construction; Demolition; Dig, Dump, Roll; Roadwork) are crack for kids. The rhymes are pitch perfect – so good you can sing them. This latest is a let’s spy book that invites little readers to elevate their worldview and survey the world alongside that mysterious guy you can sometimes see up there on a crane. Top idea, and with Sarah Wilkins vivid, stylish illustrations it is a joy to read.

7 Kuwi & Friends Māori Picture Dictionary – English Text and Illustration by Kat Quin, Te Reo Māori Translation by Pānia Papa (Illustrated Publishing, $35, all ages)

A large format, thorough and user-friendly te reo Māori dictionary for beginners and young readers. The illustrations are vibrant and fun and the breadth of subject matter is brilliant. An essential book for learning at home.

8 My First Pop-Up Dinosaurs by Owen Davy (Walker Books, $23, 4+)

It’s weird how kids love dinosaurs. Counter-intuitive somehow. Or perhaps totally intuitive given the things are extinct. At any rate this book is a great size for small hands and if they can avoid the temptation of pulling at the popping out bits then it packs a fair punch: that T-Rex is fierce.

9 Counting Creatures by Julia Donaldson illustrations by Sharon King-Chai (Two Hoots, $25, 2+)

Many JD fans will not be used to Julia without Axel. Scheffler that is – Julia Donaldson’s long-time illustrator collaborator on such perennials as The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom. Counting Creatures is pitched at a younger reader and has a lush feel with opulent, fecund illustrations by Sharon King-Chai. On every page there are perfectly placed flaps so that the baby animals, who are the stars of this story, can be discovered by small, exploratory hands.

10 How Do I Feel by Rebekah Lipp & Craig Phillips (Wilding Books, $40, all ages)

This enormous hardcover book (140+ pages) is a dictionary of over 60 emotions and an intention to help children develop their emotional literacy. The book blurb is:

“Join Aroha and her friends as they share how different emotions might feel in the body and how each emotion might be helpful. This emotions dictionary is all about helping children find the words for how they truly feel. Learning to recognise and label our emotions correctly is such an important skill for life.”

WELLINGTON

1 Atua: Maori Gods & Heroes by Gavin Bishop (Penguin, $40, all ages)

2 Annual #3 edited by Kate De Goldi & Susan Paris (Annual Ink, $45, 9+)

A luscious, adventurous, miscellany of fun for everyone in the whānau. The third Annual includes a ghost story by Airini Beautrais, a song by Troy Kingi, the beloved spot the similarities segment by Gavin Mouldey, a comic by Ant Sang, and so much more. At over 150 pages this treasure trove of a book is exhilarating from start to finish and is one to keep diving back into as your readers’ tastes change with every age. The Annuals expand what you might consider to be children’s literature in terms of style, format and authors too. Susan Paris’ essay on why Annual exists can be read now, on The Spinoff.

3 Adventures of Mittens: Wellington’s Famous Purr-Sonality by Silvio Bruinsma (Penguin, $20, 3+)

I think we’ve run out of things to say about this book. Meow.

4 Baddies by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler (Alison Green Books, $28, 4+)

Witch, ghost and troll are downright terrible, nasty, badass baddies. This is back to familiar JD turf with Axel Scheffler’s idiosyncratic illustrations with their robust ways and smudgey clay-like textures. Children love baddies and this book is an ode to some of the best of them.

5 The Lighthouse Princess by Susan Wardell, illustrated by Rose Northey (Puffin, $18, all ages)

A stunningly beautiful book made right here. One to have and to hold.

6 How Do I Feel? by Rebekah Lipp & Craig Phillips (Tikitibu, $40) all ages

7 Kuwi & Friends Māori Picture Dictionary English Text and Illustration by Kat Quin, Te Reo Māori Translation by Pānia Papa (Illustrated Publishing, $35, all ages)

8 Animalphabet by Julia Donaldson illustrated by Sharon King-Chai (Two Hoots, $20, 4+)

The third entry for the OG JD in this list! Another collab with Sharon King-Chai this gorgeous book is also aimed at young readers. It is essentially an ABC book with sweet peep holes and fold-out flaps.

9 Unraveller by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan, $30, 12+)

Hardinge fans have been waiting a long time for this latest novel by the queen of thrillingly dark fantasy. Here’s the blurb:

“In a world where anyone can cast a life-destroying curse, only one person has the power to unravel them.

Kellen does not fully understand his unique gift, but helps those who are cursed, like his friend Nettle who was trapped in the body of a bird for years. She is now Kellen’s constant companion and his closest ally.

But the Unraveller carries a curse himself and, unless he and Nettle can remove it, Kellen is a danger to everything – and everyone – around him…”

We’ll be publishing a review of this one here soon.

10 My Aroha Tree: Poster & Sticker Set by Rebekah Lipp & Craig Phillips (Tikitibu, $30, all ages)

Another offer from Rebekah Lipp and Craig Phillips (see How Do I Feel?), this one is a poster + sticker package to encourage children to visually map their good times among the less good times. Seems an excellent idea – one we could all do with exploring in these most trying of times.

Keep going!

