What a star Olly Hills is in his new book Cicadas of New Zealand! At 10 years of age he may well become NZ’s own “Gerry Durrell” with his clear and precise descriptions of an insect many of us know little about.
Wonderful photos, exact diagrams and areas of location are all presented very clearly and make for fascinating reading and enjoyment.
It was a thrill for the Ngai Tahu in me to discover there is a Murihiku Cicada in our southern land too! Murihiku is the name of our family marae and for the southern part of Te Wai Pounamu.
There is also a delightful “bio” about Olly and his mother Tara – it is special to see how interest and enquiry have been nourished and encouraged.
The book is a wonderful resource for students and teachers and parents and is engaging reading for everyone. It may well be the beginning of a bright future for Olly in the zoological world of Science.
Wow. We've just obtained an incredible book with an inspiring story behind it. If you're interested in NZ's natural history you need to see this book - Cicadas of New Zealand. It's a well-written, informative and excellently-designed 115 page guide to the 42 named species of these large insects found in New Zealand. Information about our cicadas is mostly found in various scientific papers published over the last 50 years. Author Olly Hills has distilled much of this information to produce this beautifully illustrated guide that will appeal to readers of all ages.
What makes this book even more interesting is the fact that Olly Hills is 10 years old. He is an ardent naturalist who, with the help of his mother Tara, has researched cicada information and carried out extensive fieldwork and photography to produce a high-quality self-published book.
South Canterbury Museum Director Philip, a keen cicada fan since the 1980s, cannot recommend this book highly enough. Give your eyes and mind a treat, go and purchase this book and support this budding scientific talent.
Olly Hills couldn't find a field guide to native New Zealand cicadas, so he decided to fill the gap. Angela Cuming caught up with the young biologist to talk about his first book...
I simply love this book. I wish it had been around when i was a child but i'm making up for lost time and now able to easily id the various cicadas we come across - i keep the book in my handbag! Olly's love for cicadas shines through the excellent details including clear ID photos and useful ecological data, making it, in my opinion, a perfect natural history handbook.
Such a good and useful book, with great photos and maps of where different cicada species are found.