Baba Didi and the Godwits Fly
By (Author) Nicola Muir
Illustrated by Annie Hayward
New Internationalist Publications Ltd
New Internationalist Publications Ltd
1st October 2013
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Childrens / Teenage social topics: Environment, sustainability and green issues
823.92
Hardback
32
Width 208mm, Height 277mm
399g
Imagine. You're a bird, only fifteen inches long. You spend half the year on one side of the planet and then you fly to the other side for the rest. Round trip: eighteen thousand miles. On the way there you touch down in many different countries; you're just a passing visitor. And on the way back . . . there isnowhereto stop. Just ocean for seven thousand miles.
A story about two true fantastical flights; that of the godwits around and across the Pacific and a woman's emigration from Croatia to New Zealand.
A young girl and her grandmother, Baba Didi, are on a beach watching the godwits preparing to migrate. Talking about the birds's courageous journey across the Pacific resonates with generations of human migration, from the Maori reaching New Zealand to Baba Didi's journey from Croatia.
Illustrated with warmth and radiance this is an epic story told with charm. A tale of the resilience it takes "just to get there" when the going is rough and the road is long.
A portion of the money from the sale of each book will be donated to UNICEF.
Nickie Muir (author) is a teacher, writer and regular columnist for New Zealand newspaper, Northern Advocate. Annie Hayward (illustrator) is an abstract and figurative painter. She exhibits widely and she has been commissioned for many in New Zealand and internationally. Helen Clark (foreword author) is the former prime minister of New Zealand and is now head of the UN Development Programme.