You may be familiar with the original version of Gavin Bishop’s The House that Jack Built and this is a te reo Maori re-release of this popular book. Koinei te Whare na Haki i Hanga is a complex weaving together of the nursery rhyme with the cultural, historical and environmental context. The illustrations are rich, evocative and complex, and reward being looked at again and again.
I’m liking
There has been a small trickle of picture books translated into Maori over the last couple of years and I find it wonderful to have books in te reo that I can also check my understanding with English versions as well. It it, of course, fabulous for Maori language learners to have texts this rich in te reo. It’s particularly appropriate that a book that tells a story of early New Zealand should be one of those available in both English and Maori.
This is a tricky book. It’s much more challenging than your standard picture book and although you can read it as story to, say, 5 or 6 year olds, it’s so much more complex than could possibly be grasped on a single read. I loved the detail, complexity and warmth of the story. It’s very understated and you need to use all of the clues on a page to understand what is happening.
The conclusion
This is certainly not a picture book for small children and it’s sophisticated, nuanced approach will be a joy to New Zealand history buffs as well as lovers of good picture books. This book would make an awesome teaching aid for older children studying New Zealand history. A gem from one of New Zealand’s children’s book gems, Gavin BIshop.
