Oratia Books Catalogue 2025 highlights 17 new books for adults and kids

The Oratia Books Catalogue 2025 is out now in print and digital form.

This year we're delighted to profile 15 additions to Oratia Books and two for our international Five Oceans imprint — alongside the more than 130 books we keep in print. 

New in 2025 is our selection of Audiobooks (see page 9 of the catalogue), offering six choices across te reo reference, children's storybooks and YA fiction.

Three new books add to the growing Moana Oceania series, curated by editorial director Carolyn Lagahetau. 

From October Five Oceans will actively bring books from around the world into English and Pacific languages for readers across Oceania, with the outstanding Turkish junior novel The Ant Rebellion and fabulous Finnish picture book Forest Field Notes launching.

Many more New Zealand authors and illustrators fill the pages of this catalogue, which draws from Oratia Books' grounding in Te Wao-nui-o-Tiriwa, the Waitakere Ranges forest, guarded by the ruru (native owl).

Click here to view or download the PDF, or to request a print copy please email info@oratia.co.nz

Oratia Books Catalogue 2024 out now

The Oratia Books Catalogue 2024 is out now in print and digital form.

This year we're delighted to profile 16 books alongside a growing backlist, as the introduction below outlines.

Thanks once more to Cheryl Smith for the catalogue design, and Simon and team at Haysom Print for the print job. 

Click here to view or download the PDF, or to request a print copy please email info@oratia.co.nz

Welcome to this catalogue for Oratia Books’ new titles for 2024 and our growing backlist of published works. 

Here are authors, illustrators and stories that resonate wherever you read. To take a sample: Richard Wolfe traces the culture of ‘kiwi’ and ‘Kiwi’, Melanie Drewery and Suzanne Simpson share Nanny Mihi’s gardening wisdom, while Jeff Szusterman and Ant Sang serve up a graphic novel with a message. 

Diverse views speak from our first release — the ebullient Rere Atu Taku Poi! Let My Poi Fly! — through to the landmark Ngāi Tahu history of the West Coast, Poutini (an image from that book features on the cover). 

From our base in Oratia we continue to explore internationally. Two additions to the bestselling New Bum! series are publishing globally as well as Down Under, while the Moana Oceania series brings content in Fijian and Samoan as well as English. 

Bilingual te reo Māori and English is the standard for many books, including the new language resource Ngā Hapa Reo. 

Thanks for reading on.

Oratia Books Catalogue 2023 — now in booklet form to fit a growing list of books ...

 The Oratia Books Catalogue 2023 is out now in print and digital form. 

 

The new-look catalogue is 32 pages in length, offering the scope to showcase the 16 new books we are publishing this year, along with over 100 backlist titles.

This year brings a more diverse range of books than ever, from an ever-more diverse inhouse team — as noted in the catalogue introduction that follows with screenshots of relevant pages.

Thanks to Cheryl Smith for the catalogue design and content, and Simon and team at Haysom Print for the fine print job. 

Click here to view or download the PDF, or to request a print copy please email info@oratia.co.nz

Haere mai, welcome and benvenuti to the Oratia Books Catalogue 2023. 

After six years our foldout catalogue format gives way to a booklet, largely because there was no longer space to present our growing list of books adequately. This format offers a more detailed look at both new and existing titles; to learn more visit www.oratia.co.nz. 

 

For our publishing and our people also, 2023 represents development. In 2021 Oratia committed to a diversity, equity and inclusion policy that aims to have our books and our workplace embody different ethnicities and languages, sexual orientations and genders, cultures and abilities. 

We have an expanding multicultural, multilingual team. Hirini Tane (Ngāti Kawa, Ngāti Rahiri) is now guiding our Māori publishing as Kaiārahi/Counsellor, and Ella Fischer (originally from Austria) has joined as a part-time Assistant Editor.

