Dare to Explore - Our People

Auckland is made up of people from all over the world. As part of Dare to Explore we have invited you to check out books by New Zealand authors as well as books about people from other countries. Here are a few ideas we have found about people and places from other cultures.

If you lived here: Houses of the world by Giles Laroche. Hot off the press is this lovely non-fiction picture book with collage style illustrations of houses from right around the world. Houses can be caves chiseled into the hills or built from earth and cow dung. We find out where they are located, who lives in them, when they first (or last) were built and a fascinating fact about all of them. You can catch fish from your bedroom in palafitos, live in one house with dozens of other families or need to have a good sense of direction as in some places all the houses look alike, and they are all white. Treehouses are even included. A fascinating read.

Little kitchen around the world By Sabrina Parrini. “Delicious international recipes that kids can really make” shouts the byline on this book. So, as international cooking is one of the challenges in Dare to Explore… Our People, I thought I would try out a couple of the recipes from this recent release. After all, if I can make it, then a kid will definitely be able to. It is really well set out for a recipe book, and appropriate to it’s target audience with each recipe have a flag for the country it is from, a rating on it’s ease and the number of servings… plus a photo of what the end product should look like (absolutely vital in my experience even if it leads to disappointment when I look at my results). I also like that as well as a list of ingredients, a list of equipment is provided with each recipe. A perfect read for the young chef.

For you are a Kenyan Child By Kelly Cunnane and Ana Juan. Experience a day in the life of a young Kenyan boy. Who, although he wakes to a rooster instead of an alarm clock and eats bugs instead of an apple for a snack, isn’t so much different to you when his mother gives him a chore to do. There is just so much going on in his village it is easy to get distracted. It’s vibrant, colourful and interesting. Read about a boy like you (or your brother) in another part of the world.

The Little Refugee By Anh Do and Suzanne Doh. The picture book version of the memoir Australia’s Happiest Refugee, this is both the story of another culture and a survival story. The sepia tones of the old life in Vietnam and as the family try to escape to another country give way to the colour of life in a new land, not always easy, but perhaps it will be all right in the end. Poignant, well told for the audience and with great illustrations from Bruce Whatley to compliment the story.

To explore the peoples and cultures, and find reading from picture books to chapter books by Kiwi authors and about New Zealand people, go to the Dare to Explore...Our People page on our website.