Wednesday 21 February 2024

Good Sports: A Storybook of Kiwi Sports Heroes

 Good Sports: A Storybook of Kiwi Sports Heroes, Stuart Lipshaw, Puffin (2023) 208 pages, hardback, NZ$45  ISBN 978-0-14-377863-9

In Good Sports: A Storybook of Kiwi Sports Heroes (2023) Stuart Lipshaw presents lively profiles of fifty inspirational New Zealand sporting personalities. (To be precise there are 53 people because he included the four members of the footballing Cox family and rowers Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell, as well as Charisma, Mark Todd’s horse.) Lipshaw’s interest is not in gold medals or world records; rather he is intrigued by the way these people have overcome barriers to achieve their goals in their particular sporting interest.  

The format is the same as in his readable Oh Boy! (2018). Each athlete gets a two-page account of how they overcame a physical or mental barrier and the effect it had on their lives. A colour portrait by a New Zealand artist complements each entry.

The result is not so much a set of biographies as a collection of motivation stories to serve as an inspiration for young readers. It is nice to think of a future generation having a moment of inspiration in these pages.

 Trevor Agnew

 

Friday 19 January 2024

Five Books for Family Summer Activities

A First Book of New Zealand Backyard Bird Songs, Fred van Gessel, White Cloud/Upstart Press, 24 pages, board book, NZ$27.99  ISBN 978-1-99000-389-9

The Beach Activity Book, Rachel Haydon, Pippa Keel, Te Papa Press, 176 pages, pb, NZ$35  ISBN 978-1-99-116551-0

The New Zealand Night Sky, Alistair Hughes, White Cloud/Upstart Press,  40 pages pb, NZ$27.99 ISBN 978-1-77694-0110

ZIGGLE! The Len Lye Art Activity Book, Rebecca Fawkner, Massey University Press, NZ$35  ISBN 978-1-991016-40-9

Living Big in a Tiny House, Bryce Langston, Potton & Burton, 256 pages, NZ$54.99  ISBN 978-1-98855-058-9

 

 







A pile of summertime non-fiction books provides an invitation to all sorts of family activities. Some of the five New Zealand non-fiction titles here were created with young readers in mind: others for adults. No matter; all of them can inspire a family to try something new together. In fact every one of them can.




A First Book of New Zealand Backyard Bird Songs: What a delight it is to take this book out into the backyard and play some of the bird calls just to see how the resident birds respond. A chance to compare and contrast. Better than rubbing corks on bottles to lure fantails.  Reviewed below, this durable board book has profiles of a dozen familiar birds, as well as recordings of their calls.



The Beach Activity Book The great thing about this book is that it is consciously a family book. While it is written at a level children can understand and enjoy, it is structured and directed at family involvement. Of course, going to a beach (or a river) is usually a family affair so it makes perfect sense. Rachel Haydon has created ’99 ideas for Activities by the Water around Aotearoa New Zealand’ although I suspect her ideas reading scale runs well into three figures. Who knew you could turn a yoghurt container and a bit of plastic wrap into an underwater viewer?

Suggestions for activities include lists of things to look out for, ideas for activities and hints on exploring nooks and crannies. We are encouraged to develop awareness of tides and seasons. The activities of creatures large and small are important here. So are the landscapes they live in and the vegetation they move among. There are many types of beaches and watercourses to be examined. [Moomintroll readers will already know how to make a waterwheel.] There are suggestions for experiments, collections, examples of beach art, ideas about poems and even a guide to making your name in driftwood. Listening, thinking and even smelling have their place in the range of things to do.

There are lots of photos, as well as great illustrations and diagrams by Pippa Keel.  

This is a book that will go to the crib with the family and will be used by the family.

 




The New Zealand Night Sky is the year’s most handsome nonfiction book for young people. Alastair Hughes is responsible for the down-to-earth text and heavenly illustrations as well as the amazing stellar diagrams. He invites young readers, armed only with a warm coat and a pair of binoculars, to explore the wonders of the stars above their heads.

Every culture has imagined patterns in the stars.”

We can all find the Southern Cross but this guide to the nearer constellations and galaxies encourages readers to go searching for the Magellanic Clouds (Nga Pātari) Orion’s Belt (Tautoru) and Antares (Rehua). Not only does Alistair Hughes include their Māori names but he also provides handsome diagrams of the Māori astronomers’ version of the constellations. Thus the Tail of Scorpius is not only the bow of the great canoe Te Waka o Tamarēreti but is also Maui’s Fish hook. The stars of Matariki (Pleiades) likewise mark the bow of Te Waka o Rangi.

