
Books beyond Great Britain: Reading New Zealand
The UK produces some of the best children’s writers in the world, but how often do we read outside our own borders and what are we missing? Award-winning author Rachael King describes New Zealand’s children’s book scene and some of the authors we really should be reading.
Chances are, if you live in the UK, you can’t immediately call to mind the names of very many New Zealand children’s authors. This is because, while British books are almost all shipped off down under through the distribution arms of multi-national publishers or independent networks, the traffic is mostly one way. For a New Zealand (or indeed, Australian) children’s writer to appear on the shelves in UK bookshops, they really need to have a UK publisher. Publication by Penguin NZ, for example, does not guarantee publication by Penguin UK, which acts as a separate entity – unless it’s coming the other way.
Don’t get me wrong! We have plenty of international successes: Lynley Dodd and her Hairy Maclary books are beloved by millions (and I love that they are all exposed to the very kiwi word for ‘corner shop’ – dairy); Stacy Gregg’s pony series published by HarperCollins are some of the most successful in the genre; Dawn McMillan and Ross Kinnaird’s I Need a New Bum! (and other subsequent bum-oriented titles), published in the UK by Scholastic, have sold well over a million copies world-wide; and Craig Smith’s ever-popular Wonky Donkey went stratospheric after a video of a Scottish granny reading it in a fit of giggles to a baby went viral (we can all only hope for such publicity!).
The most notable New Zealand writer for children is probably Margaret Mahy. She published more then 160 books in her lifetime, from verbally acrobatic picture books and magical middle grade to my personal favourite – deep and dark YA that combines realism with the supernatural (such as The Changeover and The Tricksters). Her death in 2012 was keenly felt. Mahy won the Carnegie Medal twice (the only New Zealander to have done so), and her name is on the best children’s’ playground in the country, a post-earthquake recovery project in her hometown of Christchurch. Her own New Zealand children’s book collection is proudly housed in the Christchurch library and is being added to all the time.
So, who are some New Zealand writers you should know? The more visible examples I have mentioned aside, there’s a unique cauldron of children’s writing brewing down here in the South Pacific. The range of books being published is huge, from resolutely ‘kiwi’ books, with New Zealand place names, idioms and history, and Māori words – which are incorporated seamlessly into the lexicon or that stand alone in books entirely in te reo (Māori language) – to fantasies and dystopias with no discernable connection to our shores at all.
Publisher Gecko Press, known for its beautifully produced books, often foreign translations for an English-speaking market, has also achieved excellent international distribution for its New Zealand-made books. Notable recent works include Giselle Clarkson’s delightful The Observologist, a quirky handbook for exploring the treasures in our backyards, (just longlisted for the Wainwright Prize too); Jonathan King’s middlegrade graphic novel mystery The Inkberg Enigma; Juliette McIvor and Sarah Davis’s award-winning picture book That’s Not a Hippopotamus; and Eirlys Hunter’s middlegrade adventure The Mapmaker’s Race.
Two other recent international successes of note are Chloe Gong (These Violent Delights) and Graci Kim (The Last Fallen Star), who have both made the New York Times bestseller lists with their fantasy series rooted in their Asian ancestry. Significantly, their books are not set in New Zealand, and you might argue that this has helped their work to travel internationally.
Back at home, history is big right now, as the school curriculum is being adjusted to more fully acknowledge the darker side of our colonial past. Tessa Duder, author of the hugely important 1980s YA series Alex, has just published her first novel in 20 years – a historical drama for young adults, The Sparrow. Phillipa Werry writes novels that teach young people about the lives of ordinary New Zealanders and their past struggles, and she won last year’s Young Adult book award for a verse novel (a coming trend but not one well established yet) about the writer Robin Hyde. Veteran author and illustrator Gavin Bishop leads the non-fiction charge with large-format picture books for older children that cover general history (Aotearoa: the New Zealand story), the origins of Māori gods (Atua) and the bloody land wars between Māori and the invading British, the trauma of which needs to be acknowledged to begin to heal (Patu). Even Stacy Gregg, she of the pony novels, has turned for her latest middlegrade to a story inspired by her Māori heritage, which also touches on the land wars, the effects of colonisation, and the 1981 Springbok rugby tour which divided the nation.