You can see this in our new titles: from the bilingual Moana Oceania Series books (in Cook Islands Māori, Samoan and English) to Philippa Werry’s survey of migration in the latest New Zealand Series title. Ron Crosby and Paul Moon challenge received histories in their substantial books, respectively on an overlooked but pivotal episode in the New Zealand Wars, and Auckland in the twentieth century. 

 

Te reo Māori me ōna tikanga is fundamental to Oratia. This year’s pukapuka Māori celebrate the language of humour in Te Reo Kapekape, take Robyn Kahukiwa’s stunning Ngā Atua: Māori Gods into a bilingual paperback, and bring back to print Te Rangi Hīroa’s masterpiece Vikings of the Sunrise in the New Zealand Classics series. 

We now bring our selected books from overseas authors under the new Five Oceans (Moana e Rima) umbrella. Not incidentally, this year’s addition, Lucky Me, addresses disability — extending the diversity of local titles Toku Whānau Rerehua/My Beautiful Family (written in te reo Māori about rainbow families) and The Book that Wouldn’t Read/Te Pukapuka Ka Kore E Pānuihia (separate English and te reo editions, reluctant readers).

 

Not to take things too seriously, the New Bum! phenomenon rocks on globally! There are no less than three new titles from super-duo Dawn McMillan and Ross Kinnaird, all publishing simultaneously in New Zealand, Australia, the US and the UK. Ross also teams up with Belinda O’Keefe for You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are, a bilingual romp inspired by Monty Python!  

From a small publishing house in the Oratia valley, we seek to open for you a wide window onto New Zealand and the world. 

Thank you for reading. 

Merry Christmas to one and all! Meri Kirihimete ki a koutou katoa! Buon Natale a tutti!

 

Oratia Books Catalogue 2022 — opening borders, opening books

The Oratia Books Catalogue 2022 is out now in print and digital form. 

We fly the Koru Flag on the cover, in homage to its creator Friedensreich Hundertwasser, whose story we'll publish this July in Hundertwasser in New Zealand.

Alongside that deluxe book, this year's catalogue presents more than a dozen new titles across children's and non-fiction genres, along with some significant reprints.

Flying the Koru Flag reflects our desire to embrace the world and new ideas, now that the movement of people and ideas across borders is resuming following pandemic closures.

As ever, this year's programme and our other activities couldn't happen without the incredible authors and illustrators who put their hearts and souls into the books, supported by our talented editors, designers, sales reps and marketers. 

Special thanks to Cheryl Smith and Alessandra Zecchini for the catalogue design and content, and Christine Borra and her team at YourBooks for the fine print job. 

The catalogue introduction follows; click here to view or download the PDF. To request a print copy, please email info@oratia.co.nz

As pandemic restrictions start to ease, Oratia embraces the world in 2022. The Koru Flag, designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser as an alternative New Zealand flag, flies in our forest. We will honour this global spirit this year by publishing the story of the artist’s life in New Zealand.

Despite Covid-19 challenges, our international commitment remains undimmed, and was rewarded with the BOP Bologna Prize 2021 for Best Children’s Publisher, Oceania. In that spirit, this year’s children’s list includes the Kiwi–Turkish collaboration The Water Bottle; a blend of Māori, Pākehā and Indian heritage in The River in our Backyard; and wide cultural diversity in The Grandmothers of Pikitea Street.

An arts and crafts focus extends from Hundertwasser in New Zealand to a celebration of the great artist Selwyn Muru, and a new edition of Len Gale’s Greenstone Carving. Artist and writer Richard Wolfe reflects on human impact in Footprints on the Land, and our New Zealand Classics edition of A.W. Reed’s Illustrated Māori Dictionary revives Roger Hart’s timeless drawings.

To mark the tenth anniversary of the international hit I Need a New Bum!, September will see a te reo Māori edition. The Bum series rocks on — the fourth, My Bum is SO CHEEKY!, entered bestseller lists in the UK and US early this year. And there’ll be more irreverent fun for kids with the riotous rugby rhymes of Peter Millett’s Hickory Dickory Kick.

