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Illustrations showing a hacked-off Queen, a phalanx of KFC staff all dressed in Union Jack aprons, and banners all over the KFC menu.
(Illustrations: Ruby Santos-Jackson; Design: Archi Banal)

BooksMay 20, 2022

The day the Queen came to Birkenhead KFC

Illustrations showing a hacked-off Queen, a phalanx of KFC staff all dressed in Union Jack aprons, and banners all over the KFC menu.
(Illustrations: Ruby Santos-Jackson; Design: Archi Banal)

This short story is excerpted from The Jillion 2, a terrific new compendium of stories, poems and pictures by New Zealand children.

Words by Annabel June Barlow, pictures by Ruby Santos-Jackson.

It was a dreary, rainy Wednesday in Auckland and the crew of Birkenhead KFC was winding down after another quiet day. Just as everyone was packing up, a worker named Lucy burst through the double doors with a hungry grin on her face and a twinkle in her eye.

All the employees stared at her in confusion. The manager stepped forward angrily, scanning Lucy with beady eyes. He could see she was holding an envelope, written in old-fashioned writing and addressed to him!

Before Lucy could say anything, the manager swiped the envelope out of her shaking hands. He turned his back on everyone to read it. All you could hear was the fryer sizzling away as if it was chatting to a friend.

At last, the manager swivelled around slowly and read the letter aloud:

Dear Store Manager,

I am the Queen of England and I demand to see your KFC in Birkenhead, North Shore, Auckland, New Zealand. I will be arriving on Friday at noon.

Yours sincerely,

Her Royal Highness, Queen of England and the Commonwealth Nations, Elizabeth II

Illustration of a letter held in a hand, includes royal seal and big red AIRMAIL, writing is beautiful cursive
(Illustration: Ruby Santos-Jackson)

All of the workers either gasped or whispered to their colleagues in excited, nervous tones. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s get cracking!” Lucy exclaimed.

Izy, the youngest of all the workers, shouted, “We need new uniforms and a red carpet and decorations and … and …” She stopped to take a quick gulp of air and went straight back to lecturing all of the crew on what they needed to do for the Queen of England’s arrival.

Lucy interrupted gently. “She’s right! This is our chance to show the world that our KFC is the best.”

The staff looked at her for a stunned moment. Everybody erupted into cheering and clapping and they went to work on making the place beautiful.

When Friday came, the employees of Birkenhead KFC were still racing around frantically like a herd of scared zebras. Izy and Lucy had taken control of everything and now there were new uniforms, a red carpet and fancy decorations. Even the oil in the fryers had been changed!

Child's drawing of a KFC decked out in Union Jacks, staff all lined up in Union Jack uniforms, and two corgis tugging at their leads to get into the store.
(Illustration: Ruby Santos-Jackson)

At last, noon came. Everyone stood uncomfortably at the double doors, sneaking nervous peeks out of the tinted glass. At five past noon, the staff heard the unmistakable trumpet fanfare to herald the arrival of the Queen of England. She stepped gracefully on to the shiny red carpet. All of the staff bowed stiffly as the Queen sashayed forward with her head held high.

“Oh my!” she muttered in her posh accent.

The workers glanced at each other with pained looks but Lucy jumped up from her bow and guided the Queen away from her entourage to the sparkling clean kitchen. QE took a quick glance then turned around elegantly.

“Well,” she said flatly, “I was hoping to see the normal version of KFC, not the snazzed-up-just-because-the-Queen-is-coming version!”

Everyone either buried their pale faces in their hands or looked at the Queen sheepishly.

“Oh well, good day to you all. I will be back next year so mark your calendar!” the Queen barked in her I’m-so-rich-and-you’re-not English accent.

Then she and her entourage strutted out the tinted glass doors and disappeared. All of the crew breathed a sigh of relief.

The next day, a new letter arrived, adorned with the seal of the President of the United States…

Two book covers, one a flaming-orange dragon on a blue background, the other a spaceship blasting off on a green backdrop.
The Jillion books showcase some of the best contributions to the wonderful journal Toitoi (Images: Supplied)

A note from books editor Catherine Woulfe:

Just wanted to stick my oar in and say The Jillion 2, which the story above appears in, is an exceptionally cool book. It’s a bright, green, hard-backed treasury of our kids’ voices and stories and art and it’s beautifully put together, and as you flick through you can practically picture each genius kid bent over their work, crayons all over the table, tongue poking out in concentration.

