New Guinea

Picture Book

There is little doubt that Islands children make good subjects for pictures, whether walking, eating, talking, or merely just thinking, and the late Australian film-maker Boris Cook (tragically drowned in the Trobriand Islands of Papua in 1965, aged 34) well knew it.

Before his death he had taken a series of pictures of the daily life of a young Papuan girl in Port Moresby, and with an attractive young author, Patricia Johnson, planned a short, pictorial book about Maia’s first day at school. It has just been published by Angus and Robert son at $2.25, and is called “Maia goes to School”. It is suitable for kindergarten and lower primary.

Although the book's foreword gives a detailed description of Cook’s film-making ability it un fortunately fails to tell us what the connection is between his films and this book; we are left to presume that the pictures are stills from one of Cook’s films.

Kmcg.