Published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Collingwood Area School, this book of stories and photographs combines the high points of early school history with an update of events since the centennial celebrations in 1959.

It also encompasses the other eight schools of the area that have now closed. At first glance it may seem that only those who have some connection with Collingwood could find interest in this book. On the contrary, it is a documentation of changing times and changing schools in NZ history. Some highly sought after photographs are included in this books which detail life when the school opened in 1859 of not only school life at this time but life in NZ as a pioneer settler. This close knit community school was, in its origins, witness to pupils who were children of goldminers, storekeepers and pioneer farmers who knew the value of an education. The Collingwood community should be congratulated for 150 years of support to its students in preparation for the wider world. Recommended intermediate upward.

review by Melissa

Three new primary level picture books about war all focus on New Zealand’s involvement on the Western Front rather than at Gallipoli. These attractively presented works are ideal for broadening knowledge about World War I in a way that is distinctly positive rather than gloomy, and focuses on the values that can emerge from a battlefield.

David Hill’s The red poppy , accompanied by a CD of Rob Kennedy’s song of the same name, tells of the compassion and friendship that develop between two wounded soldiers from opposing sides in a brief encounter that neither of them will ever forget. The story incorporates a crowd-pleasing small black dog as well and is optimistic without being unbelievable.

While it doesn’t dwell on the mud and misery that were a constant presence in the trenches of Europe, it doesn’t gloss over them either. This is shown in Fifi Colston’s superb illustrations —subdued shades of brown and grey, with the only colour coming dramatically from the crimson poppy of the title. The red poppy’s superb hardback presentation would make it ideal as a gift, to enhance understanding for many Anzac Days to come. Teaching notes on The red poppy are also available from Scholastic Books.

The eels of Anzac Bridge is possibly about Passchendaele, although this is not overtly stated. Certainly it is about a young New Zealander who travels far across the sea to join the Great War in Europe and, like so many of his countrymen, does not return.

Ali Foster uses the imaginative tactic of linking his story to that of the migrating longfinned eels, who also never return from their long journey after spawning in the waters of the stream that flows through his home town. The two stories are intertwined throughout to show the pattern of the lifecycle itself, with its continuing processes of birth, growth and death.

The Anzac Memorial Bridge of the story really exists, in the small community of Kaipororo north of Masterton. The Art Deco bridge was opened in 1922 and contains the names of the town’s young men who fell during World War One. This inspired Ali Foster to write a story that could relate to any one of them. The eels of Anzac Bridge is published by the Wairarapa Archive in conjunction with Fraser Books.

There is a town in France that will always have a special place in its heart for New Zealand; that continues to have a public square proudly named ‘Place des All Blacks’ in spite of World Cup rugby traumas; and whose schoolchildren perform a (very smartly dressed) haka twice a year in our honour.

Glyn Harper’s picture book Le Quesnoy : the story of the town New Zealand saved gives us the reason for all these things, and provides long overdue information for our own schoolchildren about the nature of true home-grown heroism. Just as Willie Apiata’s VC was awarded for the saving of life rather than the taking of it, the glory here lies in the fact that our young soldiers used ingenuity to take back a French town occupied by the Germans without the loss of a single civilian life.

It was no easy task. Only a week before the Armistice was to end the horrifically blood-soaked Western Front campaign, the New Zealand Division was given the task of re- capturing Le Quesnoy, a mediaeval town surrounded by two bastions of walls several metres thick, with a moat in between. The town had been occupied by German troops for four years and, knowing the strength of the ramparts surrounding them, the Germans were refusing to surrender.

Rather than the ‘normal practice’ of storming the walls, which would have resulted in heavy casualties among the towns people, the New Zealand Field Artillery used heavy mortar fire to distract the Germans while members of the Rifle Brigade quietly crept up the walls under cover of the smoke. On November 4, 1918, Lieutenant Leslie Averill was the first survivor to make it into Le Quesnoy. Once the Germans realised the wall had been breached they opened one of the town’s main gates and surrendered. While 130 New Zealand soldiers and a greater number of Germans died during the liberation of Le Quesnoy, the historic town and its grateful population remained largely unharmed.

The picture book tells the story through the eyes of a child living in the town, and thanks are due to military historian Glynn Harper for using this device to make it totally suitable for primary school children (and thanks also, Glynn, for the pronunciation guide..it’s Ler kay nwah). Artist Jenny Cooper has relished the opportunity to widen her usual scope, and her illustrations are moving and evocative without being grim.

This is the one of our war stories that so needs not only to be told but to be shouted from the rooftops!

review by Cecily

Images used with permission

I was fascinated to discover this new picture book written by Ali Foster, illustrated by Viv Walker, and launched at Pukaha Mount Bruce earlier this year. It tells the story of Private Arthur Braddick, who grew up in the Kaiparoro area south of Eketahuna, and who later lost his life on the Western Front during World War I.

In a parallel story we learn about the life journeys of the long-finned eels that inhabit the Makakahi River and other local streams, and their journey to the warm undersea trenches near the islands of Tonga where they breed and then die (the baby eels then making their way back through the ocean to the rivers of New Zealand).

The name and setting comes from the real Anzac Bridge, which was erected after World War I north of Mount Bruce and still stands today.

Reading is so much about connections –my Great-Aunt turned the first sod for this bridge, and cut the ribbon when it was opened (she sent the most sons away to the war), and as a child I lived north of Kaiparoro on a farm bordering the same river.

The book was published by Wairarapa Archive, in association with Fraser Book.

review by Jan

Image used with permission

This treasure of a legend that previously was only known to a few, has been bought to life by Moira Wairama in her book Ngā Taniwha i te Whanga-nui-a-Tara.

This picture book retells the legend of Whataitai and Ngake, two taniwha whose bid for freedom from their lake shaped the current landscape of Wellington harbour.

Open the book and Bruce Potter’s vivid, imaginative illustrations quickly pull yopu in. The use of different size text and the way the words dance across the page and interact with the illustrations create a riveting read in te reo Māori. The landscape format fits the story well, allowing panoramic and large as life views on the double spread pages. This legend will appeal to a wide age group from primary aged students to adults.

This book was awarded the SLANZA Kura Pounamu book award 2012 and the Te Rōpū Whakahau - Te Tohu Taurapa for the best picture book in te reo Māori.

This book is also available in English under the title The taniwha of Wellington Harbour.

review by Alice

Image used with permission