Keri Hulme (Photo: Philip Tremewan)

BooksOctober 3, 2022

Light on her feet: remembering Keri Hulme

Fergus Barrowman

Guest writer

Keri Hulme (Photo: Philip Tremewan)

Publisher Fergus Barrowman recalls the world of 1980s publishing in Aotearoa and his interactions with the late Keri Hulme.

Late 1983 I was coming to the end of my year as a teaching assistant in the English department – marking exams, not getting on with my MA, hanging out in the Salient office. To visit my friend Kathryn Irvine, the typesetter, I would push my way through long galleys of type hanging up to dry – while the newspaper wasn’t being published, Salient had taken on typesetting a novel for the Spiral Collective, as a commercial job.

1983 turned into 1984. I bought the bone people from Nigel Cox at Unity Books, and read it in a kind of trance of recognition and longing – along with, it seemed, everybody else in Aotearoa.

I had also exchanged tutoring for a part-time job as assistant to the editor of Victoria University Press, and soon learned that several years earlier the editor, Pamela Tomlinson, and the New Zealand Short Stories series editor, Bill Manhire (the series was a ruse to enable VUP to publish fiction as Bill’s academic research), had signed Keri up for a collection of short stories. The collection at that stage consisted of clippings from Islands, Broadsheet, Untold and other magazines, and some manuscripts, with a promise of more to come.

Pamela died suddenly at the beginning of 1985, and I held the fort until I was appointed Editor in September. As the bone people conquered the world, many faxes went back and forth between Keri and me. Unfortunately, when I went to look at them in the archive several years ago they had all faded to white, but I remember there were many very good jokes and cartoons, as well as promises of imminent delivery and explanations of why that hadn’t happened. It took a while for the penny to drop, but eventually I realised that Keri had a very clear sense of what she wanted to achieve and very high standards. She always sincerely meant to send the manuscript after the weekend, and there were very good reasons why she hadn’t been able to.

I don’t remember when I first met Keri. Could it have been as early as the 1984 New Zealand Book Awards, or on another Wellington visit? The first meeting I remember for sure was when I visited her while she was Canterbury University writer in residence, with a contract to formalise the agreement that had been made years before. I remember how light on her feet she was darting out into the corridor to waylay a passerby to witness our signatures. She was very happy.

That might have been when the book’s title arrived. Keri knew that the collection in the VUP filing cabinet was big enough, but it wasn’t good enough. The new story she was going to write would solve the problem. That might also have been when we decided what to leave out: a few lighter stories, some of which, possibly all, appeared later in Sport and other magazines; and a long story called ‘Lost Possessions’, which had a formal similarity to another shorter and more intense story. Lost Possessions became its own book, published under a plain manilla cover with no blurb or description (to the dismay of some readers who couldn’t tell what it was – the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature called it a collection of poems).

Te Kaihau gave me the best editing training I can imagine, and I was lucky I got it before I learned too many of the right ways to do things. I was perhaps a little intimidated by Keri – her fame; the bluff, cool exterior she cultivated as self-protection – but I soon discovered that there was nothing she enjoyed more than the intense reading that editing is. Many details were argued about by phone and fax. Now, proofreading the scanned text for a forthcoming reprint, I’m struck by how responsive the balance between order and needs of the moment is.

Fergus Barrowman profiled in North & South, 1980s (Photo: Supplied)

The book was all ready to go when we booked a launch slot at the inaugural NZ Festival of the Arts Writers and Readers Week, March 1986 – except for the title story. On Christmas Day I took a taxi down to the Wellington Airport freight counter, and this time there was an envelope. I turned the pages of the manuscript inside, until, on the last page, ‘to be continued’ . . . Nevertheless, I was holding part one of a terrific new story, which I edited and had typeset, and then when the finished manuscript arrived a week later part one had been completely rewritten, for the good. This story is my personal favourite of Keri’s works, and I remain awestruck that she produced something so strange and free under the weight of expectation she felt – I know; she talked about it – after the bone people won the Booker Prize just weeks earlier.

My only visit to Keri in Ōkārito was a week later, with the final book proofs. She picked me up in Hokitika and I sat with her for a day while she read them. The next day she drove me to Christchurch, where I gave the proofs to the typesetter, and waited until they were ready to take back to Wellington.

Among the many gnarly details we debated, my one concession I’ve never felt quite sure about was on Keri’s preferred spelling of “sandune”. At one point I asked her about Bait, which was OK because VUP didn’t publish novels so had no expectations. Keri pointed to a box under her desk filled with typescript. “There it is. It’s finished; I just have to put it in order.”

Keri and I met often over the next few years, at festivals and award ceremonies and other events, but it is that magical time of working closely together that I remember with aroha.

Lost Possessions (THWUP, $25), Te Kaihau | The Windeater (THWUP, $30), and the bone people (Pan Macmillan, $27.99) can be purchased from Unity Books Auckland and Wellington. An e-book called Keri: Our Kuru Pounamu, a collective of writing from those who knew Keri, and Keri herself, published by Spiral Collective is forthcoming. Keri Hulme will be celebrated with a special event at Verb Readers & Writers Festival 2 – 6 November in Wellington and in Nelson at Nelson Arts Festival on Sunday 23 October.