16-07-2025
‘Immersed in stacks of picture books': Isobel Joy Te Aho-White's reading life
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu), illustrator of three books up for awards at the 2025 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
The book I wish I'd written and illustrated
Good Faeries, Bad Faeries by Brian Froud. I love his method of putting pen to paper and letting his intuition take over, with no expectation as to what comes out, and then, in the case of Good Faeries, Bad Faeries, giving personalities and backstories to the characters after they've been drawn. I think that approach has helped me when I feel like I have creative block. Just scribble, zone out, and think about it later.
Everyone should read
Watership Down by Richard Adams – it's a reimagining of Homer and Virgil's Odyssey and Aeneid, but with bunnies, which makes it better. It also brings in other themes such as humanity's propensity for mindless destruction and domination over the animal kingdom.
The book I want to be buried with
Tough question, because it can change on any given day. So, let's just say a sketchbook for jotting down ideas and observations.
The first book I remember reading by myself
I remember being immersed in stacks of picture books as a kid (nothing's changed, really), and I'd cycle through them. Some early impressions were Funnybones by Janet and Allen Ahlberg, Animalia by Graeme Base, and The Nicklenackle Tree by Lynley Dodd. I also had the classics: Madeline, Asterix, Tintin, Babar, the books of Richard Scarry, Dr Seuss, The Berenstains. The pictures drew me in – the more detail, the better. If we're talking chapter books, some early ones I enjoyed were The Hobbit, The Song of Pentecost, The Cooper Kids, Anne of Green Gables, The Babysitter's Club and the Famous Five.
The book I pretend I've read
I have pretended to read Das Kapital by Karl Marx and A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, but to be honest, I found them too dense and only skimmed them. Maybe I need illustrated versions.
Dystopia or utopia
The stuff I make is usually utopian, but the stuff I enjoy is usually dystopian, crime or horror adjacent. How does that work? Maybe I need something to bounce off. Some faves that come to mind are Animal Farm by George Orwell, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, The Long Walk by Stephen King, and Uzumki by Junji Ito.
Fiction or nonfiction
I appreciate both and read them in completely different ways. Most of my bookcase is filled with nonfiction reference books that I pick up and skim through if I need some information on a subject – mostly books about pūrākau Māori, history, art/design and native plants. But when it comes to novels, it's audiobooks all the way. I listen to them while I'm working.
It's a crime against language to
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think books that jump around the timeline without telling you that they're doing it can be really grating. Similarly, I'm not usually interested in reading a prequel to a series that takes place before the series that I just read, because I know what's going to happen, and I've moved on.
The book character I identify with most
I've always felt an affinity for Alice from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. She gets stuck in a situation that is completely baffling to her, where everyone seems to be marching to the beat of a different drum, and she's rarely given adequate context for anything. To me, that's what it's like being on the autism spectrum and trying to follow social cues.
The book I wish would be adapted for film or TV
Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders should be adapted for film. I think it would be visually stunning. The serpent sequences could be animated and psychedelic, while the main story could be live action. The character of The Fool/Amber/Lord Golden is probably one of my favourites of all time – I think Hunter Schafer would ace that role.
Most underrated book
I don't think Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake gets enough love among the fantasy classics. Or maybe it gets the right amount, but Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia and the Harry Potter series are comparatively overrated. In any case, it's got a crumbling gothic castle, a catastrophic flood, parkour, cloaks, daggers, and a room full of cats, which in my mind makes it one of the greats.
Greatest New Zealand book
Wāhine Toa by Patricia Grace and Robyn Kahukiwa had a big impact on me, because it's empowering, grounding and explicit in its Māori feminism. It examines eight archetypes from pūrākau Māori, using bold art and gentle prose that together create a layered and comprehensive study. It's the first book about female divinity that I picked up, looked at the land I know, the women that raised me, and go 'yeah, that makes total sense'.
What I'm reading right now
On Audible I've got all the JP Pomare books lined up, because I like to binge crime and suspense. On Apple books I've got Performance by my e hoa David Coventry, which is about his experience of living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). On my desk is Treasures of Tāne: Plants of Ngāi Tahu by Rob Tipa, which I'm currently opening at random. And I've just ordered a fresh new copy of Māori Rafter & Tāniko Designs by WJ Philips from Oratia, which I'm looking forward to.
Ngā Kupenga a Nanny Rina by Qiane Mataa-Sipu illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White ($21, Penguin); A Ariā me te Atua o te Kūmara by Witi Ihimaera and illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White and translated by Hēni Jacob ($25, Penguin); and Ten Nosey Weka by Kate Preece, illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White ($22, Bateman Books) are all available to purchase through Unity Books.
