Atua

Gavin Bishop’s stunning, once-in-a-generation compendium introduces readers to the pantheon of Maori gods, demigods and heroes, and explores Aotearoa’s most exciting legends from the Creation to the Migration.

Meet the gods, demigods and heroes of the Maori people of Aotearoa in this breathtaking, large-scale illustrated book for children.

Margaret Mahy Book of the Year 2022
Elsie Locke Award for Non-fiction 2022
Russell Clark Award for Illustration 2022

Before the beginning there was nothing.
No sound, no air, no colour – nothing.
TE KORE, NOTHING.
No one knows how long this nothing lasted because there was no time.
However, in this great nothing there was a sense of waiting.
Something was about to happen.

Meet the gods, demigods and heroes of the Maori world, and explore Aotearoa’s exciting legends from the Creation to the Migration. Fascinating, beautiful and informative, this once-in-a-generation compendium deserves a place on every bookshelf.

Author Biography

Gavin Bishop is an award-winning children’s picture book writer and illustrator who lives and works in Christchurch, New Zealand. The author and illustrator of approximately 60 books to date, his work ranges from original stories to retellings of Maori myths, European fairy stories, and nursery rhymes. Gavin has had a long-held interest in depicting New Zealand’s history through illustration, evidenced in his now classic picture book The House that Jack Built (1999) which won Book of the Year; and also through his junior novels Piano Rock (2012) and Teddy One-Eye (2014). His landmark illustrated non-fiction title Aotearoa- The New Zealand Story was published in October 2017 and was awarded the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. A companion volume, Wildlife of Aotearoa was published in October 2019. It won a Storylines Notable Non-Fiction Award and the 2020 NZ Booklover Awards Best Children’s Book, and was a finalist for the 2020 Russell Clark Award for Illustration.