WINNER OF 2021 YOUNG ADULT FICTION AWARD, NZ CHILDREN BOOK AWARDS
SHORTLISTED FOR 2021 BEST FIRST BOOK AWARD
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Twelve-year-old Niko lives in a small, rural town. The government want to build a prison over the home of a taniwha. Niko's grandfather is busy protesting, but when he dies, it's up to Niko to convince the community that the taniwha is real and stop the prison from being built.
NZ Childrens Book Awards wrote "In The Pōrangi Boy, Shilo Kino has crafted, through hard edges and deftness of touch, a story that will endure. Niko’s intensely personal journey is woven through with threads of issues that permeate the lives of young people in Aotearoa – environmental damage, neocolonialism, bullying, poverty – but never slips into didacticism or preachiness. Where the story shines the brightest is in Shilo Kino’s uncontestable genius for crafting believable, authentic voices that are thoroughly rooted in this place, these times. You feel the shapes of the words in your mouth, hear the resonance they leave in your ears – and the resonance of these words and this book is clear and long-lasting."
Young Adult Readers
Paperback
Shilo Kino
260 pages
H: 210mm W: 138mm