Oratia's library of Teacher Resources now extends to The NZ Series

Helping time-pressured teachers to use our books in classrooms is a long-term goal of the Oratia Books team. 

So we're pleased to have just launched free Teacher Resources for three of our NZ Series books.

The resource sheets are available for free download from our website for the latest addition to the series, the stunning Weather and Climate New Zealand, along with The New Zealand Wars and Pioneer Women. Links to each resource are on the respective book pages.

The NZ Series introduces New Zealand society, history, science and geography to intermediate- and high-school age readers

Teacher Resources will be out for the other three titles currently in the series — Volcanoes and Earthquakes, Rush to Riches: Kauri and Gold and First Encounters: New Zealand 1642–1840 — in February 2023. 

The resources provide a range of student activities linked to the books, along with guidance for use in line with the New Zealand Curriculum. Retired teacher Sandra Carrod, author of Weather and Climate New Zealand, put together the resource for her book, while the other two are the work of Clementine Fraser, Head of History at Avondale College, Auckland. 

From The River in our Backyard Teacher Resource

We have a range of resources at a more junior level for other books, among them two just-released bilingual picture books: The River in our Backyard/Te Awa e Pātata Rawa Ana and The Grandmothers of Pikitea Street/Ngā Kuia o te Tiriti o Pikitea.

A page from The Grandmothers of Pikitea Street Teacher Resource

Other titles with resources include the Nanny Mihi series, Blimmin' Koro, Captain Cat, Home Child, The Forgotten Wars, The Longdrop, The Water Bottle, When Dad Came Home, and Dawn McMillan's nature series. 

For more detail, refer to our website, or contact Peter Dowling, Publisher.

New book in The NZ Series makes understanding our weather a breeze

Weather and Climate 
New Zealand

Sandra Carrod

Our complex and changing weather patterns explained in simple text and stunning graphics for readers of all ages

Once in a while there comes a book so informative that its publishers end up thanking the author for all she’s taught them. 

Weather and Climate New Zealand is such a book. Drawing on her years as a teacher and navigator, Sandra Carrod takes the windy science of meteorology and makes it a breeze to understand.

Integral to the book’s impact are the dazzling graphics of marine scientist turned graphics whizz Karsten Schneider, alongside imagery from NASA, NIWA and local photographers.

Short, crisply written chapters explore all the key elements of climate — making clear where our islands fit in global patterns, and what influences the weather wherever you live in Aotearoa.

What causes cyclones and tornadoes? How do you decipher a weather chart? And what effects do the oceans have on New Zealand weather?  

Answers to these and myriad other topics are set in the context of climate change and the many challenges it presents. After reading this book, reading the weather will become easy.

Weather and Climate New Zealand is the sixth in The NZ Series, simply introducing a range of themes for general and school readers. Teacher resources for the series can be found on the Oratia website.

The author

Sandra Carrod is a retired teacher who has written several non-fiction books for children, including Weather Watch New Zealand. She and her family travelled the world by yacht for many years, working with marine scientists and documentary filmmakers. Sandra lives in Tauranga. 

Publication: 17 October 2022  |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004226-3 | RRP $29.99

Paperback, 240 x 160 mm portrait, 100 pages, colour

First fully bilingual Sharing our Stories book connects kids with local heritage and multiple cultures

The River in our Backyard 
Te Awa e Pātata Rawa Ana   

                       

Malcolm Paterson
Illustrated by Martin Bailey

You don’t need an overseas trip to encounter centuries of history and unique environments, as the Sharing Our Stories books reveal.

The River in our Backyard /Te Awa e Pātata Rawa Ana is the fourth in the series and the first to be fully bilingual in English and te reo, both written by Malcolm Paterson. 

It also includes Tamil language, and publishes just ahead of the Diwali festival.

Malcolm says he is delighted to offer a new book through which tamariki and their whānau can engage with their social, cultural and environmental heritage — and which can be a local curriculum resource for schools. 

"My Indian Malaysian wife and I have a lovely 'fruit salad' whānau and there are many others like us. I hope that they see themselves reflected in my books, which acknowledge different cultures in our communities."

The new story again follows cousins Tui and Jennifer and their whānau on a voyage of discovery, this time into the history and nature of Auckland’s Te Atatū Peninsula and nearby places within reach by sea and river.

The children learn local heritage, human development and impact, the environment and conservation, and get to join in Diwali celebrations.

All the adventures are brought to life in Martin Bailey’s vibrant artwork. A Teacher Resource PDF for the book is also available on our website.

The authors

Malcolm Paterson belongs to Ngāti Whātua iwi, for which he plays heritage, commercial and environmental roles. He is the author of the previous three  Sharing our Stories books. Malcolm  lives with his family in Te Atatū, Auckland. 

Martin Bailey is a well-known illustrator who has created dozens of  children’s books, including illustrations for The Taniwha in our Backyard. He also manages the publisher Black Chook Books. Martin lives in Muriwai.

Exploring historic sites on Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland while working on The River in our Backyard/Te Awa e Pātata Rawa Ana. From left: author Malcom Paterson (pictured with his eldest son, Davin), illustrator Martin Bailey (centre) and publisher Peter Dowling

Publication Date: 17 October 2022 |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004219-5 |  RRP $22.99

Paperback, 284 x 208 mm portrait, 32 pages, colour 

The human impact on New Zealand revealed in captivating new book

Footprints on the Land
How Humans Changed New Zealand 

Richard Wolfe

It must have been a hell of a shock. After millions of years of isolation, New Zealand’s unique flora and fauna suddenly felt the stir of human footprints just over 800 years ago. 

In the blink of an eye in terms of the Earth’s history, the last large landmass to be settled by humans changed in ways impossible to reverse. 

 

Footprints on the Land narrates those changes, taking in the destruction of forests, draining and flooding land, building railways and roads, farming and mining, and the inexorable spread of towns and cities. 

Some of the more dramatic changes, carried out in the name of progress, appear very differently through a modern lens. 

 

Richard Wolfe accompanies his even-handed account of the effects of human settlement with an astute selection of paintings and photography befitting a curator and art writer. 

He also charts the growth of the environmental movement, with a number of high-profile national campaigns. 

That heightened awareness has helped to avoid repeating mistakes of the past, but Wolfe shows compellingly that we are not yet — as it were — out of the woods. 

Habitat destruction, pollution, species introductions and (above all) climate change threaten the short history of people on these islands. When will the shock be absorbed?

The Author

Richard Wolfe is a cultural historian and curator who has written or co-authored some 40 books on themes from the moa to New Zealand art, including Hellhole of the Pacific and New Zealand’s Lost Heritage. He was a display artist at the Auckland and Canterbury museums, and co-curated the first major exhibition of Kiwiana (a term he helped invent). Richard lives with his artist wife Pamela in Auckland.

Publication Date: 12 October 2022 |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004220-1 |  RRP $45

Paperback, 250 x 185 mm portrait, 184 pages, b/w with colour sections