Moo and Moo and Can you guess Who? by Jane Milton, illus. Deborah Hinde.

Moo and Moo and Can you guess Who? by Jane Milton, illus. Deborah Hinde. Pub. Allen & Unwin, 2017

Of all the animals in the World the two with the most appealing and expressive eyes are the giraffe and the cow. In this truly New Zealand picture book about cows, Deborah Hinde has got them just right.

The story is set 9 months after the earthquake that left Moo And Moo and the calf too, stranded on  a hill created by the earthquake that required them to be helicoptered off. Now both Moo and Moo are expecting calves and have remained friends.

I wonder how many Moos there will be at the end of the book? Read it and find out.

The text is rhyming and sometimes is a little forced but it doesn’t matter. We all wanted to know what happened to those cows. A strong New Zealand flavour and a worthwhile purchase for the home and the school library.

The Thunderbolt Pony by Stacy Gregg.

The Thunderbolt Pony by Stacy Gregg. Pub. HarperCollins, 2017.

If you are a fan of Stacy Gregg’s horse and girl stories then I don’t need to tell you how good this latest novel is. If not read and learn.

Evie has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, OCD as a result of severe trauma caused by the Canterbury and Kaikoura Earthquakes. She takes responsibility on board and feels responsible for the aftershocks unless she goes through a number of routines. Of course this is nonsense but the sense of anxiety for Evie is real.

When Evie’s house is destroyed by the Kaikoura earthquake and her mother is airlifted out with a broken leg and pelvis, Evie travels through the earthquake ravaged land between Parnassus and Kaikoura to meet the naval ship HMS Canterbury.

Her companions on this journey are her Arab pony Gus, her border collie Jock and her Cornish red cat Moxy. They are a tight group with the animals just as traumatised by the earthquakes and aftershocks as Evie is.

The journey is riveting, dramatic and accurately described by Stacy Gregg. I lived through the Canterbury earthquakes and aftershocks and remember the roar they gave and the shaking which will stay with me forever.

It is said that 4 out of every 5 children who experienced the quakes still have anxiety disorders and Stacy Gregg analyses this traumatic effect on children through Evie’s OCD. Evie has to understand that it is not her fault and with the help of a therapist and her animals she comes to terms with it.

References to the heroes of the Greek legends make for an interesting link up.

Stacy Gregg’s other titles are reviewed elsewhere on this blog.

Canterbury Quake by Desna Wallace.

Canterbury Quake by Desna Wallace. Pub.Scholastic, 2014.

As a survivor of the Canterbury quakes I can tell you that this book is as close as you can get to the quakes and the effects they had on the city of Christchurch and the people of Canterbury, without actually being there.

Eleven year old Maddy tells the story in diary form from the normalcy of August 2010 through the shock of the 7.1 Darfield earthquake and the aftershocks, the Boxing Day shake up, the destructive 2011 February 22nd quake and the June 2011 tremor plus the 12,000 aftershocks. You feel every one of them.

Maddy’s family, older sister Tessa, younger brother Jackson plus mother father aunts and uncles, school friends, and the city all had experiences they will never forget. Desna Wallace has recalled memories I had shunted away but really needed to think about again now that a sort of normalcy has returned.

Some quotes from the book – “It isn’t fair this happening to us again. People dead. I don’t want to believe it. Not my town. Not my city.”

“We walked home hand in hand on the worst day ever”

“It is not normal to see the ground move like that”

” I see faces full of fear”

Yet there was some humour in the whole event. After each aftershock people would guess it’s magnitude. It is a 4.5 0r a 3.9 almost nonchalantly. Can we forget Ken Ring? or the pictures of the Medway street Bridge or the railway line in Canterbury country.

In the midst of it all we had the Royal Wedding. How can we ever forget? Desna has captured our feelings and experiences in this excellent novel which is part of the My New Zealand Story series.

For children and adults it is difficult to see a better recollection than this short accessible novel.