Kindergarten-Grade 3-When a mischievous twin is turned into a wooden statue by Punga, the hideous and vengeful goddess of all things ugly, her sister devises a scheme for rescuing her (and Mudfish and Lizard in the bargain). Since it is the one night of the year when the creatures on Punga's lodgepole are allowed to dance, Kiri challenges the goddess saying, "'if any one of us is ugly, that one should be on your roof beam for all to see.'" Then she and Maraweia, Lizard, and Mudfish perform a perfect haka, a fierce and beautiful traditional Maori dance, and earn their freedom. When Punga reacts by sticking out her tongue, she is turned into a repulsive wooden decoration on her own lodge house. The mixture of greens that dominates the watercolor illustrations evokes the lush tangle of the New Zealand forest. Lattimore's own interpretations of Maori traditional wooden carvings add a feeling of authenticity and are scattered throughout the paintings; at least one of these scenes is as vivid as a nightmare and is potentially frightening. A glossary of Maori words and a map round out this picture book, which is long on folkloric feeling but lacks any sources other than an author's note explaining some Maori customs.
Ellen Fader, Oregon State Library, Salem
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ages 5-9. This lively and handsomely illustrated story about two sisters trying to learn the beautiful haka, a dance performed with the dancers' tongues sticking out, incorporates an ancient and complex Maori legend. When Maraweia runs off into the forest and becomes stuck on a wooden lodgepole as punishment for making herself look ugly when she dances, Kiri tricks Punga, the Goddess of Ugly, into letting her twin come down. While there's little reason to doubt the dust jacket claim that Lattimore engaged in "painstaking research" in preparation for the book, it has an outsider's perspective ("They lived . . . with their grandmother, who taught them all about Maori ways"). Dominated by rich shades of green punctuated by red, the watercolor and colored pencil compositions incorporate the lush flora and fauna of the South Pacific into the background. These plants and animals can be identified in the borders that surround the author's note, regional map, and glossary. The fact that mischievous children can be found all over the world, from Polynesia to Paris, gives this tale universal appeal. Julie Corsaro
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