August 16, 2022
Books big and little hits for Gavin Bishop
Māori children’s author and illustrator Gavin Bishop is finding acclaim for his work here and abroad.
He’s won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award at this year’s New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults for his pukapuka Atua: Māori Gods and Heroes.
The large format book also won the best illustration and best non-fiction categories, and judges called it an instant classic.
Bishop says he had drawn on his Tainui and Ngāti Awa heritage for many of the 70 books he has created over his 40-year career.
His latest books for babies Koro/ Pop and Mihi are hit with young readers overseas who resonate with the idea of mixed-race whānau.
“In Koro, koro, of course, is Māori and in the Mihi book the child is Māori but she has pakeha whānau as well and this it seems is striking a chord not only here but in the United States in particular, and Barnes and Noble have just taken the books up, so that is very, very exciting,” Bishop says.