The range of art is huge. There are intricate black and white pencil sketches, dreamy watercolours, a felt-pen drawing of an eel so saturated in colour it looks like a stained-glass window (it was done by a six-year-old). There’s an excellent comic of nits clinging to a scalp for dear life. A coloured-pencil sketch of a snapper so realistic it could have flopped straight off the fish of New Zealand poster. Heaps of the illustrations here are way better than the ones in picture books illustrated by adults, I’m completely serious about that.

And the writing! There are flashes of proper brilliance here, moments that go beyond kids being accidentally cute or profound, and into holy moly, here comes a writer … there are so many, but to single one out, take the 14-stanza poem that was written by nine-year-old Hannah Chamberlin for the stuffed elephant at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum.

You were popular

but thieves stole your tail.

Then, one day, 

you got taken off your platform  

 

They cut off your legs and trunk 

so that you would fit through the door of the museum … 

Bravo, Hannah, bravo to Annabel June Barlow and Ruby Santos-Jackson, who wrote and illustrated the story published above when they were 10, bravo to all the Jillioners, bravo to kids kicking arse. I mean bum. I mean bottom. Bravo.

The Jillion 2, by New Zealand’s young writers and artists (Toitoi Media Ltd, $45) is available from Unity Books Auckland and Wellington.

Keep going!
(Design and illustration: Toby Morris)
(Design and illustration: Toby Morris)

BooksMay 17, 2022

The Spinoff Book Report #4: Covid edition

(Design and illustration: Toby Morris)
(Design and illustration: Toby Morris)

Books editor Catherine Woulfe presents a sickbed stash of terrific quick reads. 

Welcome back to The Spinoff Book Report, an irregular series in which I rave about a bunch of new-ish books that I love with no reservations.

Today’s instalment is a dose of what’s good for you. I had Covid a couple of months ago and it smashed me. I still find it hard to concentrate properly, so what follows is a list of only the grabbiest, most compulsive reading. These books are swift and they blaze with story; they’ll haul you through even the most knackering post-Covid day.


Notorious by Olivia Hayfield 

Racy historical fiction (very) loosely based on the mystery of the princes in the Tower. I whooped when it arrived, turned the telly on for the kids and made myself scarce for an hour. 

Olivia Hayfield is the alter ego of Sue Copsey, a Brit who moved to Tāmaki Makaurau so long ago (1996) we can probably stop saying she’s a Brit. For the last few years, around her day job of editing, she’s been turning out straight-up great novels that reimagine Henry VIII and his daughters as modern media tycoons (Wife After Wife in 2020; Sister to Sister in 2021). This is a slight deviation, with a story hinging on Richard III, whose skeleton was sensationally discovered under a Leicester carpark in 2012. 

Copsey never misses a chance to inject glamour or celebrity, or a gorgeous gown, but there’s also a real heart to her books – here, the protagonist is mourning her little brothers, who are missing and presumed dead. She’s also deeply in love with a man (Richard, hot and brooding) suspected of their murder. Ridiculous, but somehow, she sticks the landing. (Hachette)


Two book covers - left is a glamorous woman standing looking out a grand window, right is a boy on a unicorn, lightning flashing from its hooves and his hands.
New from Ponsonby writer / editor Olivia Hayfield and the debut from US writer A.F. Steadman (Images: Supplied)

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A.F. Steadman 

Simon & Schuster paid seven figures for the first three books in this series, which is apparently the highest advance ever for a debut children’s writer. And they really plan to sell the bejesus out of this first book. “[OUR] BIGGEST EVER MARKETING AND PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN”, my review copy shrieks. There are “consumer stunts” in the works (one shudders to think), “epic in-store point of sale and retail theatre showcasing Skandar’s world”, “continuous digital content across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.” There’s a film coming too – Sony’s bought the rights, in another crispy seven-figure deal. Brace yourself. 

But also … this is, cross my heart, an extremely good book. Aimed at ages 8 to 12 (but don’t let that stop you, I was utterly engrossed) it’s the first in a series about a world where unicorns are not only real, they’re really deadly – unless they bond with a human at the moment of their hatching. Among humans, bonding and becoming a unicorn rider is considered a tremendous honour. It’s also clearly just a really fun way to live your life.

Our hero Skandar is a kind kid who, despite the mysterious forces out to stop him, winds up with a unicorn. Now he’s off to unicorn school and that sounds so dumb, but it’s really done well, with a rich cast of characters as sidekicks, a bunch of thrilling races and battles, bloodthirsty wild unicorns frothing at every turn, and a backstory for Skandar that rings true and resonates. Also the unicorns are awesome. (Simon & Schuster)


To the Sea by Nikki Crutchley 

A terrific thriller from the Cambridge writer whose previous three novels, a trio of police procedurals, all did very well in the Ngaio Marsh Awards. (To the Sea came out in December, but I only got to it recently.)

