One Weka Went Walking, by Kate Preece and illustrated by Pippa Ensor, who both attended Fernside School, follows a weka’s adventures as he sets out to explore his island home.
On his journey the weka interacts with other birds, most of which are endangered and only found on the Chatham Islands.
Kate says her book, which has rhyming text and dialogue, is a book for children aged five to eight years, but adults will want to read it too and add the multi› faceted book with its fact bites, to their libraries.
It was inspired during a trip to to visit family on the Chatham Islands with her husband Hayden, a Moriori.
‘‘I got caught up in the weka and its curious nature,’’ Kate says.
On each double page spread the weka meets another bird › a tui, black robin, the Forbes’ parakeet, the Pitt Island and Chatham Island shags, oyster catchers, mollymawk and snipe, along with shining cuckoos, and the Chatham Island tomtit and petrel.
Each is beautifully illustrated by Pippa.
At the end of each page there is an interesting fact caption such as: ‘‘In 1905, 12 buff weka were released on the Chatham Islands. Today there are tens of thousands living there.’’
The first draft of Kate’s book was in 2014, but it was not until the summer of 2020 she picked it up again and decided to have ‘‘a crack’’ at getting it published.
Bateman gave her a thumbs up overnight, and the book has just recently begun to appear on the shelves of book shops.
‘‘I have been writing children’s books since my babies were born, and since I was a child at the Christchurch School for Young Writers,’’ says Kate.
‘‘There is a few on the family book shelves, but this is the first one out in the world.’’ ‘‘It was so much fun,’’ Kate says, despite it feeling weird she is on the other side of the publishing world, with no control or input into what is happening in that sphere. Kate studied journalism at Canterbury and Massey universities. Her first opportunity came under the mentorship of the late Jon Gadsby. It was the beginning of a 14›year stint in the magazine industry that culminated in being Group Editor for Allied Press Magazines.
Over the years, she has held various roles, including Editor for Kiwi Gardener, Kiwi Gardener Quarterly, Kiwi Gardener Journal and Style magazines.
It is the first book for talented, Rangiora› based illustrator, Pippa Ensor.
She studied architecture at Victoria University in Wellington, but has always drawn whenever she could.