There are splendid double-page features on the Moon, the Sun, the planets, comets and meteors. Little treasure chests of information are scattered generously.  Kiwi pride is also touched with a portrait gallery of New Zealand astronomers and rocket scientists. The stellar link between Pacific voyaging canoes and the Rocket Lab launching is neatly made.

Best of all there are two star maps – Summer and Winter versions – for junior stargazers. Stand by for an influx of aurora-seeking young visitors heading to Lake Tekapo and the Catlins.




ZIGGLE! The Len Lye Art Activity Book is an eye-opener and a mind-opener. I hadn’t realised that, as well as creating lively artworks and animated movies, Len Lye was also a poet and wordsmith. “Ziggle” is a Len Lye original, a word coined to describe the zig-zagging shapes in his film Free Radical.

Rebecca Fawkner’s well-constructed activity book is also a bright, lively introduction to Len Lye’s life and artistic achievement. It is created around a range of imaginative games, exercises, experiments, cartooning, poetry writing and artistic creation – all with plenty of ziggle. Rebecca Fawkner credits Len Lye as an artist who “believed that art moved, art felt, art experimented, that art was noisy, art was in the footpath cracks and art was in outer space.” Her book is based on activities created for the groups of young people who regularly visit the Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth and are intrigued by his moving sculptures.

The book also relates events in Len Lye’s life to his art. Kicking a kerosene tin was the beginning of his career as an artist, while a childhood experience of the Cape Campbell lighthouse with its flashing light controlled by a clockwork mechanism made a lasting impression. His poems inspired his pictures and vice versa. Young readers are invited to write their own poems about some of Len Lye’s pictures as well as finding what sort of pictures his writings inspire. Then there are the waving and writhing sculptures. Each activity suggestion is linked to some aspect of Lye’s life or work.

It is hard to portray animated films in the pages of a book, so Rebecca Fawkner suggests that readers can see such pioneering works as The Peanut Vendor, Free Radicals or The Birth of the Robot at www.ngataonga.org.nz (although they are more easily accessed  on Youtube).

Rebecca Fawkner has done a brilliant job of showing what Len Lye achieved and encouraging young readers  to follow his example. She says Ziggle! offers 65 Len Lye-inspired ways to be an artist, though I think there are many more. These range from trying rubber-band music to creating a blind 3-D self-portrait. New generations of sculptors, poets, painters and animators may find their inspiration here.

Len Lye is shown laughing on the first page of Ziggle! and his good humour permeates all the pages which follow. His own words might thoroughly sum up this book’s approach: “happy-go-lucky alive stuff.”




Living Big in a Tiny House surprised me.  Bryce Langston is a key figure in the Small House movement so I assumed his book (a revised version of the 2018 edition) would mainly be of interest to architects or adults seeking a tiny roof over their heads. What surprised me was how much interest young people show in this book.

Although the illustrations are magnificent – as one would expect in a Potton & Burton title – it is Bryce Langston’s prose that appeals. He is a great storyteller and, in this book, he tells the story of some 52 tiny homes. He begins with his $6,000 tent, the Lotus, which he admits taught him “the true convenience of an inside toilet.”

Each of the tiny houses is given a four-page account and each of them is a delightful essay. We are introduced to the owners, their design concepts and their account of creating it and living in it. The diminutive houses come from all round the world and the range is incredible – from rebuilt railway carriages to converted containers, and from forest cabins to tiny trailers. Materials include canvas, straw, mud, stone, felt and even wood.

Rasa Pescud’s colour photographs are a grand complement to the prose, giving both the big picture and close-up details.

I suspect the young enthusiasts are initially attracted by the idea of a hut of their own and are then drawn in by the intriguing details: stairs that slide away, beds surrounded by plants and rooves that rise hydraulically. With luck this book will help inspire a generation of lateral thinkers and do-it-yourselfers, who will one day be building little houses on Mars.

