Billy and Old Smoko

✍ Scribed by Lasenby, Jack

• Book ID: 109117442
• Publisher: Random House New Zealand
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 190 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9781775531197

✦ Synopsis

Very funny, must-read-aloud yarn for junior readers about the fantastical adventures of a talking horse and a boy looking for his mother. Billy wakes one morning to find his mother gone and the house in control of a strange woman burning the porridge. According to Billy, his father has gone all lackadaisical. So it's Old Smoko, a well-spoken Clydesdale farm-horse, who takes Billy to school each day and teaches him to read. Together Billy and Old Smoko go in search of Billy's real mum under the Kaimai Ranges, out the back of Waharoa. They meet a queen disguised as the Rawleighs Man, cannibal eels and man-eating Captain Cookers, but even they cannot prevail against a boy and his horse, especially when they have both read the mythology section of the School Journal. Billy learns the secret of Mount Te Aroha, hears the ancient Maori story of Snow White, and sees how Auckland got its electricity. He goes pig hunting, plays footy, discovers roast pork and apple sauce...