Christchurch – Our underground story

Christchurch: Our underground story is a "lift-the-flaps" picture book with a difference. It has the sturdy thick board pages and colourful illustrations you'd expect to find in other books of this kind but the topic is a bit less straightforward than teaching simple colours or counting.

It's about infrastructure, which is not a particularly thrilling word to most kids (or adults). But the ongoing maintenance and repair of quake-damaged infrastructure has a daily impact on Cantabrians, so thrilling or not, it's probably something we should all pay a bit of attention to.

This is one of the reasons for the book as it attempts to open our eyes to exactly what all those coned-off holes in the ground, detours and diggers are in aid of.

It's a challenging topic but SCIRT Civil Structural Engineer Phil Wilkins and Chemical Engineer/illustrator Martin Coates have brought their considerable experience to bear in producing a really unique and distinctly Cantabrian book.

Christchurch: Our underground story is sort of a "How Stuff Works" for infrastructure, filled as it is with diagrammatic drawings of how this pipe connects to that one connects to the next one, and the methods by which they're maintained and repaired. By lifting the flaps you can see the processes and equipment underneath, and it's all accompanied by explanations of what things are called and what their purpose is. It's the kind of book that invites inquisitive kids to spend a lot of time absorbed on each page... and it's pretty educational for adults too.

The illustrations make it clear that this book is about Christchurch with local landmarks and little touches like flowers poking out of road cones that place it very much in the Garden City.

Proceeds from the sale of the book go to Ronald McDonald House which provides accommodation for families who, because they have a sick child in hospital, have to travel from out of town.

The book can be ordered now with purchased copies able to be picked up at a book launch event at the Margaret Mahy Family Playground on Saturday 25 February. You can also place a hold on a library copy.

Further reading

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