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Adventures in Aotearoa

Spirits Of The Lake. By Beverley Dunlop. Hodder and Stoughton, 1988. 135 pp. $19.95. The Third Eye. By Joan de Hamel. Puffin, 1988. 128 pp. $6.99 (paperback). A common fraud is to take a tale of the British middle class, to add some dusky natives (or guttural Celts), and to proclaim "A Ripping Yarn of the South Seas” (or, “of the Welsh Marches”), with glossary. Neither of these books is of that type. Both adventures are set in Aotearoa. By “adventure” this reviewer means excitement which will sell overseas on its merits, and by “Aotearoa,” landscape and insights far older than the Treaty is. The eponymous Spirits have chased three generations. Only by courage does young Paul save his mother and release his grandmother to die. The “Third Eye” is that of a tuatara, unblinking as the youngsters do wrong and then do right, copying their elders.

That the environment should be known and the stories sold world-wide in English is no bad thing. — Ken McAllister.

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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19881217.2.92.6

Bibliographic details

Press, 17 December 1988, Page 23

Word Count
169

Adventures in Aotearoa Press, 17 December 1988, Page 23

Adventures in Aotearoa Press, 17 December 1988, Page 23