Multicultural picture book with Kiwi Indian main character tells the importance of people's names

 

What’s in a Name?
He aha tō te Ingoa?

Renisa Viraj Maki

Illustrated by Isobel Joy Te-Aho White

Translated by Hona Black

Heart-warming story for children explains the importance of  understanding and pronouncing people’s names 

Kiwi-Indian author Renisa Viraj Maki’s newest book tells a gentle and beautiful story about the mana our names carry. 

In a school that reflects modern, multicultural Aotearoa New Zealand, pupils from diverse cultures have names that might seem difficult to say – a situation that many children encounter. 

Priyanka definitely is worried when she is tasked with reading out the students’ names at the end-of-year assembly. Wanting to pronounce them correctly, she goes around the school yard to find her classmates and learn about their names.

Knowing how important the names are to her friends and their whānau, she practises hard to pronounce Arihia, Xinze, Somachandra, Sean and Tausa’afia – will she be ready for the big day?

Colourfully illustrated by award-winning artist Isobel Joy Te Aho-White and translated by bestselling author Hona Black, this is a book to read and reread at home and in school.

This bilingual book is available from all good booksellers. A free Teacher Resource is available from the Oratia website.

The author

Renisa Viraj Maki is a Kiwi-Indian leadership consultant and artist who is a graduate in art history. She is dedicated to writing stories that reflect cultural diversity; her first book The Grandmothers of Pikitea Street was a Storylines Notable Book. She lives in Auckland. 

The illustrator

Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu, UK, Denmark) has won many awards for her illustrations in children’s books. She lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington.

The translator

Hona Black (Tūhoe, Te Whānau a Apanui, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) lectures on teaching for Māori-medium schools at Massey University and is the author of three popular books about te reo. 

Publication: 5 November 2024  |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004263-8 | RRP $22.99

Paperback, 270 x 210 mm portrait, 32 pages, colour