The Curiouseum, edited by Adrienne Jansen (Te Papa Press, $29.99)

Review by Nikki Slade Robinson

With a tantalising title of The Curiouseum, and an equally enticing cover design, it’s hard not to be, well, curious as to what lurks within. And this ‘collected stories and poems of the odd and marvellous’ for children certainly rewarded my curiosity.

This book is the result of letting 22 New Zealand authors loose in Te Papa Tongarewa – the Museum of New Zealand – on Wellington’s waterfront. Authors span the familiar to more recent up-and-comers, such as Margaret Mahy, Joy Cowley, Barbara Else, Bill Manhire, Jo Randerson, Mandy Hager and Tusi Tamasese, to name but a few. Their brief was to explore the museum for a day, and choose an object/s as an inspiration – a starting point – and create ‘new and wonderful stories’ about those objects.
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Feed a Family of Six for Under $20 by Jas McPhee (Penguin, $19.99)

Review by Nikki Slade Robinson

Can you really do KFC at home? Have it taste great? And without spending a bomb? Absolutely. ‘Jas’s Fried Chicken (JFC) with Potato, Gravy and Coleslaw’ was one of the first recipes we tried, and it will be one we definitely use again. OK, it’s not an absolute clone of the real KFC, but it does taste remarkably similar, and with no additives and relatively less fat, it’s surely healthier. Our version was shallow-fried in a pot as we don’t own a deep fryer, but it was still most successful.

Another successful recipe was the ‘Basic Chocolate Cake’ which my 12-year-old daughter was able to whip up unaided. The only detail we weren’t sure about was the ‘2 tsp instant coffee’ – should we use 2 tsp of dried instant coffee powder or 2 tsp of instant coffee made up as a drink? We opted for the dried, and the cake worked.
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Mrs. Mo’s Monster by Paul Beavis (Gecko Press, $19.99)

Review by Lindsay Pope

After reading this bright book for the first time, I wished my grandchildren were with me to share it with. It awoke my inner child.

When Mrs. Mo opens her door to an unexpected guest more than a little chaos ensues. The guest, a rambunctious monster, portrayed as a hairy blue bean-like creature, is more endearing than scary, more amusing than threatening. The mature Mrs. Mo, bespectacled and in Edwardian attire, has the patience and experience to handle the unexpected. Her unflappable manner modifies the monster’s behaviour and, to some extent, domestic harmony is restored.
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Whales and Dolphins of Aotearoa New Zealand by Barbara Todd (Te Papa Press, $44:99)

Review by Nikki Slade Robinson

You could be excused for confusing the title of Te Papa Press’ new Whales and Dolphins of Aotearoa New Zealand with the fairly recent release Dolphins of Aotearoa from Craig Potton Publishing. However despite the similar titles and beautiful production, the books are very different. For someone passionate about marine life, both titles would sit nicely alongside each other on the bookshelf.

Whales and Dolphins of Aotearoa New Zealand is a stunning soft-cover publication, around 300 pages, beautifully designed, and packed with captivating photos and graphics on every spread. The information is very accessible and comprehensive, making this an ideal reference book for anyone, children included, to learn more about these incredible creatures.
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Thorndon – Wellington and Home: My Katherine Mansfield Project by Kirsty Gunn (Bridget Williams Books, $14.99 PB, $4.99 e-book)

Review by Pip Adam

“What is real, for a writer? What is the lived, the imagined? The light, the dark? Is it that the remembered may be deemed more powerful than the dreamed? The sadness, going down into the depths more grounded, more true, than the procession up into the bright world of stories and plans and wonder? To what extent, instead, like Milton’s sun ‘dark with excessive bright’, might the world of one also be the world of another, sun and moon together in continual eclipse and radiance, day and night at play together in the imagination in writing, in stories.” That’s Kirsty Gunn writing in Thorndon – Wellington and Home: My Katherine Mansfield Project.
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Kerikeri Mission and Kororipo Pa: An Entwined History by Angela Middleton (Otago University Press, $29.95)

Review by Judith Nathan

With 2014 being the bicentennial of the arrival of the first missionaries in New Zealand, this booklet about the oldest surviving mission station at Kerikeri, and the adjacent kainga and pa at Kororipo, is very timely.