Sandra Carrod’s Weather and Climate New Zealand adds a sixth book to The NZ Series, alongside teacher resources to support the series in schools. Also for students or general readers, The Moana Oceania series will introduce Polynesian cultures in English and local languages, thanks to support from Creative New Zealand.

Whoever and wherever you are in the world, we welcome you to find a home with Oratia Books.

Oratia Books Catalogue 2021 now available in print or PDF

It's a pleasure to share the Oratia Books Catalogue 2021, which is now out in print and digital form. 

This year's catalogue presents the 15 new titles we will publish this year across children's and non-fiction genres.

Thanks to our dedicated authors who have worked so hard to create these books, our team and partners who edit, design and print them, and in particular to Cheryl Smith for the catalogue design. 

The catalogue introduction follows; click here to view the whole thing. To request a print copy, please email info@oratia.co.nz

On with the books!

Every cloud has a silver lining, as the saying goes. Covid-19 has cast a cloud over the world, and meant we’ve had more time than usual at our office in Oratia to admire the clouds. The silver lining has shone through in the upsurge of reader support for local booksellers and publishers. That has given us the confidence to publish 15 new titles and various new editions in this, Oratia’s biggest year yet.

Sayings and figures of speech start off 2021 for Oratia Books with He Iti te Kupu: Māori Metaphors and Similes, a fully bilingual reference by Hona Black. Another work of substantial mana is He Atua, He Tangata, Ross Calman’s revision of A.W. Reed’s landmark treasury of Māori mythology. Pā Henare Tate’s He Puna Iti i te Ao Mārama is back in an updated edition, while for younger readers, Blimmin’ Koro and There’s a Moa in the Moonlight provide bilingual fun and learning.

Fun is the key to Dawn McMillan and Ross Kinnaird’s hit ‘Bum’ books. The third in the series, My Bum is SO NOISY!, published worldwide early in the year, and a bindup of three of the team’s books will be out ahead of Christmas. More laughs come via the mischievous Fluff and Scout in Captain Cat, while Bedtime, Not Playtime! and Early One Morning provide early childhood stories featuring same-sex parents.

There’s more in the way of series, too. Events in the Life of Phillip Tapsell inaugurates the New Zealand Classics series, bringing unpublished or out-of-print works back into circulation. Meanwhile the NZ Series grows to five books with First Encounters and Matthew Wright’s The New Zealand Wars. Matthew also contributes a stunning ‘biography’ of HMS New Zealand.

Cover Story is Steve Braunias’ brilliant take on 100 of the best and worst New Zealand LP covers, and Voices of Aotearoa brings together the finest oratory from 25 years of Titirangi’s Going West Writers Festival. We’re grateful to Creative New Zealand and local supporters for enabling us to publish these more literary works.

The pandemic has offered a chance to pause and re-examine business as usual. As a result Oratia is advancing a policy of diversity and inclusion, renovating our ebook offering, and entering the audiobook space. Here’s to the silver lining.

Oratia Media Celebrates 20 Years Today

Today marks 20 years since Peter Dowling and Alessandra Zecchini incorporated Oratia Media as a company.

Still going strong two decades on, our small company has changed and grown, while remaining grounded in the ngahere (forest) near the upper end of West Coast Road, Oratia, in the mighty Waitakere Ranges west of Auckland. 

Above all today offers the chance to thank our many clients, readers, collaborators, staff, contractors, family and supporters.  

The original logo: image designed by Alessandra, text by Myong-ok Kim

While publishing has been a core part of what we’ve always done, we chose the name ‘Media’ to reflect our pursuit of different activities (it also sounded good alongside ‘Oratia’!).

At establishment, that involved Alessandra teaching language and culture at the Dante Alighieri Italian Society of Auckland, running cooking classes and contributing food and travel articles to publications in New Zealand, Italy and Japan. 

