Back to Reviews By Title - F

From Weta to Kauri, Janet Hunt and Rob Lucas
Random House
Reviewed by Peter Watt (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

Award-winning author Janet Hunt is on to another winner with From Weta to Kauri. The former Inglewood woman, now living on Waiheke Island, wrote A Bird in the Hand, which won the Book of the Year in the NZ Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2004.

This time she has teamed with photographer Rob Lucas to produce an outstanding field guide to the New Zealand forest.

Superbly produced and laid out, and crammed with information in what is still a compact and lightweight but sturdy book, From Weta to Kauri will be on many a forest rambler's list of backpack musts.

Hunt conveys her information with a sense of fun and wonder, at the same time keeping her botanical feet planted firmly on the forest floor. Young readers will be entertained and educated, while even expert adults will not be insulted by the text.

If you can't tell your manuka from your kanuka, From Weta to Kauri will enlighten you.