One day a father tells his family they’re moving. They pack up and leave the suburbs for a dark pine forest beside the sea. There’s a big cliff. Sharp rocks. Paradise, he tells them, and he calls it Iluka. They all get new names, too. 

Our narrator is a young girl growing up in this weird, insular place. As she gets older, the glimpses she gets of the outside world play on her mind. And then one day a journalist is allowed to come stay, and the pieces start to slot together … 

You know that feeling when you walk into a pine forest? The hush, and spooky coolness, and the way after a hundred metres or so you can’t tell which way you walked in – that’s the reading experience here, and I savoured it. (HarperCollins AU, $35)


Two book covers
New from Cambridge proofreader / librarian Nikki Crutchley and US BookTok sensation Sarah J. Maas (Images: Supplied)

House of Sky and Breath (A Crescent City novel) by Sarah J. Maas

When I was properly sick with Covid I read nothing but Sarah J. Maas, putting away brick after brick of her great rich sexy fantasies. I stacked up a tower as high as my knee. It was very comforting. 

This is her most recent novel and the second in the Crescent City series, which follows the stroppy constantly side-eyeing half-Fae Bryce Quinlan through revolutions and romance. Much darker than her Court of Thorns and Roses series. There’s a fallen angel. I’m heavily into it. (Bloomsbury)


Family of Liars by E. Lockhart 

Technically a prequel to We Were Liars, the smash hit YA novel Lockhart released in 2014, but I strongly recommend reading it after We Were Liars, because it is jammed with spoilers. (It’s also a really grown-up YA, by the way.)

It’s impossible to set out the plot without ruining it, but what I can say is that like the first book, this one is set on the private island of the super-rich Sinclairs, a family who summer there every year. Again the protagonist is an unreliable teenage narrator. Again, there’s loads of pashing and roses and beach swims, first loves and family tensions that criss-cross the island just like the boardwalks built between the family’s stately homes. 

As far as vicarious holidays go it’s a mint one. There are staff, most crucially a chef to put together the picnic hampers. Fridges magically get restocked and all you have to do is turn up at the main house at 6pm and someone will hand you chicken and salad and sourdough bread, lemon mousse, an Old Fashioned. No child goes anywhere without a paper bag full of strawberries and crisps. Bliss! Let me live there.

Both books are full of rich characters and cleverly plotted, with hammerblow twists – Lockhart’s said she was inspired by Gone Girl, and John Green helped her tweak the ending. The teen voices are just right. The dynasty, the privilege, the lemonade: I was reminded of a Curtis Sittenfeld novel, and I fecking love Curtis Sittenfeld. (Allen & Unwin Children)


Two book covers
New thrillers from American YA writer Emily Lockhart and Poneke lawyer Brannavan Gnanalingam (Images: Supplied)

Slow Down, You’re Here by Brannavan Gnanalingam 

“I wanted to write a horror about climate change, without mentioning climate change or having any villains,” Gnanalingam told me, when I messaged him in raptures about this latest novel. 

I didn’t get climate change at all. Instead what I got was my most enduring nightmare (so I guess in a way I did get climate change): via a set of extremely credible and mundane events, two little kids end up alone in their cruddy Auckland flat. Their mum’s away for a week. There’s barely any food. Not enough nappies. They can’t get into the bathroom, or reach the tap. No one’s going to be checking in on them. The big one’s only four and the little one has just turned two … 

Of course there is other stuff folded in too. Race and poverty and the housing market and resentment. You know from the first pages this is a cracker. Gnanalingam steps us through the lives of the parents – a taxi driver being pushed past his limit; a woman trudging through another day of laundry and cooking and keeping the toddler away from the stove and next door’s dogs. The grinding knife-edge anxiety of it all. Eg: 

She had hung the final shirt when she heard Aarani scream from the house. She sprinted inside. “What? What? What is it?”

Aarani was standing on the floor, looking at the TV. “Nothing Amma. I fell off the chair.”

Don’t react, don’t react. She was going to boil the kettle and have a cup of tea. Take a break for fifteen minutes. Except, Bhavan had started crying. The scream had woken Bhavan as well. 

Last year Gnanalingam’s novel Sprigs, a brilliant story about high school rape culture, was shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. I’m certain this one will do just as well, if not better. We’ve a full review coming shortly. (Lawrence & Gibson, $23)


See you back here in another month or so for a fifth edition of the Book Report; in the meantime I’m heading to the couch with Joan, by Katherine J. Chen (Hachette) which is a feminist retelling of Joan of Arc and which you should pre-order immediately if you’re into Circe and The Song of Achilles.