Food styling with models Patricia Greig and Arantxa Zecchini Dowling (top) and photographer Shaun Cato-Symonds (bottom left)

Peter was then editor-at-large for Tokyo publisher Kozo System, editor and correspondent for Reed Business Information of London, and senior editor on contact to Reed Publishing (NZ) in Birkenhead. 

In 2002 Peter joined Reed NZ full-time as managing editor, later becoming publishing manager until the company’s sale in late 2007.

Over that time Alessandra ramped up her recipe development and food-styling activities, became a regular contributor to magazines including Cuisine, NZ House and Garden and NZ Gardener, launched her first two cookbooks with New Holland Publishers, and created the Festival Italiano through the Dante Society.

Alessandra at the Festival Italiano 2018, received the Ordine della Stella D'Italian honour from Italian Ambassador Fabrizio Marcelli for her services to promoting Italian culture internationally

From 2008 we have worked exclusively through Oratia, with 2009 marking the launch of the company’s own book list, initially under the Libro International brand and since 2016 as Oratia Books. Over that time we’ve published close on 150 books (both our own and for others), while writing and editing several million words in articles, books and reports around the world. 

Our first major commissioned book, the late Graeme Hunt's history of St John in New Zealand, 2009

None of this would have been possible without our clients (for details see https://www.oratia.co.nz/services/), or talented authors and illustrators (thank you to everyone listed at https://www.oratia.co.nz/authors/). Then there are the brilliant booksellers, librarians and teachers who support us, and our fine team of regular and freelance professionals. 

Among the ‘Oratia family’ our heartfelt thanks to Editorial Director Carolyn Lagahetau, who has been a key player since 2008, and to Marketing Consultant Belinda Cooke for her exceptional contribution since 2015.

Taking life seriously with our dream team, from left: designer Cheryl Smith, marketing supremo Belinda Cooke, illustrator Ross Kinnaird, editorial director Carolyn Lagahetau, author Dawn McMillan and Peter

Without wishing to omit anyone, special appreciation to designer Cheryl Smith of Macarn Design and more recently Sarah Elworthy; former marketing manager Isabell Zitzelsberger; editors Mike Bradstock, Susan Brierley, Frances Chan and Patricia Greig; sales reps Jeremy Bliss, Peter Gray, Dennis Morgan and Gary Shannon; Marie Edwards, Toni Hayman, Sue Kellett and team at our distributors Publishers Distribution Ltd; and web designers Isra Salcedo (Humilde Servidor) and Daisuke Hirata (Box Media). 

Carolyn Lagahetau with the late Graeme Leather

And we remember those who are no longer with us: the beloved designer and editor Graeme Leather, sales supremo Paul Greenberg, and authors Trixie Harvey, Graeme Hunt, Gavin McLean, Don Stafford and Pā Henare Tate.

The late Pā Henare Tate (right) with Sister Magdalen Sheahan (centre) receiving the Māori Book Award for his He Puna Iti i te Ao Mārama in 2013

Author Malcolm Paterson with son Davin at the Going West Writers Festival 2016

Student volunteer Coline Rouge promoting our books at the IBBY World Congress in Auckland, 2016

Internationally we count on some fine distributors: thanks to Charles Goulding at John Reed Books (Australia), Joel Cosseboom and Royden Muranaka at University of Hawai’i Press (North America) and Melanie Warren and team at Gazelle Book Services in Lancaster (UK and Europe). Chris Shaw and the crew at Book Systems International get the books from our printers and out to book fairs.

Sub-agents like Fanny Yu at CA-Link in Beijing, Anna Spadolini and her agency in Milan, and Pablo de la Vega at Base Tres in Guadalajara help us reach many markets. 

Peter managing the first-ever New Zealand stand at the Guadalajara International Book Fair, 2017, with assistant Claudia Esqueda

Voluntary and community activities are an important part of Oratia’s culture, with long-standing commitments to the Dante Society, Slowfood Auckland, Te Potiki National Trust (Māori Maps), Oratia District School, Storylines Children’s Literature Foundation and the Publishers Association of New Zealand. 

