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  • Published: 27 June 2008
  • ISBN: 9780143503279
  • Imprint: Picture Puffin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 48
  • RRP: $16.99

The Whale Rider




A beautiful picture book retelling of Witi Ihimaera's bestselling novel The Whale Rider, illustrated by Bruce Potter

Witi Ihimaera's bestselling novel The Whale Rider is retold in a beautifully illustrated picture book format for young readers.

From the time of her birth, Kahu is destined to become the leader of her tribe in the East Coast village of Whangara. But her grandfather, Koro Apirana, is caught up with the problems facing the tribe. He refuses to accept that a girl could take over from him as chief. Then a pod of whales beach themselves at Whangara. Kahu has to act if she is to save them and her people.

  • Published: 27 June 2008
  • ISBN: 9780143503279
  • Imprint: Picture Puffin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 48
  • RRP: $16.99

About the author

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.
 

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Video
At Home With Penguin and Witi Ihimaera

We are proud to present the first of our At Home with Penguin video series, in which we ask some of NZ’s most wonderful authors to talk about life in lockdown – kicking off with Witi Ihimaera on The Whale Rider, neighbourhood walks and why the peace of lockdown might NOT be good for writers’ creativity! With numerous short stories, novels, libretti, plays, memoirs – well over 20 books, plus many more Witi Ihimaera has edited or contributed to – where do you begin? Here is a handy guide from our Fiction Publisher, Harriet Allan: https://bit.ly/3bEL8ks