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For ages 7+
Shortlisted for the Elsie Locke Non-Fiction Award in the 2019 New Zealand Children and Young Adults Book Awards.
Reviews
Simie Simpson, Paparoa (Magpies Magazine, September 2018 ~ If you get a copy of this book, you’ll need to hold onto it tightly. The beautiful illustration and production will have people trying to wrestle it off you in a heartbeat. This, in fact, happened to me – I took it out in public and I won’t be making the same mistake twice. People are drawn to it; it has a book lovers’ sensibility: a matt cover, lovely thick paper and the illustrations are stunning.
I always wonder how illustrators make picture books engaging when the protagonist is something I don’t see as particularly expressive. The maunga in this story are human enough to be engaging but solid and immovable enough to leave the reader in no doubt that they are maunga. This is the story of a nameless maunga who was deeply in love with a beautiful maunga, named Puwhenua. However, when he discovered that she was in love with another, his cries of misery are loud enough to be heard by the patupaiarehe. They help him by weaving ropes to bind him and pull him out to sea, away from his unrequited love. They drag him all night but as the first rays of sun send the patupaiarehe back to the forest, and as mountains can only be moved once in their lifetime, he is frozen in place forever. He is subsequently named Mauao ‘caught by the dawn.’
My bland synopsis is exactly why you need to read this book and have this legend brought to life. Like the Tardis, this book is much more than it seems. It is more than a picture book – at the back is a glossary, facts about Mauao, a detailed timeline, place names, karakia, whakatauki, maps and activities.
This book is the perfect classroom resource – it is informative and well thought out. However, to label it as such does undercook it slightly – this retelling is captivating and evocative. I found myself pouring over the story in both Māori and English. While my reo isn’t proficient enough to comment on the Māori translation, I found it flowed well enough for me, at my beginners level, to read with the assistance of the English text (and the online Māori dictionary for clarifying some words!).
Ko Mauao te Maunga would make a lovely gift book—for children and anyone learning te reo or interested in the history and mythology of the Tauranga rohe.
