Bilingual picture book offers new answer for that familiar question, How Many Times?

How Many Times?
Me Hia Rawa Ngā Wā?

Tim Tipene
Illustrated by Nicoletta Benella
Translated by Kanapu Rangitauira

Award-winning author shares bilingual tale of how words can teach kids to help around the house 

'How many times do I have to ask?’

That’s a question lots of parents have to put to their kids, after many other requests for help around the house. 

In Tim Tipene’s story, Tammy and Luca are always busy with screens and games to hear Mum asking them to do chores. 

That’s until Mum’s words come to life and take over the house, pinning Grandpa to his chair and launching the kids into action.

Italian-Kiwi artist Nicoletta Benella adds brilliant illustrations, with Rotorua-based Kanapu Rangitauira providing the translation.  

How Many Times? Me Hia Rawa Ngā Wā? is out in bookstores ahead of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori – Māori Language Week 2025.

A teacher resource is available on the Oratia Books website. 

The authors

Tim Tipene (Ngāti Kurī, Te Uri-o-Hau, Ngāti Whātua) is a pioneering youth counsellor and an award-winning author of children’s books, including Kura Toa Warrior School and Rona Moon. His Te Pukapuka ka Kore e Pānuihia was shortlisted for the 2024 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Tim lives with his whānau in Rānui, West Auckland. 

Nicoletta Benella is an artist originally from north-eastern Italy, where she was a designer for fashion house Benetton. Among her other illustrations are for Tim’s The Book that Wouldn’t Read / Te Pukapuka ka Kore e Pānuihia. Nicoletta lives with her family in Hatfields Beach, Auckland.

Kanapu Rangitauira (Te Arawa, Ngāti Porou, Te Whakatōhea) is a registered translator and teacher of te reo. Among other translations Kanapu has completed for Tim's books are Te Pukapuka ka Kore e Pānuihia and The Ever-Standing Tree / Te Rākau Tū Tonu. He lives with his whānau in Rotorua. 

Publication: 4 September 2025 | ISBN: 978-1-99-004281-2 | RRP $22.99

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

New Tim Tipene picture book retells Rātā and the tree pūrakau in a modern suburb

The Ever-Standing Tree
Te Rākau Tū Tonu

Tim Tipene
Illustrated by Ani Huia Ligaliga
Translated by Kanapu Rangitauira

Modern retelling of a classic story comes to life in picture book about learning respect for nature 

A modern interpretation of the classic pūrākau of Rātā and the tree, Tim Tipene’s The Ever-Standing Tree/Te Rākau Tū Tonu highlights the importance of respecting and protecting nature.

In a typical Kiwi suburb, Dad cuts down the tree in the backyard – to get a better view. Overnight, the insects and birds work their magic and put it back together, leaving the family stunned.

A battle of wills between the blade and nature ensues, until Dad finally comes to realise how special the tree is.

Drawing on Tim’s love of traditional Māori stories, The Ever-Standing Tree/Te Rākau Tū Tonu follows on from his award-winning picture books Māui – Sun Catcher and Rona Moon/Ko Rona Māhina, both legends brought to 21^st-century Aotearoa.

Strikingly illustrated by artist Ani Huia Ligaliga and translated by Kanapu Rangitauira, this bilingual picture book will be in bookstores ahead of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2024.

A teacher resource is available on the Oratia Books website. 

The authors

Tim Tipene (Ngāti Kurī, Te Uri-o-Hau, Ngāti Whātua) is a pioneering youth counsellor and an award-winning author of children’s books, including Kura Toa Warrior School and Rona Moon. His Te Pukapuka ka Kore e Pānuihia was shortlisted for this year's New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Tim lives in Rānui, West Auckland. 

Ani Huia Ligaliga (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tamanuhiri, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine) is an artist and illustrator. She studied art at Brigham Young University, Hawaii. Ani lives in Hamilton. 

Kanapu Rangitauira (Te Arawa, Ngāti Porou, Te Whakatōhea) is a registered translator and teacher of te reo. Among other translations Kanapu has completed for Tim's books is Te Pukapuka ka Kore e Pānuihia. He lives in Rotoiti, Rotorua. 

Publication: 2 September 2024 | ISBN: 978-1-99-004260-7 | RRP $22.99

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

Leading author pens innovative book to inspire reluctant readers in English and te reo Māori

The Book that Wouldn't Read / Te Pukapuka ka Kore e Pānuihia

Tim Tipene

Illustrated by Nicoletta Benella

Translated by Kanapu Rangitauira

Setting out to attract the sort of reluctant reader he used to be, author and youth counsellor Tim Tipene happened upon a neat idea: a book that takes over and effectively reads itself!

In The Book that Wouldn’t Read — and the Māori edition Te Pukapuka ka Kore e Pānuihia — a boy who doesn’t like reading just has to investigate when he finds that book on the library shelf.

Sentences move around the page, words change colour and disappear, and crazy fonts and characters get him jumping around, even burping (despite being hushed by teacher and classmates).

Illustrator Nicoletta Benella opens up the worlds that come alive when you get into a book, with layout designed to appeal to reluctant or dyslexic readers.

Publishing in English (hardback) and Māori (paperback) editions ahead of Māori Language Week, this is a book just waiting to be read! 

 

A teacher resource is available on the Oratia website.

The author

Tim Tipene (Ngāti Kurī, Ngāti Whātua) is a pioneering youth counsellor and the award-winning author of over 18 children’s books, including Kura Toa Warrior School and Rona Moon. Tim lives in Rānui, West Auckland. See https://www.timtipene.com/

The illustrator

Nicoletta Benella is an illustrator, graphic designer and artisan originally from north-eastern Italy, where she worked as a designer for the fashion house Benetton. She lives with her family in Hatfields Beach, Auckland. 