Trevor Agnew

 

 


Friday 5 January 2024

Cook Islands and Samoa in Moana Oceana Series

Cook Islands: Kūki ‘Airani, Jean Tekura Mason, Oratia, 2023, 48 pages, paperback, NZ$29.99, ISBN 978-1-99-004221-8

Sāmoa, Dahlia Malaeulu, Oratia, 2023, 48 pages, paperback, NZ$29.99, ISBN 1-99-004222-5

 These two lively books launch a new Moana Oceania series from Oratia Books in Auckland. Both books are bi-lingual, with English on one page and the appropriate Pacific islands language (in these two books, Cook Islands Māori and Samoan) on the facing page. The subtitles for both books are ‘People, Culture, Language’ and the authors have selected from these aspects well. The reading and interest level of each book is aimed at 8 and up but the books carry a high level of appeal for adults as well as children. The illustrations are colourful without being touristy; many of them show ordinary people engaged in familiar activities or special ceremonies. These books look not only at daily life in the islands concerned but also shows how Cook Islanders and Samoans maintain their culture and traditions at home and in New Zealand. So, these two books will be of great value in the schools and homes of all three countries.  

Cook Islands: Kūki ‘Airani, Jean Tekura Mason, Oratia, 2023, 48 pages, paperback, NZ$29.99, ISBN 978-1-99-004221-8

The Cook Islands’ way of life is one that includes the fulfilment of duties to family and community, speaking the Maori language, and living according to the culture and customs of the country.’ I wrote my M.A. thesis on one small aspect of Cook Islands history and learned very quickly that there are 15 islands and most have their own customs and culture. That is why there are eight different dialects of Maori in the Cook Islands. Jean Tekura Mason has a deep knowledge of the Cook Islands and has compressed a great deal into this attractive introduction to her nation.

The book begins with the seven pillars of Cook Islands culture: Ngakau aro’a (kindness), Kopu tangata (family), Marū (peacefulness), Kauroro (respect to elders), Akakoromaki (patient fortitude), ‘Aka’aka (humility) and ‘Irinaki’anga and akarongo (religious belief). The sections that follow each show some of these in action, in village, church, school and sportsfield.

The text is bilingual with Cook Islands Maori (Rarotongan dialect) on one page and English on the other. (There are useful pages on language matters, including pronunciation guides and handy phrases.) Fact boxes provide interesting snippets of information and statistics. The layout is user-friendly with good headings. The history section is well presented although the pictures need captions. Makea Ariki is mentioned in the text but readers may not be aware that she also appears in three of the photos. Food and clothing are important cultural elements, whether in the home islands or in New Zealand, and these are well covered. Readers also learn about tatau (tattoo), tapa cloth, weaving and tivaivai (quilts). Dancing, music and sport are all described, with modern double-hull canoe voyaging linking us back to where we began with the original settlements of the various islands.

Cook Islands: Kūki ‘Airani will be an important book in encouraging interest in the Cook Islands and its lifeways among young people, whether they live in the islands or New Zealand. Or
anywhere else in the world.                                                                                                       

Trevor Agnew

 Sāmoa, Dahlia Malaeulu, Moana Oceania series, Oratia, 2023, 48 pages, paperback, NZ$29.99, ISBN 1-99-004222-5

Over 70 years ago, two Samoan women visited our classroom at Sawyers Bay School and talked to us about life in their home village. They told us of their fale (houses) with their open walls. Our jaws dropped. It was our first realisation of different ways of life in other countries.

In a way, this book carries on the work of those two gracious women. 

It introduces the Samoan culture, customs, traditions, language and food, both to young people in other countries and to young Samoans living overseas. The text is bilingual with English and Samoan pages facing each other. Lively fact boxes offer information on everything from the ecologically-important manumea (tooth-billed pigeon) to the types of siva (dance performances). There is even a box for Samoan values: Fa’aaloalo (respect), Alofa (love), Tautua (service) and Usita’i (discipline).

The book begins with the pillars of Fa’asāmoa – the Samoan way of life – emphasising the importance of the family, the village, the language, the church and food. There is a good summary of the sorry history of New Zealand’s 20th Century relations with Samoa, and a useful introduction to the geography and economy of the islands. A quick guide to the Samoan alphabet and language includes useful words and a pronunciation guide.

The best part of Samoa concerns the Samoan people and their activities, such as tatau (tattooing), singing, story-telling, mat weaving and sport of all kinds, including fautasi (longboat racing) and the joyous kilikiti. That’s an amazing amount to pack into 24 x 2 pages and Dahlia Malaeulu – a great storyteller - has succeeded brilliantly. The selection of colour illustrations is particularly good, again with an emphasis on people and their activities.

Best of all there are several pictures of fale. Did you know that they have no walls? The section on Samoan climate explains why not. 

