Two new books celebrate the fun of Christmas and its South Pacific flavours

Just right for the stocking or under the tree come two delightful books that will entertain children this Christmas:

From our Moana Oceania Series comes the bilingual A Manulele in a Mango Tree/Le Manulele o nofo i le Mago, in English and Gagana Sāmoa — and for the fans of the best-selling New Bum series, the new hilarious seasonal adventure Santa needs a NEW BUM! 

Scroll down to read more.

A Manulele in a Mango Tree
Le Manulele o nofo i le Mago

Sarona Aiono-Iosefa 
Illustrated by Steven Dunn 
Translated by Le’autuli Sauvao

A partridge in a pear tree is something you won’t see at Christmas in New Zealand, let alone the South Pacific. But a colourful bird in a mango tree that’s more like it.

A Manulele in a Mango Tree brings the '12 Days of Christmas' to the South Pacific with gifts including frangipani, corned beef, drummers and fire dancers.

Strikingly illustrated with woodblock prints, this bilingual book gives a summery setting to Christmas while celebrating many aspects of Pacific culture, from weaving to drumming to dance.

In the vein of the classic A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree, this picture book will make a great gift or a fun read around the Christmas tree.

The authors

Sarona Aiono-Iosefa is a Samoan-New Zealand writer, senior manager and former journalist who has written several books for children. She lives in Wellington.

Steven Dunn is an artist and illustrator. He lives in Christchurch, where he works as a graphic designer.

Le’autuli Sauvao MNZM, JP was a distinguished educator and translator of Gagana Sāmoa (the Samoan language). Sadly, she passed away in August.

Publication: 5 November 2025  |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004292-8 |  RRP $21  

 PB, 230 mm x 215 mm portrait, 32 pp, colour

Santa needs a NEW BUM!

Dawn McMillan 
Illustrated by Ross Kinnaird

Who would believe it? Santa and Red Pants Boy are sitting together for tea. But as well as festive cheer, Santa brings a problem: his bum is ill-fitting from all of the sitting!

Can our hero and his family help Santa get his bum back in shape in time for Christmas present deliveries?

This festive and funny tale will spread Christmas joy to all the kids, parents and grandparents who can’t get enough of the New Bum! shenanigans.

Dawn McMillan’s playful rhymes and Ross Kinnaird’s vibrant drawings bring an exciting holiday adventure to New Bum! fans around the world, continuing the success of this globally bestselling series.

The authors

Dawn McMillan is the much-loved author of many children’s books, including I Need a New Bum!, I’ve Broken my Bum!, There’s a Moa in the Moonlight and Why Do Dogs Sniff Bottoms. A retired primary-school teacher with a love of reading, she lives in Waiomu, north of Thames. 

Ross Kinnaird is an illustrator and graphic designer whose books, many of them in collaboration with Dawn, have been published in many countries. After a career as a creative director, he now creates books from his home close to the water on Auckland’s North Shore.

Publication: 9 October 2025  |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004282-9  |  RRP $21  

 PB, 230 x 215 mm, 32 pp, colour

Interview: Johanna Venho and Sanna Pelliccioni talk about Thank you, Forest

Sanna Pelliccioni

Johanna Venho 

Thank you, Forest

An interview with Finnish author-illustrator team, Johanna Venho and Sanna Pelliccioni

The gorgeous picture book Thank you, Forest reached the bookshelves of Oceania in November, with the hardback printing of the book by Five Oceans. Originally published in Finland, Thank you, Forest brings to children a story about care for trees and the mysteries inside forests, in an English translation by Jennifer Pulju Porter.

Author Johanna Venho and illustrator Sanna Pelliccioni talk about the creation of this book that is now reaching children in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific. 

Sanna, Johanna, thank you for joining us. How does it feel to have your book published in English?

Sanna: Thank you for publishing this book on the other side of the planet, it's wonderful! I feel especially honoured knowing that some indigenous people might also read our story of protecting trees. The nature there must be so different, but around the world we share nowadays the same problems of deforestation and destroying the nature, but also people waking up to what's happening and what we can do. Writing poems to trees is such a wonderful idea. And also listening to what a tree answers. 

Johanna: It’s amazing. It’s like a fairy tale itself, a traveling book. Sometimes I ask myself: is this really true? I am truly happy about it. 

What inspired you to write this magical book about a girl’s relationship to the forest? 

Sanna: We started the book during the pandemic, so we met outside, walking in parks or swimming in the Baltic Sea. Our co-operation is wonderful, we are in deep dialogue, and we both share a deep connection to nature and also the subconscious nature in ourselves. Our co-operation goes on, and the third book project of this series is just starting. 

Johanna: I love fairy tales and folk tales, and they have for a long time inspired my poetry, but also my books for children. I wanted to tell a story that shows the power of imagination. Also, I have studied biology, and nature, particularly forests, are close to my heart. We discussed for a long time with Sanna that we’d like to do together a book about trees and forests, to protect them, to value them, to remind readers of their importance.

What techniques did you use capture nature to make the pages feel like a notebook that a child has put together?