As mentioned in the title, this account emphasises the extent to which the two communities were interlinked, at a location chosen by Samuel Marsden in 1819 on the advice of Hongi Hika. Here the missionaries were dependent on their Maori patrons for survival, and the Maori reaped the benefits of life alongside the Europeans.
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Peace, Power and Politics: How New Zealand Became Nuclear Free by Maire Leadbeater (Otago University Press, $55)

Review by Cameron Walker

In 1992 Elsie Locke, the mother of Maire Leadbeater, published Peace People: A History of Peace Activities in New Zealand. Peace People charted anti-war and peace activism in New Zealand from the Nineteenth Century Land Wars through to 1975. Peace, Power and Politics continues the history of these movements through to the year 2000.
Through her involvement in the campaigns for nuclear disarmament, East Timorese independence and more recently human rights in West Papua, Leadbeater has developed a reputation as an astute researcher. These skills are well applied in this book.
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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck by Jeff Kinney (Puffin Books, $17.99)

Review by Ruth Brassington

Is the Wimpy Kid the most famous anti-hero of our children’s day? What happened to Superman/Clark Kent?

Neither comics nor novels, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books – this is the eighth – is a series lovingly created by self-confessedly failed newspaper cartoonist Jeff Kinney.

Perhaps because it was launched on my birthday in November, someone thought Hard Luck an appropriate present for me. Maybe being another year older was thought to be hard luck, but, as wimpy kid Greg Haffley says, just ask the Magic 8 Ball if you’re not sure of the answer. This useful fortune-telling device accompanies Greg through thick and thin – mainly thin, being Greg – as he tries to keep and make friends in middle school, answer test questions and walks to and from school dealing with problems all the way.
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ANDRIS – Where Are You? by Ron Crosby (Craig Potton Publishing, $40)

Review by Simon Nathan

A few years ago I attended an international science conference in Lithuania, one of the recently independent Baltic republics, immediately west of Russia. We went on a field trip through Latvia, but none of the Russian delegates were able to come because it was virtually impossible for them to obtain visas. This personal account of the disruption and agonies undergone by the Apse family helps to explain why Russians are not welcome in Latvia.

Andris Apse is one of New Zealand’s best known landscape photographers. He was born in Latvia while the country was in the midst of the turmoils of World War 2 – firstly invasion by the German army (into which Andris’ father, Voldemars, was conscripted), then occupation by the Russians. His mother, Kamilla, and baby Andris had to flee to a refugee camp in west Germany, and eventually emigrated to New Zealand. His father had disappeared without a trace – they believed that he had died in the conflict or in a Soviet prison camp. Andris grew up as a Kiwi, and developed his career as a photographer. Forty years after arriving in New Zealand, he and his mother discovered that Voldemars was still alive in Latvia.
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A Winter’s Day in 1939 by Melinda Szymanik (Scholastic, $18.50)

Review by Nikki Slade Robinson

Adam is 12 and living with his family in rural 1939 Poland… but not for long. Their home isn’t far from the Soviet border. When the Soviet Red Army invades Poland, Adam’s family is one of many uprooted and transported to Russian labour camps.

It is a harsh existence: appalling living conditions, freezing temperatures, illnesses, a severe shortage of food, and the ever-present enemy. It’s a challenge to survive each day, let alone try to stay together as a family.

This young-adult story, while fictional, is closely based on Melinda Szymanik’s father’s recollections of his family’s experiences in 1939 Poland and the USSR: ‘My father was 12 when the Soviet Red Army invaded eastern Poland, where he lived, in 1939. His family was transported from Poland to a labour camp in Russia in 1940. Their experiences… form the basis of this novel, and a lot of the things that happen to Adam and those close to him happened to my father and his family and friends.’
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