A Poorly Written “Classic”
Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider (New York: Penguin Books, August 5, 2025). Hardcover: $28: 192pp. ISBN: 978-0-143138-91-4.
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“Published for the first time on the Penguin Classics U.S. list, the bestselling” from 1987 “modern classic Māori coming-of-age novel that inspired a film” version in 2003. “Eight-year-old Kahu craves her great-grandfather’s love and attention. But he is focused on his duties as chief of a Māori tribe in Whangara, on the east coast of New Zealand—a tribe that claims descent from the legendary ‘whale rider.’ In every generation since the whale rider, a male has inherited the title of chief. But now there is no male heir—there’s only Kahu. She should be the next in line for the title, but her great-grandfather is blinded by tradition and sees no use for a girl. Kahu will not be ignored. And in her struggle, she has a unique ally: the whale rider himself, from whom she has inherited the ability to communicate with whales. Once that sacred gift is revealed, Kahu may be able to reestablish her people’s ancestral connections, earn her great-grandfather’s attention, and lead her tribe to a bold new future.”
The author, Witi (1944-), is from New Zealand, and is the first Maori author to be credited with a short-story collection (1972) or with a novel (1973). It is a bit confusing why he chose a girl as his heroine… But I guess a traditional male-hero narrative would not have been as interesting. Witi did not complete, but started a degree at the University of Auckland, before becoming a journalist, and eventually completing a BA in 1971. He has been married to a woman since 1970.
The foreword is a puffery that argues the representation of a native culture is uniquely inspirational when it becomes a bestseller (no matter what the content of a story might be). The introduction is also from a member of this culture who describes their childhood, and a sense of non-belonging. The echoing message is: “Kahu’s journey was my journey.” Few specifics are given for exactly what this author has in common with the tale of an ancient magical whale-rider. The benefit seems to be that after this novel sold well, this introducer was able to sell their own novel too. Between these two introductions, I have not learned anything new about the story itself, its author, or any other contextual elements front-matter is supposed to provide.
The first prologue chapter opens with a puffery of a magically pristine natural scene: this is a rhythmic/poetic approach that cannot be faulted.
The backmatter is a bit too light for a scholarly edition: only a section on “further reading”, and a brief dictionary of native words. The is a section called “Author Notes” for the first time explains a bit about the context for this book. The author read about whale-riders: he repeats these myths about the origin of “great chiefs” in these whale-riders. I have been researching the possibility of colonists ghostwriting myths for the people they colonized to classify them as “others” who “needed” to be colonized. So I was hoping to find concrete information on the origin of this whale-rider myth that was used to give power to specific “chiefs” in a hereditary line, instead of to whoever was qualified. One book cited is from 1944. Other variants are mentioned with titles or years for their origins. The next section is an autobiography that describes how he came to write and sell the novel.
As with the beforementioned “Austen” novel, the heroine is mentioned for the first time too far into this novel: in the first paragraph of chapter “Three”. As with “Austen”, there is immediate ridicule about this “girl” who dared to be born in the wrong gender. In chapter “Four” there are objections to her name, “Kahu”. The problem is that she is named after “Kahutia Te Rangi”, which is a “man’s name”, and there are objects that “naming a girl-child after the founder of our tribe was belittling Kahutia Te Rangi’s prestige.” When I first read the summary of this book, I assumed it is about a make rider, as “Kahu” is indeed masculine. This discussion about girls being inadequate, and so inferior that they belittle even “great” chiefs when named after them is common in books with female-protagonist that tend to be celebrated as feminist. I do not agree that spending most of a book offering derisive comments about the female gender is in the least empowering because in the end this said girl is in fact going to manage to break these negative assumptions. And while the opening pages are relatively detailed in their natural descriptions the remainder is written in the typical non-descriptive, empty-dialogue manner common to mainstream pop novels. I do not think this is a “classic”, as branding it as such means it will be taught in school, and the linguistic quality of this book is insufficient to teach students what good writing is.
--Pennsylvania Literary Journal: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-summer-2025/

The book is very different from the movie, but I loved reading the book, seeing the source material in its purest form. I can understand why this is such an important book for the culture. Kahu was unwanted by her grandfather, Koro, who needs a boy to fill his role as the leader of the Māori people, but she never gives up on her people or Koro no matter how many times he says “ she’s of no use to me.” The child is wise beyond her age, almost otherworldly, and shares a sacred bound with the whales her people consider a symbol of their tribe. As she grows up, Kahu exhibits many signs of a leader that her cousin and grandma acknowledge but her grandfather steadfastly ignores up until a mass whale stranding forces him to see her for who she is. Lovely book, deeply spiritual and intense, but also about family at its heart and how hard it can be to live in a family when you don’t fit the mold . This should be a required rendering novel for middle school.