Kids into Books: The Lies of Harry Wakatipu

Author: Jack Lazenby

Illustrator: Christine Bluess

Publisher: Longacre Press, $14.95

Age group: 10+ years


Two bottles came bobbing and glinting down the Hopuruahine River. The field officer was scared of the ford so he used to throw our mail into the head of the river, and we fished it out when it came past the Hopuruahine hut. I climbed down to collect the bottles, but Harry Wakatipu shoved past. He always has to be first. He has to read my mother's letters first. He has to have first slice when I bake bread. When we have a birthday party in the Hopuruahine hut, he has to have first go at blowing out the candles whether it's his birthday or not. "Look after Number One!" Harry Wakatipu always says.

Shoes ringing on the shingle, neighing "Ha!" he cantered across and snatched up the bottles. As he pulled out both corks with his teeth I recognised my mother's writing on the labels and dived down the back of a sandbank. The explosion shook the valley for a couple of hours. The Hopuruahine River disappeared. So did Harry Wakatipu.

* Tomorrow: My mother's crazy sense of humour