Scholastic New Zealand Award
for Best Children’s Book 2023
Finalist
Designer: Mat Tait with assistance from Megan van Staden
Title: Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Format: 285 x 257.5mm, 60pp, hardback square-backed, sewn, with endpapers and H & T bands. The large format enables landscape-shaped double page spread and illustrations extensive enough to include multiple charachters, a complex storyline and integrated text.
Typography: All text was hand-drawn meticulously by Mat — apart from the mihi and imprint pages.
"We were keen for Mat to explore the Māori creation myth, aimed at the 8 to 12 age group, to tell this foundational story to a new generation. Mat is a fluent speaker of te reo Māori and we wanted to create a bilingual book. Mat took this idea and ran with it, creating an innovative response, using elements of traditional Toi Māori (Whakairo, Kōwhaiwhai, Tukutuku, Tāniko) as well as more modern forms. The narrative flow was informed by comic book/graphic novel formal conventions with a close marriage of text and illustration in a way that engages children."
Judges’ comments Te Wehenga pulses with the wiri of Te Pō. The complexity of the visual aspects of this purakau are handled masterful illustrations and attention to colour. Layered textures emerge from the background - manu, rakau, tukutuku, koru - demonstrating there's so much more happening behind the darkness of Te Pō. The illustrated fonts are a delight - energetic, expressive and integrated. The square, hardback binding ensures this is a lasting title for the bookshelf.
Te Wehenga presents the origin narrative of Te Ao Māori with an original, stunning and complete design that combines beautiful dark illustrations with unique illustrated typography. The inventiveness, consistency and beauty of every page makes for captivating reading – delivering one of the very best designed books of 2023.
