Rise of Maioura

Rise of Maioura is a very fast paced story packed with themes tamariki today are dealing with. I really enjoyed that things don’t always go right for the characters and they are forced to reflect on events and work to ensure a better outcome for the next time. This provides many discussion points for the readers where they can reflect where the characters have gone wrong and how they can fix it, and is easily linkable to the readers' real life situations.

There is interesting vocabulary around colours and some excellent simple figurative language examples which are obvious enough for children to find in the text and understand. These line up well with the curriculum for the age group this is aimed at, while the themes link well to the health curriculum. I believe most children will enjoy this book, with its diverse range of characters to connect with.

Overall, it is an enjoyable book to read with an interesting and creative storyline, and relatable characters. Being a first book there are some areas that aren’t perfect, but I look forward to the characters being fleshed out and the descriptions of the setting improving further in the next book.