Young Wellington-based author and illustrator Isaac du Toit has released his new book, Alice and the Strange Bird.

A nonfiction children’s picture book, it tells the story of seven-year-old Alice McKenzie, who saw and interacted with a strange bird on the beach at Martins Bay, an isolated part of the South Island in 1880. Some well-known New Zealanders believed that Alice may have been one of the last people to have seen a moa. What did she see?

Du Toit was inspired to write and illustrate this story after listening to a 1959 interview with Alice McKenzie, in which she described her encounter with the strange bird. That interview can be found on the Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision website.

Alice and the Strange Bird is available from: https://www.copypress.co.nz/shop/alice-and-the-strange-bird/

Alice and the Strange Bird
Written and illustrated by Isaac du Toit
Publication Date: January 2025
Picture Book | Paperback
ISBN 9780473730581
Publisher: Isaac du Toit

Home Page | Culture | Previous Story | Next Story

Copyright (c) Scoop Media