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Astromancer 3: Ariā and the Monster Island
Witi Ihimaera
  • Published: 28 April 2026
  • ISBN: 9781776953479
  • Imprint: Picture Puffin
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 64
  • RRP: $21.99

Astromancer 3: Ariā and the Monster Island

The Astromancer Trapped in Time

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The third exciting adventure in the world of the Astromancer

Dark happenings beyond the Astromancer’s realm bring a new threat to Pekerangi Mountain – a voracious plague of rats.

Te Kōkōrangi and the young warrior Iwihōia attempt a risky journey back in time to Hawaiki to seek help from Ruakapanga, tohunga of the Sacred Kūmara Cliffs of the Sun. But they are attacked by a pouākai - a terrifying monster of myth.

The mission now falls to Ariā and the apprentices, but now she's in charge it's not as fun as she thought. Even if she finds a way back to the past, how will she convince the legendary tohunga to help her? And if there is any hope of rescuing the captives alive, she will have to find the monster’s island.

Meanwhile, archenemy Ruatapu the Ravenous plots a new attack on the observatory...


Also available in a reo Māori edition

Read them all!
The Astromancer
Ariā and the Kūmara God
  • Published: 28 April 2026
  • ISBN: 9781776953479
  • Imprint: Picture Puffin
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 64
  • RRP: $21.99
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About the authors

Witi Ihimaera



Three-time winner of the Wattie/Montana Book of the Year award, Katherine Mansfield fellow and playwright Witi Ihimaera is one of New Zealand’s most prolific and accomplished writers. Witi’s first novel, Tangi, won the Wattie Book of the Year Award in 1974, a feat he repeated with The Matriarch in 1986. His celebrated novel Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies, now adapted as the film Mahana, won the Montana Book of the Year award in 1995. Witi’s other novels and short story collections include The Whale Rider (also adapted as an internationally successful film); Dream Swimmer (sequel to the award-winning The Matriarch); Pounamu, Pounamu and Nights In The Gardens of Spain. In 2015 he published the first volume of his autobiography, Maori Boy.
 

portrait photo of Witi Ihimaera

Isobel Joy Te Aho-White

Isobel Te Aho-White (Ngati Kahungunu, Ngai Tahu) is an award-winning Illustrator based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Her book Santa’s Worst Christmas (2019) with Huia publishers was nominated for the NCYA Book Awards across five categories and her book Whiti: Colossal Squid of the Deep (2020) written by Victoria Cleal and published by Te Papa Press won a Whitley award for best children’s book. She is the illustrator of Witi Ihimaera's novels about Te Kōkōrangi, the Astromancer (Puffin, 2022 and 2024), a co-illustrator of The Maori Picture Dictionary/Te Papakupu Whakaahua by Margaret Sinclair and Ross Calman (Puffin, 2022), and her illustrations have enhanced well over 30 children's books to date.

portrait photo of Isobel Joy Te Aho-White