Ashika Hira
“Reading gives you a chance to step out of your own skin and into the characters’.
You can travel to so many places while being wrapped up in a comfy blanket sitting on your couch – and you can leave your worries behind. I don’t need any excuse to read, but when I’m studying and I need a break I often turn to fiction. I especially love books with little tricks and secrets, I always enjoy trying to figure them out before they’re revealed, which adds an extra challenge that I find stimulating.
Recently, through Hooked on NZ Books, I read Blitzkrieg and Spycraft, the first two books in the Katipo Joe series. Written by New Zealand author Brian Falkner, the series is set during World War 2 and is about a British-Kiwi spy called Joseph St. George. While, usually, I don’t read or enjoy novels about war, these two books surprised me. After finishing the first, I was excited to find there was a second and that it was also available to read through Hooked on NZ Books. I thought the second was even better than the first and I now find myself eagerly awaiting a third!
Through school, I’ve learnt to pay close attention to what I read, and I am in the habit of thinking about what the author's purpose is and what the characters portray. When reviewing books, I always have a little notebook next to me so that I can jot down any important information, like dialogue, important bits of plot or even page numbers where I think there is some good content that I can mention in my review.
While I don’t think there is much difference in reading a book by a New Zealand author compared to any other author, I do think some New Zealand writing might feel more culturally relatable to New Zealand readers. Authors like Des Hunt, whose books I have read in the past, set their books in places that are very identifiably New Zealand. I think New Zealanders can really connect with books like this. When you’ve been somewhere before, I think you can more accurately imagine the environment in which a story takes place.”
Ashika Hira is a high school student and reviewer for Read NZ Te Pou Muramura’s Hooked on NZ Books programme.