Children's books
From the earliest years New Zealand's isolation and small population have
had a profound impact on local publishing for children. During the last
century and early this century, New Zealand authors have had to find
publishers overseas. As few copies of these early books made it back to
these shores the authors were frequently popular overseas, but remained
little known or unacknowledged in their homeland. Within New Zealand,
the smallness of the market meant, until recently, that it was only
commercially viable to publish texts or cheap booklets which were likely
to be purchased in quantity by schools, or which were affordable for
families. Publishing of well produced children's books as we know them
today could only be a small sideline.
The first recorded
book for children featuring New Zealand was the anonymous Stories About Many Things—Founded on
Facts , published in London by Harvey & Darton in 1833.
From 1869 children's books with a New Zealand connection were being
published in England at an average of one per year. Edward Tregear's Fairy Tales and Folk Lore of New Zealand and the South
Seas , published by Lyon & Blair in Wellington in 1891
marks the true beginning of children's book publishing in New Zealand.
Fittingly it focused on one of the themes which were to be dominant in
New Zealand children's books for the next 70 years: the landscape (its
wild strangeness to British eyes, and man's efforts to traverse and tame
it) and the tales of the Mäori.
Whitcombe &
Tombs produced their first children's title, Johannes Andersen's Maori Fairy Tales , in 1908. Their third
children's book, published in 1918 (Edith Annie Howe's Wonderwings and Other Fairy Stories , only the tenth New
Zealand-published children's title) marked the beginning of a 14-year
period when Whitcombe & Tombs dominated local trade children's
publishing (as distinct from the publishing of educational books and
readers), producing at least one title per year and 28 books altogether.
At the same time they were producing their prolific series of Whitcombe's Story Books for the educational
market. (For more detailed discussion of this aspect, see 'Reading and
Literacy' in Chapter 5.)
In 1930 Whitcombe
& Tombs published Frank Acheson's Plume of the
Arawas: An Epic of Maori Life . In 1938 Reeds picked it up and
issued an edition of 5,000 copies as their first large scale children's
title. As Whitcombe & Tombs' trade output waned, Reeds gained a
dominance of local publishing that was to last 35 years. However, the
field was not restricted to these two publishers, with other publishers
issuing significant New Zealand children's books, such as The Book of Wiremu by Stella Morice (Progressive
Publishing Society, 1944) and Turi, the Story of a
Little Boy by Lesley Powell (Paul's Book Arcade, 1963). These
titles were landmark New Zealand children's books, not only as early
winners of the Esther Glen Award, but also as the forerunners of
numerous later stories exploring the relationship between young
Mäori children and their elders.
Paul's Book Arcade
(later Blackwood & Janet Paul) had their children's publishing
heyday in the 1960s. Price Milburn, while predominantly an educational
publisher, made a contribution to books available for children's leisure
reading, beginning in 1961 with Smitty Does a
Bunk written by Brian Sutton-Smith and illustrated by Russell
Clark. From the mid 1960s Elsie Locke, Eve Sutton and Ruth Dallas each
published several books helping children to look back at and appreciate
our pioneering past. The same decade also saw the publication of several
photographic books aimed at establishing a post-colonial New Zealand
identity (for example, Pat Lawson's Kuma is a Maori
Girl (Hicks, Smith, 1961), Gay Kohlap's David, Boy of the High Country (Collins, 1964) and Ans
Westra's controversial Washday at the Pa (first
prepared as a School Bulletin; reprinted by Caxton Press, 1964).
New Zealand's most
notable children's author, Margaret Mahy, was writing fantastic stories
before local publishing was ready to diverge from the realistic. Apart
from the stories published in the New Zealand School
Journal , all of her books have been published overseas.
Through the School Journal and other
publications, Learning Media Ltd (formerly the School Publications
Branch of the Department of Education) have been, and for many still
are, the only vehicle in New Zealand in which writers of children's
fiction can be published.
