Rāhui, written by Chris Szekely and beautifully illustrated by Malcolm Ross has been nominated as one of the finalists in the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.
Chris Szekely takes us on a journey with a couple of kids growing up and exploring in a small Māori rural community. They share heaps of fun adventures until ‘one day, when we were swimming, my cousin Thomas went missing. We thought he had gone home.’ A death at a local beach leads to a rāhui being placed. The children return to the beach when the rāhui is lifted a year later.
Chris Szekely is the first Māori to hold the position of a Chief Librarian at Alexander Turnbull. Mr Szekely said Rāhui was “warm and joyful, but at the same time a wistful reflection” drawn from pieces of his childhood.
This exceptional story is available as a Māori and English version.
Finalists will participate in events around New Zealand as part of a nationwide celebration of the awards, from May 7 till 16.
The judges will decide on category winners and an overall New Zealand Post Children’s Book of the Year, to be announced on May 16.
Source: The Dominion Post
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