Para Pūkeko 1: Para Pūkeko and the Stupid Time Thingy
  • Published: 30 May 2023
  • ISBN: 9781776958054
  • Imprint: Puffin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 96
  • RRP: $21.00

Para Pūkeko 1: Para Pūkeko and the Stupid Time Thingy

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Just how much trouble can come about when a time machine falls into the claws of a scavenging swamp hen? Find out in the first book of this brilliant comic series rampaging all over New Zealand's timeline...

A pūkeko and a tuatara cause time-travelling chaos in this hilarious graphic novel for readers six years and older, by comic artist Book Ruffell.

A dump-diving swamp hen.
A wisecracking tuatara.
A big red button.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

Para is a pūkeko with an insatiable appetite for junk food and poor impulse control. One day, while scavenging for treats in a new pile of rubbish at the dump, she discovers* a mysterious machine with a big red button just begging to be pressed. In a flash of blue light, Para is sent back 200 million years, and rescues** Heahea, a trashbag tuatara, moments before an asteroid hits.

All Para wants is to get back to the present and her dirty old dump, but it's not so easy with Heahea along for the ride. The hapless duo keep crash-landing into different time periods and causing chaos and carnage wherever they go.

Full of hilarity, with a dash of danger and a fun historical angle, this is the perfect book for young readers who like their comics irreverent and served up with lots of laughs.

*chokes on
**entirely by accident

Book 2 in the Para Pūkeko series coming soon!
  • Published: 30 May 2023
  • ISBN: 9781776958054
  • Imprint: Puffin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 96
  • RRP: $21.00
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About the author

Sam (Book) Ruffell

Book Ruffell, aka Sam Ruffell, has been writing for over a decade and illustrating for much longer. He has illustrated picture books for clients in New Zealand and North America alongside producing his own comics and graphic novels. Para Pukeko and the Stupid Time Thingy is the first volume in a series of hilarious comic novels for children featuring the time-disrupting antics of a goofy pūkeko and a wisecracking tuatara. Book’s aim is to inspire and entertain Kiwi kids with funny and clever books set in and about Aotearoa – the kind of books he always wished for when he was growing up.

portrait photo of Sam (Book) Ruffell

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Get creative with Para the pūkeko and Heahea the tuatara!

Get creative with Para the pūkeko and Heahea the tuatara with these colouring in sheets from Book Ruffle's graphic novel Para Pūkeko!