Commercial publishing
expanded in the 1960s and by the early 1970s overseas publishing
houses—chiefly Ashton Scholastic, Collins, Heinemann, Hodder,
Oxford, and Penguin—had set up offices in New Zealand. This
provided an avenue for New Zealand children's books to reach both New
Zealand and international audiences. However, it was (and remains)
frequently at the cost of the reduction or removal of distinctively New
Zealand features and idiom in order to make the books acceptable to the
overseas markets and sell in the quantities needed to make publication
viable.
From the 1970s
children's publishing generally pursued urban rather than the earlier
rural themes. Books featured social problems and non-traditional family
structures. As overseas, fantasy and science fiction stories became
popular. Publishing of picture books in English and Mäori began
with Jill Bagnall's Crayfishing with Grandmother
(Collins, 1973), for which Hapi Pötae provided the
Mäori text. Patricia Grace's The Kuia and the
Spider and Te Kuia me te Pungawerewere
(Longman Paul) followed in 1981. The 1980s witnessed the evolution of
the 'teenage novel' as a specific genre, with notable early
contributions by Margaret Mahy, Tessa Duder, William Taylor and Jack
Lasenby.
Since the 1980s there
has been a continued growth in distinctively New Zealand publishing,
encouraged by enterprising publishers who have actively encouraged new
talent. Notable among these is Mallinson Rendel (perhaps best known for
publishing Lynley Dodd's internationally acclaimed picture books,
beginning with Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's
Dairy , 1983) which matches high production standards with a
rigorous selection policy. Mallinson Rendel publish casebound books,
whereas most other New Zealand books for children are now paperback.
Cape Catley and McIndoe are, similarly, literary publishers with a small
output. When McIndoe ceased publishing children's books in recent years
their children's editor was among those who set up Longacre Press, which
has published books by acclaimed authors Jack Lasenby and Paula Boock.
Ashton Scholastic (now
Scholastic) has also established a reputation for encouraging local
authors and illustrators and produces a steady flow of books, both
literary and more popular. Harper Collins introduced the Tui and Tui Turbo series,
in emulation of the 1980s British trend of producing uniform format
series of books to encourage children to make the transition from
picture books to novels.
New Zealand was placed
at the forefront of international books about children's books with the
publication of Dorothy Neal White's About Books for
Children (1949) and Books Before Five
(1954). Babies Need Books , by Dorothy Butler,
was an international success when first published in 1980 and continues
to be reprinted. Betty Gilderdale's A Sea Change
(1982) is the standard work on New Zealand children's books to 1978.
>From 1970 to 1995 a vibrant periodical for children, Jabberwocky: New Zealand's Magazine for Children (Auckland)
provided stimulating reading and opportunities for children's own
literary efforts and comments to be published. This publication
continues under the new title Allsorts &
Jabberwocky .
A variety of awards
have encouraged writing and publishing for children. Lynley Dodd was the
first recipient of the Choysa Bursary for writers of imaginative work
for children. Numerous children's authors have had terms as 'writer in
residence' at colleges of education and universities, or have received
grants from the State Literary Fund (now Creative New Zealand). The New
Zealand Library Association initiated New Zealand children's book awards
with the Esther Glen Award in 1945 and later introduced the Russell
Clark Award (for illustrated books) and the non-fiction award. In
addition the Government Printer sponsored an award which became the AIM
and is now the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards.
New Zealand children's
book publishing is still in a healthy state in the late 1990s.
Publishers demonstrate both an awareness of overseas trends and a
growing interest in publishing books which reflect the New Zealand
experience and Mäori and Pacific cultures and languages. The
fine reputation of New Zealand's highly successful educational
publishers, such as Learning Media Ltd and Wendy Pye, in overseas
markets is also providing additional opportunities for non-educational
books by New Zealand children's authors to be marketed internationally.
One thing lacking is a willingness on the part of most local newspapers
and magazines to provide opportunities (or even adequate space) for
in-depth reviewing of children's books.