Trevor Agnew

 

 

Wednesday 3 January 2024

A First Book of New Zealand Backyard Birdsongs

 

A First Book of New Zealand Backyard Birdsongs,

Fred van Gessel, White Cloud Books/Upstart Press, 2023,

24 pages, board book, NZ$28

ISBN 978-199000-389-9

 

This is a board book with a difference.

A First Book of New Zealand Backyard Birdsongs introduces young people to the CALLS of a dozen New Zealand birds. It’s a sound guide. Each of the twelve backyard birds – morepork, kaka, kingfisher, grey warbler, waxeye, bellbird, tui, fantail, chaffinch, blackbird, starling and song thrush – has its own double page of colour photographs and descriptive text. So far, so familiar.





Then comes the surprise. A side-mounted speaker – an extension of the cover – has 12 colour-keyed buttons each with a bird portrait. Press the morepork’s button and there is a clear cry of ‘more-pork’ or ‘ruru’. Each call lasts about ten seconds, which is a good sample.

Fred van Gessel’s description of each bird includes the Māori name, a brief description their appearance, preferred diet and usual habitat. As one who has spent four decades recording birds, his main emphasis is, sensibly, on the birdcalls.

The text may be a little difficult for young readers but it provides a great chance for parents to interact with their youngsters and discuss the various birds and their habits. Is this bird in your backyard? Does the starling (tāringi) really produce ‘noisy chortling, whistling and singing’? Was James Cook right about the bellbird (korimako) sounding ‘like small bells most exquisitely tuned’?

Press the button and find out.

This book is a companion volume to the author’s A First Book of New Zealand Bird Songs (2021) and A First Book of Australian Backyard Bird Songs (2019).

The system uses two LR44 1.5 volt batteries, so if young listeners prove too keen, anyone with a small philips screwdriver can replace them. The batteries, I mean.

 

Trevor Agnew

 

Friday 3 March 2023

Trust Yourself First by Doris Sew Hoy


 

Trust Yourself First: Cultivating Self-Awareness, Confidence and Resilience

Doris Sew Hoy

New Degree Press 2022

200 pages, paperback £12 (UK)

ISBN 979-8-88504-078-5 (pb)

The enforced isolation of the Covid lockdown forced many of us to re-examine our lives. It also gave us time to complete projects we had only dreamed of. Doris Sew Hoy did both.

She has written a book, 

Trust Yourself First

which incorporates what 

she has learned in her twin 

careers as an economist 

and as a freelance 

executive coach.

Trust Yourself First is about cultivating healthy relationships through trust. It also passes on what Doris has learned about clear thinking, thought-leadership, connecting with yourself and harnessing your full personality. She also shares the most useful tools, techniques and models that have helped her coaching clients develop their potential, both professionally and personally.

Doris Sew Hoy is a direct descendant of the famous Otago Chinese merchant and gold dredger, Choie Sew Hoy (1838-1901) – he was her grandfather’s grandfather. She was born at Outram in New Zealand. There her father, Jun Yip Sew Hoy, and mother, Lai Kum Hong, ran a market garden on the Taieri Plains and raised seven high-achieving children.

Qualifying for a year as a American Field Service Scholar in a St Louis, Missouri high school, was the first step in a journey that led Doris to a degree in economics at Otago University and post-graduate study at Durham University. She worked as an economist for the London Stock Exchange from 1986. A new door opened for Doris when she realised that many in the stock exchange lacked understanding of how the business actually worked.

I was getting annoyed at the number of times I had to correct people’s misinformation and misunderstandings.’  Appointed to a position where she was responsible for educating, informing and motivating people, Doris developed her ideas about the coaching of executives and undertook further study and research.

Trust Yourself First is a clearly written summary of what she has learned about human behaviours, emotions and interactions in the two decades she has spent as a freelance executive coach.   

Doris unpacks her professional toolbox and demonstrates the various techniques, mind-maps  and exercises she has found most effective in enabling people to examine their lives.  Each chapter offers readers a chance to examine their own actions and feelings, ambitions and uncertainties, from a fresh perspective.

The text is arranged in three main sections following her ACB model of personal growth and change..

Part 1, Awareness, invites readers to examine themselves and look at who they are and how they got there

Part 2, Choices, looks at the options facing us, our own strengths and weaknesses, the values we hold and the outcomes we hope for.  

