38 JULY 2016 THIS MONTH’S LUCKY SUBSCRIBER, Kyra Angeline Lavina of Auckland, will receive all three books reviewed on this page. B O O K R E V I E W S All kids love fizzy softdrinks at some stage in their growing up, and while fizzy was a childhood treat for those of us rocketing towards middle age, for children today it is often a daily diet staple. For Kiwi kid Lizzy McNay, consuming copious quantities of fizzy pop is worth the threat of cavities, diabetes and heart disease…that is, until something grotesque happens that shows her just what she is doing to her insides. Written by award-winning New Zealand journalist Emma Vere-Jones (2014 winner of the Storylines Joy Cowley Award for her book Stan the Van Man), the book has been road-tested on children in local schools and at a book festival…and all ages are impressed. “While parents like the message the book contains about the dangers of sugary drinks, kids love the story’s humour, its energetic illustrations…and, let’s be honest, its farts,” Vere-Jones and Snushall say. Ideal for kids and grandkids, this book offers the chance to support local publishing and cater specifically for New Zealand humour…as Bookhead Press says, it’s a fantastical tale of friendship, flying machines, fizzy drinks and flatulence. This is, by all accounts, the book raw food enthusiasts have been waiting for...and with some validity. Olivia Scott founded her raw cakes company The Raw Kitchen in 2013 along Ponsonby Rd in Auckland, and has seen the launch of her Newmarket takeaway shop and cold-pressed juice brand shop Well+Good in the City Works Depot precinct this year. Her kitchens now offer an extensive range of raw breakfast cups, salads and wraps, snacks, sweet treats, nut milks and retail products…all hand-prepared fresh daily. You could say that her raw food movement has made an amazing impact on those following raw diets, and this book is a brilliant accompaniment to both new recruits and seasoned raw foodies looking for a delicious journey to wellness and joy. Filled with gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free recipes to nourish from breakfast to dinner (and everything inbetween, including entertaining), the book offers clear instructions that illustrate the simplicity of raw food that is full of colour and energy. There’s plenty of ingredient advice, health benefits, lifestyle information and a detox plan. The Heart Foundation is New Zealand’s heart charity, and we definitely need them. Heart disease is the country’s biggest killer, and the foundation’s Pacific Heartbeat programme aims to reduce the high rates of heart disease particularly in Pacific people. The foundation wants every New Zealander to live a long healthy life enjoying precious moments with their loved ones, so it has come up with its sixth free cookbook to do just that…and this will suit any home cook of any persuasion. With handy ways of replacing animal – based fats with plant-based ones, reducing saturation fat, salt and sugar intake, and introducing easy ways to flavour food, this small cookbook includes some mouthwatering recipes…pineapple and banana meringue pudding, coconut chicken slaw, eggplant curry with mackerel, stuffed green bananas, vegetable and bean sprout fritters, kumara salad, Otai (watermelon smoothie) and Koko Alaisa (cocoa rice), to name a few. Other free cookbooks cover cheap eats, vegetables, full o’ beans, affordable eats and kids in the kitchen. FIZZY POP: By Emma Vere-Jones and illustrated by Kate Snushall (Bookhead Press, $19.99, available now) THE RAW KITCHEN: By Olivia Scott (Penguin, $59.99, available now) FIZZY POP THE RAW KITCHEN PASIFIKA FLAVOURS PASIFIKA FLAVOURS: By the Heart Foundation of NZ. Available free from www.heartfoundation.org.nz
FT-Jul16
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