Dinner With Grandpa by Gillian Torckler, Illus. Mikki Slade Robinson. Pub. Duck Creek Press, 2024.

        March Release date

As a granddad who has frequent contact with my granddaughters and regular family meetings it sometimes crosses my mind what will happen to all this when I die. What will my granddaughters remember about me? This is a theme of this picture book but not the only one.

Families getting together is another important theme. Will they still get together after death?

A regular family meeting eating pizzas and gazing at the stars is the scenario. Matariki is in focus. Grandpa says our ancestors are looking down at us and it is a nice thought. After passing is there a new star in Matariki?

Concise story telling from Gillian Torckler and mood setting peaceful happy illustrations from Nikki Slade Robinson make this a feel good picture book to be read aloud.

Matariki by Gavin Bishop. Pub PenguinRandom House, 2023

A superb bilingual board book from the doyen of New Zealand picture book writers.

Gavin continues on his journey of promoting the Maori language and culture with a story about the eight star sisters that make up Matariki.

Each sister has a meaning and role to play in bringing life to our planet from bringing rain to the soil, to helping us remember how good we have it.

A simple way to show pre school and juniors the meaning of Matariki in a board book format that can take the wear and tear.

Illustrations are simple and classy. Add it to E Hoa anothe board book reviewed elsewhere on this blog.

Told first in Maori then in English. Even Christopher Luxon could understand this.

Matariki . Around the World. By Rangi Matamua & Miriama Kamo, illus. Isobel Joy Te Aho-White Pub. Scholastic, 2022.

With Matariki now a public holiday in New Zealand, recognition of this important day is now celebrated in this important picture book for school libraries and in the home.

It is a cluster of stores about a cluster of stars that vary in number from 6-9 even up to 12, depending on where in the Worlds they are viewed from.

The Maori called them Matariki. It was an important guide to the cycle of life and celebrated at a different time every year depending like Easter on the Lunar calendar.

It was also noted by the Aborigines, The Cook Islands, Tahiti and Hawaii. The Japanese called it Subaru, the Chinese knew it as Mao, the Indians included it in Hinduism and included in their myth and legend as well as the cycle of life particularly crop growing. Africans knew it as IsiLimela and it was known to the North American Indians, the Aztecs and the Incas.

The Greeks called it Pleiades named after seven sisters and it is known as this by most of the World.

All the myth and legend surrounding this cluster of stars is told in this beautifully illustrated picture book which is a must purchase for school libraries and individual homes. This will figure in book awards later in the year for sure.

The Stolen Stars of Matariki by Miriama kamo, Illus. Zak Waipara

The Stolen Stars of Matariki by Miriama kamo, Illus. Zak Waipara. Pub. Scholastic, 2018.

When I went to school I never heard of Matariki or Pleiades as the Greeks called it. The Maori have always known about it and it is an important celestial entity in their culture.

I first read children’s literature about it in the 90’s and it has since been a point of celebration in schools and the community when it first swims into our ken.

Miriama Kamo in this excellent picture book has added mystery and legend to the existence of Matariki and she has added it to the mystique of that powerful piece of landscape known as Birdlings Flat, a place noted for it’s steep shingle shoreline , it’s eels and the thunderous surf that slams into it during a southerly storm.

Amongst the shingle beach are pieces of agate that look like gemstones and it is conjectured that they are part of two extra stars now missing from these Seven Sisters.

Zak Waipara’s digital animation gives life to the written text with the gems appearing in the stars of Matariki, the agate of the shingle beach and in the wonderous eyes of the children as they go eeling and searching with their grandfather and grandma.

We need these myths and stories to enhance our understanding of the place of humankind in this vastness of the Universe. Children of all ages will love it.