Shelley Burne-Field’s Hawke’s Bay children’s book takes readers to soaring heights

REVIEW:

Imagine you are a bird, flying high, soaring on the wind, circling effortlessly while searching for danger — and food.

Too hard? Don’t worry because Hawke’s Bay author Shelley Burne-Field has done
all the hard work, you just need to read her book.

I love the way this children’s book is written.

The main characters are birds, Kāhu and Magpie, and Burne-Field writes from their perspective.

She describes the fight for survival, the devastation of losing family, and the family dynamics. It’s funny, sad at times and full of adventure.

Burne-Field (Sāmoa, Ngati Mutunga, Ngati Rārua, Pākehā) is well known for her short stories, but this is her first children’s book.

She said the idea for the book came to her when she saw a kāhu (harrier hawk) being attacked by a few magpies.

“I wondered why. Then in researching the life of a kāhu, I found out one kāhu survived on the ground without feet! And one missing a wing survived on the ground because it was fed by its mate. I wrote it as part of the Master of Creative Writing course at the University of Auckland,” Burne-Field said.

Asked how she thought like a bird, Burne-Field said she wasn’t sure humans could ever be sure what an animal “thinks”.

“Whether it’s a bird, whale, or lizard. But I think animal stories can be fun, adventurous, and funny when you give the animal characters human traits. I tried very hard to offer the manu (birds) their own sense of themselves and that made for interesting parameters for the book!”

She set herself parameters and said it was challenging to stay within them.

“Because I wanted the birds to be close as possible to nature, even if I did anthropomorphise them with human traits, I only used the word ‘said’ once in the entire book – all the young and old readers out there can try and find that one word ‘said’ in the whole book! Let me know if there are two,” she laughed.

“I wanted the bird characters to squawk, screech, and chirp and call rather than ‘say’ things – even though they do ‘talk’. I also didn’t include metaphor or simile that the birds couldn’t possibly know for example, Poto, the main sister kāhu describes their valley as a ‘feather’ with the mountain range at one end that flows down with the awa (river) to the sea.

“Those types of comparisons ‘fit’ with what a bird may think about, rather than comparing their valley to a ‘sausage’ because normal kāhu would have no idea about Frankfurters!

“The other challenging thing was including kupu hou (new Māori words) and weaving them into sentences so that any reader could pick up on the meaning just from what was going on in the story. I enjoyed it so much. I couldn’t write a book set in our beautiful Aotearoa New Zealand bush and scenery, with our wonderful bird life, and not use Māori words.”

Burne-Field says what she loves about writing is imagining characters and then throwing them into a situation to see what they are going to do next!

What she doesn’t love so much is “maybe not having the right words in the right order for readers to truly understand what the character is trying to convey.”

Recently, while writing she has been going Hapi Cafe in Napier, “which is awesome”.

“Also, over the past few months at Te Herenga Waaka Victoria University, going to Milk & Honey Cafe and the Hub and sitting in all the noise and energy which acts as white noise to me and allows me to zone out and write. I also bring myself into a writing ‘space’ by saying karakia or thanking the universe and calling on my ancestors to help me find the words.

“I write anywhere and everywhere – the noisier the better!”

And then when the finished book is in her hands Burne-Field says it’s like a little precious paper baby!

“It is surreal. But it is a proud moment to say – it’s here! And especially for Brave Kāhu and the Pōrangi Magpie, Matt Tait has created such a beautiful cover – it looks glorious. He also drew the map inside which I love so much – I love a good map in a fantasy adventure novel.”

Her top three tips for aspiring authors are “only you can write the story that you can write”.

“Attend a creative writing class online or in person and learn the craft. Give yourself permission to write – you can do this!”

Burne-Field is currently the Emerging Māori Writer in residence at Victoria University where she is writing a young adult climate science fiction novel set in Te Matau-a-Māui, Hawke’s Bay.

“I’m also finalising a book of adult short stories for publication, and I’ll be working with Allen & Unwin publishers to polish up another middle-grade novel for next year.

“This one is about kekeno or fur seals who go on an epic sea adventure off the east coast of the North Island. I’ve been invited to Ireland next year for the International Conference of the Short Story so I’m organising that with a few other writers.

“There are some cool school visits in between all that and also spending time with my favourite people in the world – my close whānau; my beautiful mates; my Hastings auntie who is 89 years old and my cuzzie who always encourages me with so much aroha, and of course never forgetting my son and husband who look after me and listen to every plot line and sentence I’m working on. I couldn’t do life or writing without them.”

THE BOOK

Brave Kāhu & the Pōrangi Magpie

By Shelley Burne-Field

Allen & Unwin, 19.99