Holy Socks is here!

Holy Socks

Dawn McMillan & Philip Webb

Christmas classic from the author of 2012 best-seller I need a new Bum!

‘One Christmas Eve, some years ago, a ginger kitten wandered along a street on the far side of town. He was hungry, and cold and wet.’

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Bertie McGinty finds the kitten and christens him Holy Socks. Soon the pair is inseparable. Even after Bertie’s death, Holy Socks sticks by his master and takes up home in the church near his grave. 

Captivated by Holy Socks as she sits in church, young Christie calls out, ‘Can I keep the cat?’ Father John, by way of answer, tells everyone the story of Holy Socks.

This heart-warming tale from Thames-based Dawn McMillan, with beautiful illustrations by Wellington artist Philip Webb, is set to be an instant Christmas classic.

Dawn is available for interviews and will be appearing in the following bookshops:

2 November – Bookshop and Resource Room, Pt. Chevalier, 10 a.m.

         – Next Page Please!, Takapuna, 2 p.m.

7 November – Kids Book Fair, Takapuna

16 November – Carsons Bookshop, Thames, 3 p.m.

23 November – Browns Bay Library, 10:30 a.m.

28 November – Books for Kids, Hamilton, 10 a.m.

Release Date:  24 October 2013  | ISBN: 978-1-877514-59-3 | RRP $19.99

Paperback, 230 x 215 mm, 32 pages colour

To arrange an interview with Dawn, images or a review copy, contact:

Isabell Zitzelsberger, Marketing Specialist 

022 156 7470 or isabell@oratiamedia.com

Libro International, a division of Oratia Media

www.librointernational.com   |    www.oratiamedia.com

Pā Henare Tate receives Māori Book Award

With great pleasure we can announce that Pā Henare Tate’s He Puna Iti i te Ao Mārama, published by Libro International last November, has won the Te Kōrero Pono/Non-fiction category in the Ngā Kupu Ora Aotearoa Māori Book Awards.

The awards, administered by Massey University, will be granted in a ceremony at Te Wharewaka o Poneke function centre in Wellington on 7 November.

Identified in five categories – biography, fiction, non-fiction, te reo Māori and a special award – the winners were selected from books published between August 2012 and July this year.

Chair of the three-member judging panel and Massey University senior lecturer, Dr Spencer Lilley said the awards are held to address the dearth of Māori literature for adults.

“The awards were created as a result of other major book awards consistently failing to acknowledge Māori authors. The Awards also foster Māori literary excellence, authorship and scholarship in te reo Māori,” he said.

Pā Henare’s work, which is subtitled A Little Spring in the World of Light, was described by the judges as a compelling description of the role that Māori tikanga (protocols) and kaupapa (methodologies) play in the construction of a Māori Christian theological framework.

“This scholarly text joins other seminal works on tikanga Māori by Barlow (Tikanga Whakaaro: key concepts in tikanga Māori) and Mead (Tikanga Māori: living by Māori values),” the judges said.

Our hearty congratulations to Pā Henare for this much deserved recognition.

http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/maori/maori_book_awards/2013-awards/2013-awards_home.cfm

Pā Henare Tate (Ngāti Manawa, Te Rarawa) was formerly a lecturer at the Auckland Catholic Institute of Theology, and the University of Auckland School of Theology. A recognised specialist in Māori spirituality, he now lives lives in Motuti, in northern Hokianga.  

He Puna Iti i Te Ao Mārama: A Little Spring in the World of Light

Pā Henare Tate

978-1-877514-54-8

240 x 160 mm portrait, PB, 320 pp

$75 

Frankfurt Book Fair 2013: Sticking it out in changing times - Peter Dowling reports

Oratia Media was back for our fourth successive year at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which concluded on the weekend.

There were way fewer publishers on the New Zealand collective stand than during our Guest of Honour year in 2012, but for the 14 of us who came back, the benefits of that programme were tangible. We had a big open stand in a good location, well put together by the Publishers Association of New Zealand team, and I really felt able to build on last year’s profile. 

Our section on the New Zealand collective stand in Hall 8

Among my 50 or so meetings were a good number with German publishers, kicking off with a rousing session of beer and pretzels on the Tuesday evening at the BuchMarkt magazine stand. (See Herr Mayer’s column - http://www.buchmarkt.de/content/56406-der-messe-mayer-tag-1-von-6.htm) Relations with our German counterparts have never been healthier.

The unofficial opening party for the fair with German book trade magazine BuchMarkt

Overall visitor numbers at the fair were down some -2% on 2012, to just over 275,000, however. These are times of change and challenge for the global publishing industry, with big challenges in some of our key overseas markets like Italy.

That notwithstanding, the tone of our meetings was mostly positive, especially with US and Canadian publishers, who have already been through a lot of the digital changes that are now reshaping book markets in the rest of the world. There was good interest in our children’s and Māori authors.

Saturday brought a landmark for us, signing a two-year distribution agreement for Libro International books in North America with Virginia-based International Publishers Marketing. We’re looking forward to working with Jane Graf and her team from April 2014.

Libro International books on display

I had a good few meetings with publishers from this year’s Guest of Honour, Brazil, starting with the wonderful Gisela Zincone of Gryphus Editora – we’ve agreed that our 2014 translation of Gryphus’ children’s classic Branquinho o Dognauta will be entitled Snowy the Doganaut. Some lovely illustrated kids’ books are coming out of Brazil.

There wasn’t quite the buzz expected around Brazil, due in part to their stand’s location deep in Hall 5.1, and also the boycott by major authors including Paulo Coelho. No doubting, though, that this is a growing market and one we’re going to continue to develop.

Brazil was this year’s guest of honour at Frankfurt

The New Zealand party on Friday evening was a hit as usual – see Claudia Heydolph’s report on her New Zealand in Germany site and Facebook:

http://nzdeutschland.info/neuseeland-in-frankfurt-2013/

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=437421519695624&set=a.260640327373745.48268.260596830711428&type=3&theater

And as the public flooded in on the Saturday and Sunday, it was time to beat a weary retreat for a last few drinks at the Frankfurter Hof – leaving the Messe to the colourfully attired German cosplay teens. Auf wiedersehn till 2014!

Come the weekend and the cosplay kids were out in force around the fair

Peter Dowling manages independent publisher Oratia Media (www.oratiamedia.com) and is publisher of its books programme, Libro International (www.librointernational.com)