Review: Lisa Carrington Chases a Champion

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Dame Lisa Carrington has released new picture books in te reo Māōri and te reo Pākehā that seek to inspire children to work hard to meet their goals. Tia Haira reviews the English edition here.

This story is about the amazingly talented Dame Lisa Carrington, one of my favourite athletes in the world and New Zealand’s most decorated Olympian of all time. It is told from her own perspective as a young girl and explains how her passion for paddling started.

The story starts with Lisa paddleboarding at her local surf club, her dad cheering her on from the shore. Her parents, brothers and coach are very supportive of her and encourage her to train hard. She looks up to surf club role models, and other great athletes. She is determined and trains hard, day in and day out.

One day she competes in a race and has a terrible accident in a wave that puts her off paddling. She becomes scared to return to the waves and doesn’t want to fail. Her mum suggests they go down to the river, where she hears the sounds of the birds singing and connects to her awa on a spiritual and emotional level. In te ao Māori we believe our awa is a place we can be cleansed, where we can reset and connect with our tīpuna. Carrington seems to have this experience.

Her parents continue to support her with words of affirmation and encouragement; “sometimes you just need to be kind to yourself and say, ‘my best is good enough’”. She returns to daily training and shows up even on the tough days. The next time she races she remembers, “her best is good enough”.  When she wins the race, and her success is celebrated by all her friends and whānau, she starts to dream big. 

My eight-year-old daughter summarised the plot by saying;

This pukapuka is about Lisa, who trains for a long, long time and then she slipped on a wave and didn’t play for a little bit. But then she listened to her mum and went to practice every day and she practised with her brother and her dog. Then one day she did a race, and she was at the front and in the end she won and they celebrated her win into the night.

The book is colourful and fun, with illustrations by Scott Pearson that worked well with the story. The language used would appeal to young people. There were parts that were fun and parts that were a bit more serious, which I think is the reality of playing sport competitively. I think this story will help young readers who aspire to excel in their sport understand that there will be challenges along the way. Continuing to strive for their goals and doing their best will get them the results they want.

The use of te reo Māori throughout the book allows the reader to understand that Lisa and her whānau identify as Māori. References to the maramataka (the lunar calendar, or almanac) throughout were special and unique. As whānau Māori this allowed us a more intimate connection to the characters and the story. In many ways, this book describes what it is like to be whānau Māori—how important our environment is to us, the importance of whānau and manaakitanga (caring for each other). An awesome book written by an incredibly talented and humble wahine Māori.

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