Paora Tapsell, chair of Te Potiki National Trust, presenting the trust's annual Hawea Vercoe Memorial Scholarship to Ihaka Wilson at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Rotoiti, September 2019

And to mark the 20^th anniversary, we’ve just agreed new, ongoing sponsorships of the Native Forest Restoration Trust and Outward Bound NZ.

It’s a privilege to be here still after two decades doing the work we love from a place we love. Ngā manaakitanga ki a koutou kātoa i tautoko I a Oratia i ēnei tau i mua, ā, ka mahi ngatahi tonu ā muri ake nei. Grazie e arrivederci al 2040!

Oratia Books Catalogue 2020 showcases 12 new titles

The Oratia Books Catalogue 2020 is out now in digital form. 

The catalogue presents the 12 new titles we will publish in this, the 20th year in business for Oratia Media. 

Because of restrictions in place during the present Covid-19 lockdown, sales and distribution of books are on hold and some of our planned release dates have shifted. 

We will wait to print the catalogue until the schedule is confirmed, and when we're actually allowed to print again!

But rest assured we will see all these books to publication, and continue to expand our overall list both in print and digitally this year and beyond. 

The catalogue introduction follows; click here to view the whole thing.

The year 2020 sees another milestone for Oratia Media — August marks 20 years since we set up the company to supply publishing and media services internationally. The nikau palm logo that our media director Alessandra Zecchini designed back in 2000 is reflected in the cover photo, taken outside our office in leafy Oratia.

Twenty years on, we’re still proudly assisting organisations and individuals to publish their books, while developing the list that we launched in 2009. This year will bring 12 additions to Oratia Books, along with renovation of our growing backlist.

Responding to the welcome upsurge in Māori-language learning, 2020 kicks off with David Kārena-Holmes’ handy guide, Te Reo Māori: The Basics Explained. Bilingual editions of 12 Huia Birds/12 Manu Huia, Tim Tipene’s newest ‘modern myth’ in Rona Moon, and Dawn McMillan’s charming There’s a Weta on My Sweater offer plenty of language enrichment for younger readers.

Also for the kids is the rollicking yarn The Longdrop (familiar to anyone who’s had a Kiwi family holiday), a stunning take on the universe in Space Maps, and a delightful new character from bestselling duo Dawn McMillan and Ross Kinnaird in Sir Singlet. For slightly older readers there’s the third in The NZ Series: Rush to Riches is a lively illustrated account of the colonial rushes for kauri and gold.

Our adult non-fiction is strongly told and illustrated, ranging from the nostalgic photo-led Life with Cars to the classic paintings of women bearing chin and lip tattoos in Te Kuia Moko. Ron Crosby has condensed his seminal The Musket Wars into a brilliant new history, while Matthew Wright gets to the heart of a New Zealand legend in Freyberg.

Publishing has changed a lot over the past 20 years, yet today books remain as vital as ever to our understanding of the world around us. Read on to discover more about books from Oratia.

Stay Home New Zealand, and read books :-)

As we move into lockdown in Aotearoa to combat the COVID-19 epidemic, our thoughts are with our many friends and colleagues in Italy who have endured weeks of terrible news during their time at home. The Italian campaign Io Resto a Casa (which has its equivalent in #StayHomeNZ) recommended reading as an essential activity while staying at home, and we agree. Oratia will remain open from our home offices during the Level 4 lockdown, and will do whatever we can to help Kiwis have books to read, whether in print or electronic form.

He whakarewatanga rawe kei Te Papa-i-oea

Whakarongo ki ō Tūpuna/Listen to your Ancestors has just been launched today in an uplifting event at the beautiful Wharerata homestead on the Massey University campus, Te Papa-i-oea/Palmerson North. 

Fittingly for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori/Maori Language Week, most of the event was in te Reo, with translation into te Reo Pākeha (English) — much like the book itself. 

