#Tumeke!

Author(s): Michael Petherick

NZ Middle Fiction | Sophisticated Picture Books | NZ Graphic Novels

Plans for the Newtoun community’s Waitangi Day celebrations are well under way. The Tape Orchestra’s practising like mad. Monty and Mr Steve Vibrant are designing a poster. Rishi’s trying to land Lil Yacht Shifty … and Ms Ropata’s juggling it all because everyone wants in. There’ll be curry and cake, kapa haka, halal sausages, foam blasters, the Naenae dirtman, and kiss-the-goat — if Constable Rutene can manage to chase one down. In the meantime, Dreadflock’s considering a blog, Briony’s Mum’s being a helicopter, and everyone’s eating a lot of lolly cake. In the boundary-riding tradition of the Annual project, Annual Ink’s latest title #Tumeke! brings you the lives, loves and larrikin spirit of an inner-city neighbourhood. The story is told through texts, Instagram posts, emails, fliers, committee minutes, posters, diary entries, blog posts, chatrooms, school homework, raps and the reliably bonkers community noticeboard. Stuffed with big personalities, surprising friendships and a little intrigue, this multimedia story brims with creativity and comedy, and everyday heartaches, too. Debut novelist Michael Petherick juggles a large cast and multiple story threads with panache, giving us a window on a vivid, warm-hearted community. A narrative — but not quite as we know it — for middle readers and anyone who loves to connect. 

PUBLICATION OCTOBER 2019


Lucy Bailey's Review: D-Flock is new to Newtoun School and to Newtoun community. She's got that new kid smell but that doesn't stop her making friends, starting a band (The Tape Orchestra), and jumping right into the organising committee of the Newtoun's first Waitangi Day celebration - Tumeke! 


Jonah's got the bands in hand, Rishi's breaking out musical shapes and trying to land Lil Yacht Shifty, while Monty is learning the CHICKEN-WING SUPLEX and the BOSTON CLAW from the Deadly Ice Dagger. School syndicate leader Anahera Ropata and local constable Piripi Rutene have their work cut out for them trying to wrangle goat kissing, kapahaka, curry stalls, vegetarians and the Naenae Dirt Man's big pile of dirt. Will anyone turn up on the day? Will EVERYONE turn up on the day? And just who is Galaxy Man?


We first met the Newtoun community on the Community Noticeboard in Annual 2 (also published by Annual Ink (Kate De Goldi and Susan Paris)) and #Tumeke! expands their world through emails, texts, library fines, book lists, poems, posters, minutes of meetings and other ephemera.


This is an absolutely brilliant book which captures the spirit of a close-knit multi-cultural urban suburb (which may bear a passing resemblance to Wellington's Newtown - we couldn't possibly comment) over the course of a few months. There are smaller stories woven between the larger ones: some stories are just bonkers, some will make you jump for a joy, and one in particular may well make you cry. You will never look at a library noticeboard the same way again.


Oh so highly recommended for age 8+ though probably most appreciated by 9-13 year olds. There is an awesome set of teaching notes as you would expect from Susan Paris, one of the editors of The School Journal.

30.00 NZD

Stock: 0


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Product Information

Winner - Best First Book Award  - 2020 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults

Finalist in the 2020 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults for the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction

‘Wildly inventive and a goatload of fun. A surprise triple reverse jackknife to the funny bone. I’ve never read anything like it. Tumeke!’ — Toby Morris

‘This is a piece of multimedia genius’ — Sapling

On ‘Community Noticeboard’ from Annual 2 Extends the idea of what a book can be, SO much fun! --April 

Debut novelist, Michael Petherick lives, writes, and plays music in Wellington, New Zealand. He wrote the popular 'Rhyme Ninja' poems in Annual, and first introduced readers to the seething world of Newtoun in Annual 2's prequel, 'Community Noticeboard'.

General Fields

  • : 9780994141576
  • : Massey University Press
  • : UNKNOWN
  • : 0.538
  • : October 2019
  • : ---length:- '25'width:- '20'units:- Centimeters
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Michael Petherick
  • : Paperback
  • : Michael Petherick, Paul Beavis, Marcus Thomas
  • : English
  • : 823.3
  • : 160