Maori mythology triumphs at children's book awards

By MARGIE THOMSON

A vivid retelling of Maori myths and legends has won overall book of the year in the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, announced at Parliament last night in a ceremony hosted by Associate Minister for Arts, Judith Tizard.

Robert Sullivan's Weaving Earth and Sky: Myths and Legends of Aotearoa, illustrated by a former book of the year winner Gavin Bishop, won the non-fiction category, and beat other category winners - senior fiction winner Margaret Mahy's Alchemy, picture book winner David Elliot's Pigtails the Pirate, and newcomer V.M. (Vicky) Jones' Buddy in junior fiction - to win the big prize.

Sullivan is better-known as an award-winning poet (Jazz Waiata, Star Waka, Captain Cook in the Underworld), although he has written before for children, a graphic novel for teenagers with artist Chris Slane.

The poet in him couldn't help coming out in Weaving Earth and Sky in his "desire to add sparkly bits" - something the judges (broadcaster Kim Hill, bookshop owner Sheila Sinclair and graphic designer Philip Webb) noted and loved. "The text is sometimes chatty and colloquial and at other times pure spine-tingling poetry," they commented.

Sullivan, who is of Ngapuhi and Galway Irish descent, says he is on a mission to "show the jewels of Maori culture, the stories handed down from our ancestors for 800 years.

"I wanted to give them due respect but also to tell them in a bright, interesting way for kids that reflects the original oral narration of the stories."

Rather than promoting a belief system, he believes the myths and legends expose children to a world view that is "diametrically opposite to the western view.

"The cycle of Maori myths and legends is a world view in itself - the idea that everything in nature is alive."

While poetry readings attract an audience that is "not elitist ... oh, I think I do mean elitist", Sullivan loves reading his stories to children. "When you have an honest and open audience it is so exciting," he says.

Sullivan is a library manager at the University of Auckland (he describes librarianship as "one of the noble pursuits"), but most of the research for this book, going back to the earliest recorded accounts of the myths and legends, was done while on a creative writing fellowship at the University of Hawaii in 2001.

He has been invited back to Hawaii as an associate professor of creative writing and is looking forward to moving there in August with his partner, scriptwriter and novelist Anne Kennedy, and their two children.

Graham Bishop's The House That Jack Built won book of the year in 2000. The judges said his illustrations for Weaving Earth and Sky were "strongly atmospheric and perfectly represent the colour of Aotearoa".

Category winners in the Children's Book Awards get $5000 each, with $5000 more going to the overall winners.

The coveted Children's Choice award, voted on by children at schools and libraries around the country, was won by Why Do Dogs Sniff Bottoms? by Dawn McMillan, Bert Signal and Ross Kinnaird.

A special honour award was made to Roger Twiname for his illustrations in The New Zealand A to Z All Ages Amazing Alphabetical Alliterations, and V.M. Jones won for best first book.