Part 3, Behave, asks us what we intend to do when we have finished reading the book. Are we going to learn from the exercises? Will we change our attitudes and revise our priorities? How can we improve our communication skills, gain a better understanding of our emotions and live a healthier life?

This is not a dull text-book. This may sound daunting in summary but Doris keeps things clear and well-organised as she moves through the various exercises. Doris intersperses her teaching points with her own experiences so that her lively personality becomes an integral part of the book.

Trust Yourself First is an interesting and challenging book with a readable style and a big message.

Or as Doris, herself puts it, “I hope my book inspires you to reflect on your own life and where you want to go next, become your own best friend and cultivate the relationships you would like in your life.

 Website: Trust Yourself First Book | Doris Sew Hoy

 ISBN 979-8-88504-078-5 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88504-707-4 (Kindle Ebook)

ISBN 979-8-88504-186-7 (Digital Ebook)

 

 

 

This is Farewell: Readings and Meditiations  on Death and Dying

Pinky Agnew (ed)

Mrs Black Books (2023)

Paperback, 196 pages, NZ$35 plus p&p

ISBN 9-788-47365-826-7

 

We are all going to die. We are also all going to be involved with funerals. Publishers, however, shy away from books about death, so there is a definite lack of useful books for those who suddenly find themselves desperate for the right word to say as they farewell a loved one.

I was blessed with three enormously talented sisters. The youngest – Pinky Agnew – has excelled as a writer, actor and comedian but her true forte is as a celebrant. She has a flair for the right word at the right time as she helps people mark the key moments in their lives. She was not only aware of the dearth of anthologies dealing with death, but she did something about putting matters right. This is Farewell is the result.

Drawing together material she has been gathering for years Pinky has created an anthology of thoughts about our final farewell. In poetry and prose people down the centuries have expressed their deepest feelings of grief, anger, resignation and acceptance when someone they loved has died. The result is timeless and moving. Their words speak to us as we encounter similar painful situations, and they help us to order our own thoughts.

While many of the selections are suitable for reading at funerals, tangi and memorial services, this anthology will earn a much wider readership, providing comfort and easing grief.

The arrangement of the collection is particularly useful. The reflections and poems are grouped by theme, so that the readings support and develop each other. Thus, Kelly Ana Morey’s poem about the death of her mother faces Bub Bridger’s farewell to her father.

Difficult areas such as suicide or the death of a child have strong collections with personal reflections and comforting perspectives.

The selection is wide-ranging in time and space. Many familiar voices are here (W.H. Auden, the King James Bible, along with fresh voices (Light a Candle by Paul Alexander) and surprising writers (Jo Jo Moyes, Joyce Grenfell!) each with their special insights. There is a strong New Zealand presence, as well, with Brian Turner, Lauris Edmond, Hone Tuwhare, Ruth Dallas, Glenn Colquhoun, Joy Cowley, James K. Baxter, Ruth Gilbert, Barry Crump and Ursula Bethell. Even Te Rangi Pai’s heart-stopping Hine E Hine is here, in both Maori and English.

This book’s production values are high. (Credit here to Christine Cessford and Sophie Miller.) The pages are a comfortable size while the print is clear and easy to read. The Acknowledgements section makes it simple to locate the sources quoted. Best of all there is a triple index, so you can search by title, first line or author’s name.

This is Farewell is, as they say, available from all good bookshops, or you can order it from Pinky Agnew herself.  Her website is www.pinkyagnew.com

 And why should we read these poems? Lemn Sissay, the official poet of the London Olympics, explains when he is given the honour of the last word on page 175:

It’s incredibly moving seeing poems being read at these times of great importance – weddings and funerals. You walk around a graveyard and see poems engraved on tombstones. A person’s last message to the world. And why is that? Poems are the bridge between then and now. It’s around us all the time.”

Thursday 19 January 2023

The New Zealand Seashore Guide (2022) by Sally Carson and Rod Morris

The New Zealand Seashore Guide (2022)

Sally Carson  Photos: Rod Morris

Potton & Burton  NZ$49.99

ISBN 978-1-98855-042-8

 I’ve discovered the perfect present for young and old. Because nearly every New Zealander visits a seashore at some time, The New Zealand Seashore Guide offers them an ideal introduction to everything that lives at the beach. And not only the beach but also the nearby estuaries, lagoons, mudflats, rockpools and sandhills.

The text is bang up-to-date with modern research but is written in a friendly and easily understood way. The arrangement is logical, user-friendly and well-designed. As a bonus it’s an enjoyable read.

