4 products
4 products
Most New Zealanders will easily recognise and identify our unique wildlife – whether it’s a tree weta, common dolphin or a kiwi. We know quite a lot about them – how and where they live, what they do, what they eat and so on. But what makes them tick? What does an insect’s eye actually see? Does an earthworm have ‘guts’?
Does the flightless kiwi have any wings under all those feathers? Author and illustrator Dave Gunson delves deep inside some of our best-known species to see what’s really going on in there, and to find out just how our native creatures work!
Author: Dave Gunson
ISBN: 9781988538860
Format: Paperback
‘This daring novel doesn’t shout at you. It makes its moves with such care and concealment that it’s a total surprise to find it has pressed such a weight against your chest. A beguiling and brilliant achievement!’ —Damien Wilkins
Rotoroa Island in the Hauraki Gulf, tiny and isolated, is home to a Salvation Army facility for alcoholic men. It’s also where three people at very different points in their lives share a fleeting encounter. There is Katherine, known to history as Elsie K. Morton, famous journalist and author; Jim, an alcoholic with a young family; and Lorna, a teenage mother who has turned to religion, looking for a fresh start. As the stories of their lives are revealed, so too are their hopes and vulnerabilities.
Set in the 1950s, as New Zealand society is starting to change under the pressure of new cultural energies, Rotoroa is a compassionate, beautifully unfolding examination of loss and the possibility of renewal. Told with subtlety and intelligence, this novel affirms Amy Head as a remarkable new voice.
Te Herenga Waka University Press
Paperback, 138 x 210mm
248 pages
ISBN: 9781776561919
*Booksellers Choice Award 2024*
A handbook for mounting very small scientific expeditions
A highly illustrated, playful field guide for budding natural scientists and curious observers of the world right under our noses.
Observology is the study of looking. An observologist makes scientific expeditions, albeit very small ones, every day. They notice interesting details in the world around them. They are expert at finding tiny creatures, plants and fungi. They know that water snails glide upside down on the undersurface of the water; not all flies have wings; earthworms have bristles; butterflies taste with their feet. An observologist knows that there are extraordinary things to be found in even the most ordinary places.
The Observologist puts over 100 small creatures and features of the natural world under the microscope, piquing our curiosity with only the most interesting facts. Subjects range from slugs, ants and seeds, fungi and flies through to bees and bird poop.
But this is no everyday catalogue of creatures. It is an antidote to boredom, an invitation out of the digital world and screentime, an encouragement to observe our environment, with care and curiosity, wherever we are.
Facts combine with comics, detailed illustrations, science and funny stories in this unique, warm and fascinating account of the small things all around us. Graphic and comic illustrations with funny talking insects make this a playful and informative book for 7- to 11-year-olds and one to be treasured in the classroom.
Giselle Clarkson has a comics and conservation background. Through her unique sensibility you’ll find that once you start thinking small, there’s no limit to what you can notice—right under your nose.
Gecko Press - Take a peak inside The Observologist
Reader Age 6-12 year
Takahē, is the inspiring story of the rediscovery and then recovery of the takahē, one of New Zealand’s most intriguing native birds. Once thought extinct, in 1948 Geoffrey Orbell found a small population living in a remote valley in the Murchison Mountains of Fiordland.
Alison Ballance charts the history of the Takahē Recovery Programme and the struggle to get the population to grow. After many setbacks, they have in recent years managed to build up a healthy population, which will pass 500 birds in 2023. This beautiful illustrated book is full of fascinating stories about the biology and lifestyle of this delightful bird.
Format: Hardback with dustjacket
Size: 250 x 200 mm
Published: May 2023