Sanna: I graduated first as a biologist and studied illustration after that. Many of my books talk about nature and the environment. For a long time, I wanted to use my old dried plant samples in illustration and eventually, in this book, I did. I love notebooks, collecting samples, and taking notes. It was wonderful to bring this variable style inside this book.

How did you imagine the characters Spruce and Gale, who are totally believable but also otherworldly and inspiring?

Johanna: The best thing in writing is imagining things. My head is full of characters looking for stories! And I go around looking for stories. I walked a lot in the forest and imagined about what kind of characters I’s like to write about.  

  

Johanna, you are a poet also. Is the writing process very different between poetry and a picture book like Thank you, Forest?

Johanna: Yes, they are very different processes. Prose for adults takes a lot of time and energy and sitting by the computer and libraries. Poetry on the other hand is a work of endless editing. In writing picture books, it’s important to play and have fun, let the imagination fly. I see both poetry and stories in my picture books quite visually. After the story is born, I write it many times and change and edit again and again, until I am happy with the text. 

You collaborate closely on all aspects of the book, it seems.

Sanna: This book is our mutual co-operation from the beginning. Initially, I asked Johanna if she is interested in writing a book about a child protecting trees and forests, because our forests are being cut down at an enormous rate. I wish the illustrator would be noted like the author.

Johanna: As I write mostly by myself, I truly enjoy co-operation with illustrators. It’s amazing to follow how the world of words turns into images and colours. 

Are you working on any books at the moment – if you are ready to talk about them?

Johanna: Sanna and I are now onto the third book of this "series” of notebooks about Spruce and Gale. It is called School Notebook and will be published in 2027. The second was Travel Notebook (as Thank you, Forest is Forest Notebook in Finnish). I am also writing a historical novel, which I have been working on already for quite a while. 

A grant from the Finnish Literature Exchange supported this book to be published in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific.

The authors

Johanna Venho is a leading author and poet based in Finland who has written for both adults and children. Among the many awards for her books, she received the prestigious Arvid Lydecken Prize for Children’s Literature in 2003. 

Sanna Pelliccioni is an award-winning illustrator and children’s author whose work has been widely translated. She featured in the IBBY honour list 2022. Sanna lives in Helsinki, Finland.

Jen Pulju Porter is a Finnish-American translator who has worked across a range of genres in her career. She currently lives in Colorado, USA.

Publication: 7 November 2025  |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004294-2 |  RRP $25.99

Hardback, 240 x 175 mm portrait, 32 pages, colour

'New Zealand’s greatest tribal history' returns to print

Tuhoe, volume 1

Tuhoe

The Children of the Mist

Elsdon Best

Preface to the fifth edition by Rāpata Wiri

The work that has been called 'New Zealand’s greatest tribal history' returns to print a century after its first publication, in quality hardback volumes

 

‘As a tribal historian and a Tūhoe descendant, I believe we are  fortunate that this book was published; otherwise our tribal histories and our whakapapa may have been lost forever.’

Rāpata Wiri, from the preface

Tuhoe, volume 2

Oratia Books is honoured to bring back into print what has been described as ‘New Zealand’s greatest tribal history’, 100 years on from its first publication.

Tuhoe: The Children of the Mist is a monumental publication in its own right, with a first volume of over 1200 pages and a second that presents detailed whakapapa (genealogical charts) and maps.

During the early twentieth century ethnologist Elsdon Best lived for many years in the Urewera country. He carefully documented the culture, beliefs, customs and whakapapa of the Ngāi Tūhoe people – whom he called ‘the children of the mist’.

This celebrated two-volume work comes back into print with the guidance of scholar Dr Rāpata Wiri (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Ruapani), whose doctoral thesis provided a re-evaluation of Best’s work.

Volume 1 presents Best’s history of the Urewera, from the first settlement from Polynesia through to the arrival of Europeans and resultant conflict. In great detail he presents the

traditions, myths, religious beliefs and practices of the Urewera peoples.

The large-format volume 2 contains the many whakapapa relating to Ngāi Tūhoe and other iwi descended from the Mātaatua waka. 

A slipcased set is available for book lovers and collectors.

Tuhoe: The Children of the Mist is on sale in bookstores nationwide and in Australia.

The Author

Elsdon Best lived from 1895 to 1910 among the Ngāi Tūhoe people in the then-remote Te Urewera, where European presence was minimal. He filled notebooks with information that took shape in the present book. Eventually he became an officer of the Dominion Museum, where he compiled many publications. He was a foundation member of the Polynesian Society, and in 1914 was awarded the Hector medal for research in ethnology. Elsdon Best passed away in 1931.

Publication: 12 November 2025

Vol. 1, ISBN: 978-1-99-004286-7  |  RRP $100  |  Hardback, 212 x 130 mm portrait, 1232 pages, b&w

Vol. 2, ISBN: 978-1-99-004287-4  |  RRP $65  |  Hardback, 213 x 278 mm portrait, 104 pp, b&w

Slipcased set, ISBN: 978-1-99-004291-1  |  RRP $175

From the forests of Finland, a thank you to nature for young readers in Oceania

Thank you, Forest

Johanna Venho

Illustrated by Sanna Pelliccioni

Translated by Jennifer Pulju Porter

Travelling all the way from the forests of Finland to the ngāhere of New Zealand, Thank you, Forest is a unique book for children — a story in the form of a child's notebook. 