As part of our last, Labour-led, government’s attempts to more fully honour the Treaty of Waitangi, our nation’s founding document, a new public holiday was established for Matariki, the Māori new year, which focuses on remembrance, gratitude and planning for the coming year. As with all festive publishing (Easter, Christmas), this has unleashed an avalanche of books, although these are not simply cash-grabs but an opportunity to spread understanding about what Matariki means. As of writing, a week after Matariki, all top ten New Zealand children’s bestsellers are Matariki books or picture books by Māori authors.
This is really heartening to see, as the traditional imbalance in publishing continues to shift. Most Māori friends of mine speak of growing up and not seeing themselves reflected in many books. This is changing. An incubator initiative by Māori-led publisher Huia (which this year won Best Children’s Publishers of the Year, Oceania, at Bologna) mentors new writers so that work can be produced, and books by Māori writers frequently dominate the bestseller lists in adult as well as children’s books. The national children’s book awards also award a book written in, or translated into, the Māori language each year.
Many of Huia’s books would have international appeal, especially Steph Matuku’s Migration (sci-fi YA with an indigenous lens) and Tania Roxborogh’s Charlie Tangaroa and the Creature from the Sea, the first in a series about a disabled boy who encounters Māori gods – a Māori Percy Jackson if you will.
Both Bren MacDibble, who writes voice-led climate fiction and Kate de Goldi, a crossover author universally adored in New Zealand, have been published recently in the UK by Old Barn Books. MacDibble lives in Australia, so many of her books are set there, but she wins New Zealand book awards and I am claiming her because I think she is writing some of the strongest, most intelligent and beautiful middle grade around. Kate de Goldi is one of our most respected children’s writers and commentators, and the only New Zealand writer to be shortlisted in both the adult and children’s national books awards for the same book, The 10pm Question (2008), which Old Barn Books has just rereleased alongside de Goldi’s latest, Eddy, Eddy, another crossover book.
Other names that are telling entertaining stories for 8-12 year olds include Leonie Agnew (children fake an alien invasion to boost tourism in their town in Take Me to Your Leader), Fifi Colston (a papier mâché puppet comes to life when a ferocious dog’s ashes are mixed in with the paste in Masher), Raymond McGrath (the Big Little Blue junior graphic novel series about penguins), Des Hunt and David Hill, two veterans of the New Zealand book scene.
Newcomers to watch: Jane Arthur for her gorgeously quiet novel Brown Bird, written with a poet’s eye, and the glorious debut by huge new talent Claire Mabey, whose The Raven’s Eye Runaways is set in a fantasy medieval world where reading and writing are restricted to a privileged elite.
You might not be able to find them easily in the UK, but we have strong YA writers exploring both the real world and the make-believe – sometimes both together: Rachael Craw (look out her upcoming romantasy series The Lost Saint), Whiti Hereaka, Mandy Hager, Shilo Kino and Eileen Merriman to name just a few.
Finally, my favourite living writer for young people, who is also a generous mentor to many younger writers, is Elizabeth Knox. You might know her from adult novels The Vintner’s Luck and most recently The Absolute Book (published to great acclaim in the UK by Michael Joseph). Her young adult Dreamhunter duology, and the standalone Mortal Fire, set in an alternative past New Zealand (Southland), are absolute masterpieces, and I have high hopes that another Southland novel may be on its way.
The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults this year received 175 entries, with 35 places on the various shortlist categories. That number might seem small but keep in mind these books are being published in addition to the books that would be found at any London Waterstones, so competition for sales is intense. We have a separate New Zealand-only bestseller list because otherwise many good books wouldn’t get a look-in. While picture books seem to do relatively well (it’s a joke among children’s authors that if you want a bestseller just stick a kiwi on the front – unlike an actual kiwi, the book will fly), our middle grade and YA are eclipsed by the usual suspects: Kinney, Pilkey, Walliams, Jackson, Rowling and Griffiths (whose live events sell out 1200 tickets overnight). To continue the bird analogy, like our endangered native birds – who have to compete in a habitat with non-native magpies, starlings and Canadian geese for example – they need a bit of help to thrive.
Like other countries, our literacy rates are falling; the number of kids reading for pleasure is dwindling, and our new government seemingly hasn’t noticed the direct co-relation between these figures and the shrinking number of school libraries and librarians to staff them. There are plenty of hard-working people, though, who are determined to get that message through, and to try to reverse the trends. And it hasn’t stopped writers doing what they do best and contributing to a national canon that by most measures is in rude health and only getting stronger.
Rachael King is an award-winning writer, book reviewer and former literary festival director from Aotearoa New Zealand. Her latest book, The Grimmelings, is published by Guppy Books.