Eliza and the white camellia

What an excellent resource for anyone interested in New Zealand history and especially the story of suffrage in New Zealand! Eliza & the white camellia is full of facts, photos, quotes and explanations. The story of Eliza and her family, is told over ten pages in both English and Te Reo Māori, enabling it to be read on different levels, i.e. as a story to younger readers, in either language, and as a more comprehensive read for older readers, incorporating all the additional information.

This additional information is well presented on each facing page and over 15 pages after the story. Included in these latter pages is facts about petitions, photographs and drawings from the 1900’s, a New Zealand and a world suffrage timeline. Three pages of activities, including making a suffragist camellia, rosette, hat or sash, suggestions for classroom activities, and a quiz, conclude the book.

Colours used throughout the book are really effective in subtle hues of mainly green, brown, black and white, and a hard cover and thick pages, make it an ideal library book but equally a lovely book to gift. What a great team in McCauley, Casey and Waaka.

Tiitle: Eliza & the white camellia

Author: Debbie McCauley

Illustrator: Helen Casey

Translator: Tamati Waaka

Publisher: Mauao Publishing

ISBN: 978-0-473-44946-9

RRP: $37.99

Format: Hardback

Date of Publication: November 2018

Ages: 8+

Reviewer: Vickie Humphries, Librarian, Mount Cook School, Wellington

How highly are you recommending this book? Highly recommended

What’s the book’s opening sentence? “Eliza was just seven years old when there was great excitement, not just in her house, or even her town, but in the whole country.”

You can buy this book here