Family rescue story of love and war
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Pelorus Jack the Dolphin Guide By Susan Broker, illustrated by Raymond Mcgrath, Scholastic, $19.99 .. .. .. .. ..
Based on the true story of Pelorus Jack, a rare white Risso's dolphin who guided steamships through the rough waters of French Pass over a 100 years ago. Pelorus Jack was named because he was usually spotted at the entrance to Pelorus Sounds, and Jack because it's an old sea shanty name. He became a welcome sight to early passengers with people coming from all over the world to see him, even royalty. After someone tried to shoot him, a public outcry led to a law change to protect him, the first such law passed in any country. Pelorus
Jack was around from 1888 to 1912. Lovely illustrations make this a great bedtime reading book. The same duo have also produced Bess the Brave War Horse. —
Ann Kilduff
Living Plantfully By Lindsay Harrad, Allen&unwin, $39.99 .. ..
There's a lot of information in this book. Briefly it is a guide to growing, cooking and living a happy and sustainable plant-based life.
There are recipes, savvy swaps, growing tips, information about birds and bees and weeds and wild things.
If you are thinking of going eating more greens, this book might be really helpful. — Linda Hall
Dougal the Dancing Ka¯ ka¯ po¯ By Kate Bee, Ilustrator Lisa Allen, Bateman Books, $21.99 .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Get your dancing shoes on and boogie with Dougal.
Dougal dances his way through the pages in some amazing costumes. He line dances, he jives and he shimmies. Sometimes he's happy when he dances, sometimes he feels sad or lonely, but he dances anyway because he loves it.
It's funny and delightful.
— Linda Hall oderick Fry is a respected New Zealand designer, who has worked in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai and now lives in Paris. For the last 20 years he retraced the route taken by Vincent Broom, his maternal grandfather, across China during the Second World War to rescue his wife and children in Japanese-occupied Hong Kong. A Message for Nasty is the result — an historically accurate novel based on this incredible story of love and war.
Roderick Fry appears in an event at the Auckland Writers Festival on Sunday, August 28, 2pm followed by a public book launch at 3.30pm at the Aotea Centre.
You describe your grandfather as a ‘Kiwi’, where was he from?
My grandfather immigrated to NZ with his family from Liverpool, England, when he was about 4, and they settled in Gisborne. After my grandfather rescued his family, he brought them back to Tauranga where my mother and sisters went to school. In Tauranga there's still a large statue of the virgin and child in the Catholic church that was ordered by my grandmother from the Vatican as part of a promise she made in her prayers during the moments she most feared for her own and her children's lives during the occupation.
This book took you 20 years to write. Why was it so important to you?
It's a project that was very important to my mother and her sisters — they adored their father, so initially it was for them. As I got into it though, I discovered how emotionally rich the story was, and that it conveyed a lot of the of values and types of human experiences that I think are universally interesting.
is such a powerful love story. Did you set out to write it this way, or were you more interested in its aspects of war?
My grandmother was Portuguese Chinese and, in these cultures, ‘family' is the foundation of everything, and for my grandfather the love of his children and wife was just a natural part of his DNA, and this prioritisation really linked them together. In writing the story, in reading their letters and notes, and revisiting their family photos, their love, the love that motivated them to take such risks for each other during the war, is apparent everywhere. I think that they both felt extremely lucky that the other had chosen them to fall in love with.
Do you see yourself as an historian or a novelist?
I think there's a third category that might be attached to this book, and that's as the work of a ‘raconteur'. I've effectively taken other people's stories, and then filled in gaps and details using my own experiences and devices to help the reader visualise and sense the story better.
How have your family members reacted to the book, especially those who are featured in it?
There have been a few tears brought about by things that they've learned for the first time, and that have only come out or been clarified by other research and cross referencing that I did.
Your family’s rescue is so extraordinary, it could so easily have not worked out. What qualities do you think your grandfather and grandmother possessed that made it possible?
A fundamental, right-to-the-bone sense of family love and responsibility to see that the other members are protected and don't suffer is part of it. But also, so much of the help they received from others came from how they lived and how they'd treated people before the occupation. There were cases where favours and goodwill were simply being returned, but there were also many instances where people sensed automatically that they were dealing with decent people. They sensed that they were helping someone with a very righteous cause, and that if they did things like lend my grandfather money when he most needed it for his voyage, that they knew they'd get it back, and they did.
Nature Poems for New Zealand Children Written and illustrated by Christina G. Ferens, Independently published, $29.99 .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
What an absolutely lovely book of poems!
Children will love the simplicity of the words, the gorgeous illustrations and the creatures of the outdoors.
There are poems about birds, lambs and butterflies to name a few.
I'm lucky enough to be able to see many of these subjects out my window every day. I particularly like the poem about the Paradise Shelducks (Putangitangi). The author knows her subjects well.
Every child needs this book of poems.
— Linda Hall