The translator

Kanapu Rangitauira (Te Arawa, Ngāti Porou, Te Whakatōhea) is a registered translator and teacher of te reo Māori who has translated a number of works for Oratia Books, He lives with his family in Rotoiti, Rotorua. 

Publication: 1 September 2023  

 ISBNs: 978-1-99-004231-7 (English)  978-1-99-004247-8 (Māori)  

RRP $25.99 (English) hardback, $22.99 (Māori) paperback

270 x 210 mm portrait, 32 pages, colour

Inflation busters: Māui — Sun Catcher and Rona Moon return in more affordable paperbacks

Māui – Sun Catcher / Māui – Te Kaihao i te Rā 

Tim Tipene

Illustrated by Zak Waipara

Translated by Rob Ruha

Rona Moon / Ko Rona Māhina

Tim Tipene

Illustrated by Theresa Reihana

Translated by Stephanie Huriana Fong

 

Paperback editions of Tim Tipene's retelling of two traditional stories are now in print, offering these fully bilingual English and Te Reo editions in a more affordable format. 

The paperback editions are priced at $22.99, a 12% reduction from the previous hardback books. 

Māui — Sun Catcher/Te Kaihao i te Rā sets the famous story of Māui catching the sun in a modern city. Māui is a schoolboy who lives with this mother and four older brothers in a city where the day is never long enough to things done. 

Māui (who speaks in rhyme) seizes the moment:

Mum, I’m gonna catch that Sun for you.

That Sun who’s always on the run. 

Te Rā ka hopukina mōhau, e māmā.

Te Rā, ka hohoro te kakama.

After weaving a flax net, the brothers drive to the pit where the Sun lives, and make their play to slow the day. 

Award-winning author Tim Tipene weaves a spell-binding modern tale, accompanied by manga-influenced illustrations by esteemed artist Zak Waipara, with te reo Māori translation by musical star Rob Ruha.

Rona Moon/Ko Rona Māhina stars Rona as a young girl who gets angry with everyone — her brother, her Nana and Papa — until one night she calls the moon stupid!

Taken to meet her ancestor Whaea Rona on the moon, she learns a lesson in how to control her temper:

‘Everything looks so small from up here,’ said Rona. 

‘I know,’ Whaea beamed. ‘Even the reasons we felt angry seem so little.’

 

‘Hanga nohinohi te ao katoa atu i konei,’ tā Rona. 

‘E mea ana koe,’ te mene atu a Whaea. ‘Kua hanga nohinohi hoki ngā take i pupū ai ō tāua riri.’

Tai Tokerau artist Theresa Reihana created special illustrators, using photo collage approach, and Stephanie Huriana Fong (familiar to viewers of Whakaata Māori) provided a superb translation. 

 

These books are a great read for primary school readers, students of te Reo and anyone who loves traditional stories, myths and retellings. 

 

The authors

Tim Tipene (Ngāti Kurī, Ngāti Whātua) is the award-winning author of over 12 children’s books, and a pioneering youth counsellor. He lives with his family in Rānui, West Auckland. 

Zak Waipara (Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Ruapani) is a renowned illustrator and writer of books, comics and animations. He is a lecturer in digital media at the Auckland University of Technology.  

Theresa Reihana (Ngāti Hine) is a visual artist who has exhibited worldwide, and is now venturing into book illustration; she lives near Kaitaia. 

Translators

Rob Ruha (Te Whānau a Apanui, Ngāti Porou) is a chart-topping musician, songwriter and champion of te reo Māori who is based in Rotorua. 

Stephanie Huriana Fong (Te Rarawa) is a registered translator of te Reo who also works in television and other media; she lives in Te Atatū, Auckland

Publication: 17 November 2022  |  RRP $22.99 |

ISBN: (Māui) 978-1-99-004232-4  (Rona) 978-1-99-004233-1

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

 

Rona Moon lands for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori

Modern version of the Rona and the Moon myth appears in vividly illustrated, bilingual picture book

Rona Moon, an imaginative retelling of the Rona and the Moon myth, hits the bookstores of Aotearoa during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori/Māori Language Week 2020. 

Award-winning writer and youth counsellor Tim Tipene recasts the myth in a modern setting. 

Rona is a young girl who gets angry with everyone — her brother, her Nana and Papa — until one night she calls the moon stupid!

 

Taken to meet her ancestor Whaea Rona on the moon, she learns a lesson in how to control her temper:

‘Everything looks so small from up here,’ said Rona. 

‘I know,’ Whaea beamed. ‘Even the reasons we felt angry seem so little.’

 

‘Hanga nohinohi te ao katoa atu i konei,’ tā Rona. 

‘E mea ana koe,’ te mene atu a Whaea. ‘Kua hanga nohinohi hoki ngā take i pupū ai ō tāua riri.’

Stephanie Huriana Fong has translated Tim’s sensitive telling, and Tai Tokerau artist Theresa Reihana makes her first foray into children’s books with striking, luminescent illustrations.

 

Rona Moon is ideal for primary school readers, students of te Reo and anyone who loves a traditional story. 

The authors

Tim Tipene (Ngāti Kurī, Ngāti Whātua) is the award-winning author of over 12 children’s books, and a pioneering youth counsellor. He lives with his children in Rānui, West Auckland. Theresa Reihana (Ngāti Hine) is a visual artist who has exhibited worldwide, and is now venturing into book illustration; she lives near Kaitaia. Stephanie Huriana Fong (Te Rarawa) is a registered translator of te Reo who also works in television and other media; she lives in Te Atatū, Auckland.

 

Publication: 16 September 2020  |  ISBN: 978-0-947506-73-5  | RRP $25.99 Hardback, 270 x 210 mm portrait, 32 pages, colour