The first verse makes the association between being happy, yellow and strumming a guitar.
“The last verse is ‘ring a bell when you’re in love’ and it’s a rainbow.
“The rainbow worked perfectly because it has all of the colours and it’s the whole - so it’s inclusiveness and although the book isn’t about [inclusiveness], it is indicative of it.
“The book is for little kids and little kids absolutely love to draw rainbows.”
All four books are aimed at children up to early primary school age and can also be used as aids to teaching te reo Māori to older children.
Rebecca says she has been inspired by Aunty Bea’s books, and initially wrote for her own children.
“I’ve done them in the same style as Beatrice Yates - Aunty Bea. She started doing this in the 1980s with her te reo resources for schools.
“I used the same concept, so when my kids were young they could be introduced to te reo - I was living overseas at the time but I wanted them to be introduced to some te reo in a way that would be fun for them with actions and song.
Rebecca’s last book - Twinkle Twinkle Matariki - came out in 2019.
“That seems like a whole lifetime ago,” she says.
“Then Covid happened and since Covid there’s just been a whole lot of uncertainty and really a whole lot of big emotions going through the world. That’s affected me through work, home life, everything, so it was quite a reflective time working on this book, thinking about emotions.”
But, she says, she didn’t want the book to be too serious.
“I feel there is a lot of material out there for pre-schoolers that is super serious on the topic of big emotions.
“In the song I suggest actions like breathing or counting or stomping your feet, clapping your hands - little things they can do that are fun - we don’t have to get all serious.”
Justin Kereama is the singer on the CD accompanying the book and Tania Solomona has acted as a translator and Māori adviser.
“She’s been on this waka journey from near the beginning.”
Rebecca says she often gets invited to early childhood centres and gets to see children perform, inspired by her books.
“They are really fun classroom sing-a-long books - they get the musical instruments out and have a jam.”
She says the books lend themselves to being used as the basis for performances.
“I’ve also been super lucky that the books have been picked up for several storyboard trails now.”
One based on her Matariki book was opened in Oamaru last week and there are two in Auckland.
“It’s pretty cool to have your project used in different ways by people like that because it means that sharing is going on and I just want these resources out there to be loved and used.”
The book launch will be at Papamoa Library on July 5 starting at 10am.
“We’ll have a bunch of instruments - it’s going to be so much fun.”
There will also be events at Te Puke Paper Plus on July 6 and at Pāpāmoa Paper Plus on July 8, both at 11am and a nationwide competition with the prize of a full set of books and a taniwha plush.
