Des Hunt is a New Zealand author. He was a teacher, and now writes books for children with strong themes about nature, science and technology. I first heard about Des Hunt when I was teaching on the Coromandel, where Des also has taught and lives, and many parents and teachers talked about how great his books are and what wonderful books they are to get boys reading. Go to Des Hunt's web page to find out more about him.
For Christmas 2012 I bought one of Des' books for my young cousin Sam as a present. This Christmas I got him The Peco Incident. I started reading the first few pages as I wrapped Sam's present and then decided that the concept of the book was quite engaging and that I wanted to read it too, and that it would be a great book to read to my class as well.
So here is the front cover and blurb on the back cover of The Peco Incident:
This book was quite engaging from the start. Danny's cousin Nick arrives from the North Island to stay with Danny and his mum and dad near the albatross colony near Dunedin. Danny doesn't know Nick too well, and Nick is rather a handful due to having ADHD.
What follows is an adventure tale that would be a New Zealander's worst nightmare - an eco-terrorist who is hell bent on destroying New Zealand's pride and joy - its native birds - to prove a warped idea against factory farming of poultry.
I'm going to read this to my class in 2014 because it brings up a lot of really important themes that I think are important:
- native birds
- factory farming of poultry
- bio-security
- eco-terrorism
- ethical protesting
- cruelty to animals
- safety of animals
I really enjoyed this book, and I am an adult. It brought up a lot of ethical questions as I read it and also gave me further insight into our bird species of New Zealand (a favourite topic I like to teach). I think it is a book that people of all ages would enjoy, but especially boys aged 11+ could independently read and hook into this book and enjoy the adventure aspect of it.
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