Reviewed by Alex Eagles-Tully

Taniwha by the legendary Gavin Bishop, and Whenua by rising star Isobel Joy Te Aho-White, are two beautifully illustrated new books which each put their own unique spin on Māori mythology.

Gavin Bishop wrote and illustrated his first children’s picture book in 1981 and now has over 70 books with his name on the cover. Since discovering his Tainui and Ngāti Awa whakapapa in 1990, many of Bishop’s books have retold Māori myths and legends, as well as stories about historical Aotearoa. The prolific author/illustrator’s latest book, Taniwha, is a monster hardback with 64 pages of stories describing 25 different supernatural creatures of Māori mythology from around the motu, including a map at the back with the locations of every taniwha mentioned.

Each story is depicted in Bishop’s striking signature artwork - a combination of ink with water colour overlays and pen outlines as well as black and white etchings; a style which has earned him more medals,
awards and honours than can fit on this page. Bishop has extensively researched the hair-raising assortment of monsters of the Aotearoa kind in this compendium which include a variety of taniwha that live in the sea, freshwater and on land. There are the kaitiaki taniwha such as the shark of Rakiura (Stewart Island), those that rescued people or guided waka on journeys, but also taniwha that kidnapped or ate people like the Kaipara monster.

My favourite taniwha was the pet of a Kaikōura rangatira who spat poison at unwanted visitors rendering them unconscious (which could be a handy alternative to a guard dog). However, as many of these latter taniwha met with gruesome deaths, it may pay to pre-read a story before narrating it to a sensitive child to make appropriate edits. The book will appeal to a range of ages interested in learning about the local taniwha, and fans of Bishop's work will not be disappointed by this addition to their collection.

During the last decade, Isobel Joy Te Aho-White has illustrated over 30 picture books, but Whenua: Māori Pūrākau of Aotearoa is her debut as a storyteller. There have been many books about Māori mythology over the years, but Te Aho-White's gentle style of storytelling imparts new information, as well as the more familiar, in a refreshingly novel approach, including introducing us to the traditional Māori view of Aotearoa with Rakiura then Te Waipounamu at the top and the North Island at the bottom.

Whenua includes eleven legends explaining the supernatural forces that have shaped Aotearoa’s landscape, from a tyrannical tohunga turning whales to stone forming the hills around Wairoa, a roaming giant totara tree creating the Tararua mountain ranges, to mischievous sisters with flaming hair dropping lava rocks around the country from Oamaru to Whakatane.

And then there are Te Aho-White's marvellous illustrations, which transport the audience to a different time and place, where they can travel along lava tunnels, swim with taniwha and fly with manu. The award-winning illustrator of Māori (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa), British and Danish ancestry, says she draws on different aspects of her heritage to create her unique images using a variety of art methods, including ink, watercolour, acrylic, oil, coloured pencil, gold/silver leaf and digital. Her clever use of overlaying traditional patterns from tukutuku, kōwhaiwhai, and tā moko, is exquisite.

From the spectacular cover to the final image of fairy-folk watching the sunset, Te Aho-White's 90 page book had me enthralled. Whenua is something that anyone of any age can enjoy and would make a perfect read-aloud for families to savour together, one bite-sized story at a time, over the summer holidays. And wherever in the motu you are spending time with whānau, there is a pūrākau or legend about a place nearby for you to share.