Finnish author and poet Johanna Venho conjures up the world of Spruce, a young girl whose sanctuary is the forest near her house.

She writes and collects from the nature around her to fill her notebook with items that enrich her life.

Then her parents and brother Zach start to look glum and talk about the forest being 'zoned'. 

‘What does “zoned” mean?’ I ask.

‘It means they’re going to build apartment blocks here,’ Zach says.

Spruce returns to the forest and ties notes to the trees as a type of protest. The notes are seen by a mysterious boy with green eyes and twigs in his hair, who introduces himself as Gale. 

Gale takes Spruce to see an underground lake deep in  forest. Could this be secret they need to save the trees from destruction? 

Thank you, Forest conjures up a sense of belonging in nature that is perfectly reflected in Sanna Pelliccioni’s notebook-style illustrations.

Noted Finnish-American translator Jennifer Pulju Porter crafted the English text. 

A grant from the Finnish Literature Exchange supported this book to be published in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific.

The authors

Johanna Venho is a leading author and poet based in Finland who has written for both adults and children. Among the many awards for her books, she received the prestigious Arvid Lydecken Prize for Children’s Literature in 2003. 

Sanna Pelliccioni is an award-winning illustrator and children’s author whose work has been widely translated. She featured in the IBBY honour list 2022. Sanna lives in Helsinki, Finland.

Jen Pulju Porter is a Finnish-American translator who has worked across a range of genres in her career. She currently lives in Colorado, USA.

Publication: 7 November 2025  |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004294-2 |  RRP $25.99

Hardback, 240 x 175 mm portrait, 32 pages, colour

Revealing the history, origin and meaning of New Zealand place names

 

New Zealand Place Names

Common, Contested and Curious Names from Aotearoa to Zalatown

Peter Dowling & A.W. Reed

Whether you call it New Zealand or Aotearoa, this country carries a unique history — one of very few land masses where we know mostly who named places and what those names mean.

Our recent human settlement makes for a wealth of recorded information, but also much change in our names as competing claims play out today — just ask residents of Russell or Waimarino. 

New Zealand Place Names represents the most up-to-date and authoritative guide to this field, providing fascinating definitions for over 850 names with history, origin, meanings, curiosities and more. 

Working with the assistance of the New Zealand Geographic Board, editor and publisher Peter Dowling has provided new definitions to build upon the lifetime’s research of the late A.W. Reed. A grant from Copyright Licensing New Zealand assisted the project.

This general work includes a map, glossaries, and new appendices on prolific namers, controversies and how to name a place. 

New Zealand Place Names complements A.W. Reed's classic Māori Place Names, also published by Oratia Books.

The Authors

Peter Dowling has edited and extended various of A.W. Reed’s classic works including Māori Place Names (2017) and Place Names of New Zealand (2010). Brought up in Christchurch and resident in Auckland, Peter is the founder and publisher of Oratia Books.

A.W. Reed (1908–1979) was one of New Zealand’s most influential writers and publishers. He helped build A.H. & A.W. Reed into the country’s leading publisher and authored more than 200 books, including seminal books on place names, dictionaries and collections of traditional stories and legends.

Publication Date: 5 November 2025 |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004288-1 |  RRP $39.99

Paperback, 234 x 153 mm portrait, 204 pages b&w

Moana Oceania Series: Niue

Moana Oceania Series: Niue

Mele Nemaia

One of the world’s smallest nations, with a deep connection to Aotearoa and also to Tonga, Niue is a fascinating place. 

In this, the newest addition to the striking Moana Oceania series, esteemed educator Mele Nemaia introduces this unique island nation in English and Vagahau Niue (Niuean language).

The book makes available information for students or visitors, or anyone interested in our Pacific magafaoa (family).

Moana Oceania: Niue offers insights into society, geography, arts, history, sports and more, accompanied by many colour photos, illustrations and maps.

Readers will learn about daily life in Niue, the values of its people, and how families live and celebrate. A section is dedicated to Niueans in New Zealand and how they maintain their culture here.

Moana Oceania series editor Carolyn Lagahetau, who is of Niuean descent, says the book aims to help sustain the language and culture of the island. 

It is out in all good bookstores and libraries ahead of Niuean Language Week from 19–25 October, and we hope to find distribution in Niue soon.

Publication of Moana Oceania: Niue was greatly assisted by a 2024 Contestable Fund Grant by Copyright Licensing New Zealand.

 

The author

Mele Fakatali Nemaia MNZM is a community organiser and educator. She worked as a senior teacher at Favona Primary School in Auckland for decades and is now resident in Niue. Mele has co-authored several books for children in Niuean, taught after-school Niuean language classes and supported the ‘Achieving Through Pasifika Language’ programme in Auckland.  

Publication Date: 13 October 2025 |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004271-3 |  RRP $29.99

Paperback, 230 x 170 mm portrait, 48 pages, colour