Eight year old Hōhepa is singing at the top of his lungs. “He hōnore, he korōria!” He is on his way home from school with his big sister, Hine, through forest near their home. Trying to hear something in the bushes, and fed up of her little brother’s singing voice, she tells him so.

Upset at her teasing, Hōhepa dashes off the track and into the bush, exactly what māmā had told them not to do. Hine races after him only to see him snatched up by a group of men clothed in shiny black feathered cloaks, and brandishing taiaha and patu. When she shouts for them to leave him alone, they turn as one to Hine. Where their eyes should be are gaping black sockets.

This is the first of the horrors Hine must face in her desperate search to get Hōhepa back. They have entered through an invisible portal to an alternate universe – a Māori spirit realm. Both children encounter magical beasts and people on their quest to find each other and get home.

Hine meets Hine te iwaiwa living in a traditional Māori pa (that we would see as ruins in our world). She is grieving the loss of the men from her village. A warrior called Kae visited and impressed them, inviting them to his own village. They never returned. Hine te iwaiwa is a powerful wāhine however and vows to help Hine find her brother. Living alongside Hine te iwaiwa, is Mahuika, a mighty kuia made of fire.

Meanwhile, Hōhepa is caged alongside a plethora of animals and birds, all to be turned into an army by Kae who is in fact an evil sorcerer using viscious black magic. Hōhepa too soon finds allies – a talking kurī and a full grown moa.

As their separate quests unfold in front of them, both children experience the richness of animal and bird life in this ancient alternate universe. Hine especially realises how little she knows of her pepeha, ancestors or own mihi. Her parents have never taught her, and she admits she wasn’t really interested. She is soon to learn – the hard way.

This land’s forests are full of the patupaiarehe – brave and fierce fairy warriors when their forest home and animals are threatened. There are kea armies, serious about their lands and any trespassers who dare venture into it. Animals too are drawn up into the battle between good and evil. Some are as they should be, but many have morphed into terrible creatures with enlarged fangs, claws and beaks.

Battle worn and weary, the siblings despair at seeing each other again. Kae seems to be invincible, and is now threatening the real world. How will they ever stop him?

Think of your favourite action stories. Maybe a quest thrown down for children to face and complete with all manner of evils and obstacles. Think of magical creatures, both good and evil and people with amazing superpowers. Imagine the bonds of family back through generations of wisdom and love. Add skeleton warriors, multiple taniwha the size of a bus and Kea who make their own armour, and you are getting close to Hine and the Tohunga Portal.

Now add a rich backdrop of Māoritanga and a strong presence of te reo, to ground this adventure in Aotearoa, and you have a fast-paced, thrilling battle to not only save an ancient world from a vicious spirit warrior, but prevent him from attacking our own.

Hine and the Tohunga Portal would make a great Read Aloud for Year 6 students and up, with all the topics that could turn into their own studies – NZ flora and fauna, extinct native birds, Māori legends, traditional Māori foods, and even the Treaty of Waitangi.

Te reo is strong in this novel, but in such a way that even if you don’t know much te reo yourself, you are learning it as you are reading. 

Author – Ataria Sharman

Age – 10+

(2021, Huia, NZ, Adventure, Action, Historical, Family, Animals, Fantasy, Murder, NZ, New Zealand, Aotearoa, Māoritanga, te reo, Māori Legends, Battle, Armies, Moa, Thrilling, Good vs Evil, Quest, Siblings, Patupaiarehe)