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FINALIST, Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction, New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2019
This is the first book in the Whetū Toa series. The second book is Whetū Toa and the Hunt for Ramses and the third is Whetū Toa and The Secret Spies.
Reviews
NZ Booklovers ~ Whetū Toa is a fantasy chapter book aimed at middle primary. However, it makes a great read-aloud for children of a younger age too, with the magic and tension not too scary for little readers. Matuku has said that she wants “more kids to be able to read stories set in Aotearoa, in a world they live in”. While we all don’t live on a magical farm, this sentiment goes much, much deeper.
Illustrated by Katharine Hall, the book contains little vignettes of the book to aid readers. They are quirky and delightful. With short chapters, it is easy enough for a newly independent reader while also manageable as a read aloud. It is at times laugh out loud, while being rich in language and a setting that is both familiar and unknown. Whetū Toa and the Magician is a stellar debut from an author who pours her heart into her stories. It is full of fun and fantasy, and is an important addition to our literary landscape.
Read the first chapter.
About the Kiwi author
Steph Matuku (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama, Te Atiawa) is a freelance writer from Taranaki. She enjoys writing stories for young people, and her work has appeared on the page, stage and screen. Her first two novels, Flight of the Fantail and Whetū Toa and the Magician were Storylines Notable Books. Whetū Toa and the Magician was a finalist at the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. In 2021, she was awarded the established Māori writer residency at the Michael King Centre where she worked on a novel about post-apocalyptic climate change.
