High praise for Hū-Hū Koroheke and Raglan author Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira

The Supreme Award winner in this year’s New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards was Old Hu-Hu.  The book was written by Kyle Mewburn and illustrated by Rachel Driscoll.  The awards ceremony was in Auckland on evening of the 19th May.

The book is about a family of huhu bugs and is described by publishers as a story of death and the celebration of life, reassuring children about losing a loved one.  Awards convener Rosemary Tindall said Old Hu-Hu was “the complete package”. “It is a tender story that focuses on the positive aspects of growing old without succumbing to sentimentality. Driscoll has also performed the amazing feat of making one of New Zealand’s ugliest insects … heroic and loveable.”

Katerina Te Heikoko Mataira’s Maori translation of the book, Hu-Hu Koroheke, was also highly praised. The Awards’ Te Reo Māori Advisor, Paora Tibble said Hū-Hū Koroheke was an excellent translation from the “Super Nanny of te ao Māori.”