Sally Carson has the ability to put words together so skilfully that they reach out from the page and drag the reader in. Who can resist a section beginning, ‘For many coastal birds, the seashore is like a restaurant with limited opening hours.’? 

Many of her sentences create remarkable, often unforgettable, mental images. Of the Common octopus (Wheke) she writes, ‘As long as an opening is big enough to fit their beak, they will be able to squeeze their body through.’

This book also passes the curious items test, where facts are so unexpected and surprising that people feel obliged to read them out aloud. Did you know that ‘New Zealand is famous the world over as a place to study living brachiopods’? That’s because elsewhere they have been extinct for up to 260 million years. Once you have read up on Brachiopods you’ll also know that there are 38 species of this shellfish (lamp shells) tucked away in our rocky shores. They come in two colours (red and black) and they haven’t changed much in the last 550 million years. Sumptuous colour photos show just why washed-up shells are called mermaids’ toenails.

Amazing! We’re five paragraphs into a review of a Potton and Burton book and this is the first mention of the illustrations! They are, of course, superb. Even by the already high standards of Rod Morris’s photography, they are magnificent. Every picture, whether underwater or above, is sharp, clear and – given the subject matter – surprisingly colourful. The Shortsnout pipefish displays its red gill cover, while the  Red striped anemone, Orange clingfish and Olive rockfish show just why they got their names. The Jingle shell (Poro) is ‘a beautiful golden yellow, orange or silver colour’ so Rod Morris has shown it three times, the third as a beachcomber’s jingling wind-chime.

The cover picture, an atmospheric shot of Motukiekie Beach’s rock pools at low tide with starfish tightly draped over the rocks, looks like an alien planet. Even more alien are some of the creatures photographed including the various sea squirts, the nudibranchs and the chitons.

The Sacoglassan sea slug, a sap-sucker with club-like outgrowths, is straight out of Dr Who, as is the Ten tentacle worm.

The various coastal images come from all over New Zealand but Otago Peninsula’s beloved Harbour Cone, which has become an icon in Rob Morris’s work, appears satisfyingly often.  Nearby Portobello is the home of the ‘Fish Hatcheries’ better known as the NZ Marine Studies Centre, Department of Marine Science of the University of Otago, where Sally Carson is the director.

Her book invites young would-be scientists to try unusual seashore experiments. ‘Whelks … are well known for their predatory lifestyle and keen sense of smell’ is a sentence we might not agree with. Is it really well-known? But then we are told exactly how to carry out our own smell and speed tests on whelks.  ‘Being curious and making observations are key skills that contribute towards being a good scientist.’

The Seven-armed sea star (Papatangaroa) is known to consume at least 60 prey species, ranging from snails to paua. To aid in this task it has pedicellaria, little pincers. Sally Carson’s enthusiasm for sea creatures bubbles up in her suggestion: ‘If you put the hairy part of your arm near the upper surface of this sea star, you may feel its tiny pincers grabbing these fine hairs.’ This book is certain to spawn a generation of young naturalists (most with smooth arms).

Sections on every subject from Sponge Secrets to Beachcombing are truly illuminating. The one-page essay on Mussel Anchor Lines begins with describing the byssal threads extruded by mussels to use as climbing ropes and anchors. Then Sally Carson speculates on how these threads offer potential for man-made medical adhesives and stretchy sutures. Oh, and more acidic conditions in the sea are weakening these threads and thus pose a possible threat to mussel communities and the aquaculture industry.

Essays about A Changing Ocean and Other Coastal Concerns offer up-to-date research on the degradation of our seas and seashores.  

For foodies, the Edible Seaweed section includes serving suggestions for seaweed salad and kelp chips. Speaking of kelp, there are reminders of bags to carry shellfish being fashioned from the blades of kelp. I had thought we also carved kelp stalks to make bouncy balls for beach cricket but I see now that we were carving the stipes.

All the terms used are clearly defined, often with carefully-labelled photographs (such as Tidal Zonation) to assist. Common names, Maori names and scientific names for species are given along with the description, habitat, lifestyle, size, tidal zone and distribution. For critters that live regionally rather than nationally, there are even maps which show their distribution.  

The New Zealand Seashore Guide comes in a handsome easy-to-hold format, with a sewn binding that allows the book to opened flat without damage.  It has literally been designed to take to the beach, where it will be the ideal companion.

 Trevor Agnew

20 Jan 2023