New Zealand (Countries Of The World), by Rebecca Hirsch

While I would not say that this is a perfect book, it is certainly a very good one, and one of the notable aspects of that begins with the fact that this book is up front about its author. Unlike a great many books of its kind, which tend to be focused at children and make it incredibly difficult to find out who is doing the writing, this book is open and honest about being written by a particular author, while keeping the other people to praise who happen to work with the publisher at a minimum. It may seem a bit strange to have a pet peeve when it comes to children’s novels being too quick to honor everyone except for the author of the book itself, but as a writer I have a particular sensitivity to that particular sort of thing. This book gets another thing right and that is having a great deal of very enjoyable photos, which have their own photo credit section. Gorgeous views abound in this glossy book, and if you (like me) have a fondness for nature photography as well as beautiful buildings, this book succeeds wonderfully on that level and is a real joy to behold, which is a big part on helping this book to be an enjoyable one to read, coming in at much longer than most books written for children.

The approach of the book is also worth considering. The author, despite focusing a lot of attention on maps and photographs (which I happen to enjoy), also has particular interests when it comes to texts. For one, the author is keen to note that life in New Zealand for both people as well as plants and animals, has been shaped deeply by isolation. Likewise, the author is keen to note that the immense diversity of the people of New Zealand has moved beyond the bi-cultural British settler colonist-Maori survivor that tends to be focused on the most, but now includes a large number of immigrants from East Asia as well as other Pacific Islands. I myself happen to know a couple of Americans in New Zealand as well as a young woman whose family comes from one of the Pacific Islands, which certainly reflects some of the diversity of the people who have found themselves living in New Zealand. If reading about diversity is not necessarily my favorite way to pass the time, it is certainly relevant to the New Zealand experience (as my reading in general is showing me), and this author handles the subject far better than most that I have read so far, so that certainly deserves to be mentioned.

In terms of its contents, this book is nearly 150 pages in length (144 pages being on the large size for books for young readers of this kind), and it is divided into nine chapters. The book begins with a discussion of a visit to New Zealand, a map of political boundaries of the country, and a snapshot of the country (1). This is followed by a discussion of geography, which shows maps of the varied terrain as well as climate of New Zealand (2). After this comes a discussion of the plants and animals whose existence has been shaped by isolation far from other islands (3). This is followed by a discussion of the complicated history of New Zealand, including initial Polynesian settlement, European exploration and settlement, and the development of the kiwi identity as an independent nation (4). This is followed by a discussion of the diversity of the people of New Zealand (5) as well as the development of culture along with the effect of recent immigration (6) to the existing European-Maori situation. After this the author spends a chapter discussing New Zealand as a parliamentary democracy (7), another chapter discussing the economics of New Zealand including a map of its natural resources (8), before devoting the last chapter of the book to New Zealand today (9). The book then closes with a timeline, facts, glossary, additional resources, source notes, index, and photo credits.