Te Hamua Nikora (left) shares his wit and oratory at  the launch

MC and media personality Te Hamua Nikora (Ngāti Porou) had the audience alternately reflecting and cracking up as he praised author Darryn Joseph and encouraged those attending to buy multiple copies. 

"This book contains real mauri (spirit) and may it be a blessing to all who read it. 

"And today there's a chance to take some of that mauri home!" he added. 

Darryn Joseph speaks about the genesis and realisation of his book

Darryn paid tribute to illustrator Munro Te Whata and editor Carolyn Lagahetau for imbuing Whakarongo ki ō Tūpuna with that mauri and to Oratia Books "for giving te Reo a space to fly." 

Darryn (left) and Cynthia White read in Māori and English respectively

He and Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof Cynthia White jointly read the book to the approximately 100 guests attending, including a group from Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School who provided a beautiful waiata a ringa/action song.

The tribute to teachers was appropriate, given the book's dedication:
Tūturu, whakamaharatia, whakamīharotia,

whananuia ō tātou kaiako ahorangi!

Mōhio koe ki tō ake tino!

Let’s remember and celebrate our amazing teachers!

You know your own favourite!

Queuing for their copies

Tuhinga o mua o te roopu Oratia, ngā manaakitanga ki a koe e Darryn, ki Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa, me ngā kaihoko pukapuaka a Bruce McKenzie Booksellers. 

Our appreciation to Darryn and Munro and whānau, to Massey University for hosting the launch, and to Corey from Bruce McKenzie Booksellers for selling copies on the day. 

An author kept busy dedicating copies to the many who attended

Whakarongo ki ō Tūpuna is available through good booksellers everywhere, and if you're in Palmerston North, get along to Bruce McKenzie Booksellers for your copy.

An arts challenge from Creative NZ's Chief Executive

Leading up to Christmas, Creative New Zealand's Chief Executive - Pou Whakahaere Stephen Wainwright has posted a most interesting, personal blog about how gift buyers might consider 'bringing it home'.

Click here to go to Stephen's blog, which sets an "arts challenge" for New Zealanders to explore and support local culture.

He kindly mentions Oratia as one place to go "to ensure that our arts and cultural expression has pride of place." 

Kia ora Stephen, and Merry Christmas/Meri Kirihimete ki a koutou katoa.

New book celebrates and profiles New Zealand's regions

When bringing up her children in New Zealand, Oratia's media director Alessandra Zecchini felt she could have used a book that introduced them to the country's regions. 

Having grown up in Italy, Alessandra couldn't answer some of their questions, so came up with the idea of a book that did - helping not only children but also adults new to New Zealand to understand its regional identities.

Oratia's publisher Peter Dowling and editorial director Carolyn Lagahetau set out to make the book – conceived as an easy guide that is suitable for children from age 10 up, and is in English simple enough for most immigrants and tourists to access. 

Regions of New Zealand is a colourful, large-format hardback that gives readers all the basics about the diverse geography and characteristics of the nation (see link, https://www.oratia.co.nz/product/regions-of-new-zealand/)

Through maps, photos, fact boxes and simple text, the book takes readers on a tour from Northland to Southland, Tokelau to Antarctica.

Each region features in a spread of the book, with a colour map showing towns and features, summary text, photos illustrating key locations and tourist destinations, fact boxes and key info. 

In addition are sections on Māori regional relationships, early provincial divisions, outlying territories and study links.

Peter authored the book under Carolyn's editorial direction, with design by Cheryl Smith and input from a range of experts, official sources, proofreaders and photographers.

German children's book publisher Katja Korintenberg (left) gets a preview
of Regions of New Zealand with Peter Dowling at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair

Sales and marketing consultant Belinda Cooke is promoting Regions of New Zealand and can be reached for publicity enquiries on belinda@oratia.co.nz

Publication Date: 24 October 2017  |  ISBN: 978-0-947506-35-3 |  RRP $29.99

Hardback, 270 x 210 mm, 40 pages colour