I was really keen to review Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story by Gavin Bishop. I have been a fan of Bishop's illustrative style since Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant (which was published about the time I was born!).
When this one arrived in the post it absolutely exceeded my expectations. As you know I love seeing books that tell our story and supporting books coming out of NZ. This is one of those wonderful, enormous, hardback books that are being published at the moment. It is wonderfully illustrated and tells tales of NZ from pre-Māori migration right through to keeping record of the Christchurch earthquake in 2011.
Every double page spread deals with different topics and they are laid out with heaps of illustrations and snippets of text. There is excellent use of Te Reo in the book as well which makes me really happy too! I can see this being a book that children will get lost on a page for ages and pop out with 'Mum did you know...' statements from the text.
This book would be a wonderful addition to your home library and as a teacher I know it is one of those ones that would be constantly being picked from the book corner during quiet reading time.
Congratulations to Gavin Bishop for this wonderful, wonderful book - a delight for children and adults and many thanks to Penguin Random House for picking it up and publishing it. One of my favourite this year.
Details - Penguin Random House, October 2017 RRP $40.00 Hardback and very large size.
love you more than a page of famous people who 'told our stories' (actors, dancers, writers, artists, musicians...) xxx
