The House That Jack Built

"The House that Jack Built is a book with two strands. The main rhythmic text, based on the well-known rhyme, tells the story of Jack Bull, who travels to New Zealand from London as a new settler in 1798. "The detailed contemporary illustrations ...tell the story from a Maori perspective - beginning with the myth of creation: Papatuanuku the earth mother, Ranginui the sky father and their children as guardians of the land. As the story goes on and Jack's house grows, Papatuanuku is shown in the illustrations to weaken and fade.

Winner of New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards: Picture Book 2011
Winner of New Zealand Post Book Awards: Book of the Year 2000
Short-listed for Nielsen BookData New Zealand Booksellers' Choice Award 2000

"There is pleasure to be found at many levels in this splendid book…"

"I feel that I can confidently predict that we won’t ever find a more beautiful book that will keep their interest for years to come as they discover the different layers within the book…This is a really important book with a very important story."

"The old nursery rhyme is brought brilliantly to life in a colonial setting, based on Bishop’s own whakapapa, wrapping indigenous myth in both word and pattern around traditional English text, drawing parallels between animals of myth and those brought by the Pakeha"

Gavin Bishop has written and illustrated several award-winning children's books. He has won the LIANZA Russell Clark Award for Illustration four times. Gavin lives in Christchurch, New Zealand.

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