Picture Books

NZ Writer and Illustrator

Nicola Muir, illustrated by Annie Hayward

Baba Didi and the Godwits fly

New Internationalist Publications Ltd 2013   $19.99hb           32pp

ISBN 978 1 7802 6130 0

Themes:         Bird migration/ Courage/ Grandmothers/ Human migration

 Annie Hayward

Every year the Godwits migrate from our shores on an epic flight up the Pacific, through New Guinea, Japan and on to the breeding grounds in Alaska. Watching and wondering about it all are Baba Didi and her small granddaughter. Author and illustrator have combined seamlessly to tell this story which combines the flight of the Godwits and the courage and resilience of human migration. The book has a foreword by former PM, Helen Clark in her role as Head of the United Nations Development  Programme and UNICEF will receive royalties from the sale of each copy.  

I was at the launch of this evocatively illustrated new book at the Children’s Bookshop at Kilbirnie late last week and it was so exciting to see how seriously the book was being taken when the launch speeches (as well as those from the writer and illustrator) included words from a member of the Green Party and representatives from the Shoreline Centre at Miranda just out of Auckland.  I have been to many book launches at the Children’s Bookshop but I don’t think I have ever seen such a long queue of buyers snaking out to the front door, all of whom wanted the book – and to have it signed. 

 Nicola Muir 
Year 2 up/ Age 6 up