Janet – The Tusitala

Janet once lived in a little house in Ellerslie, Auckland in beautiful Aotearoa, the country the rest of the world knows as New Zealand. 

Janet lived with the McGoram family:

• Tom her Dad 
• Flora her Mum 
• John her brother 
• Dorothy her sister 
• Robin her brother
• Jim her brother 
• Mags her sister 
• Mackel her brother
• Rose her sister 
• Ian her brother and 
• Derek her baby brother.

Janet liked to read.

Janet would read anything with words on it:

• milk cartons 
• bottle tops 
• lolly wrappers 
• cereal boxes 
• comics 
• newspapers 
• magazines 
• and her dad’s favourite -The National Geographic.

However, what Janet liked to read best of all was BOOKS.

The family had an old wardrobe, painted bright green, which was kept in the back shed, where the wood for the kitchen and living room fires was kept.

Janet thought the back shed was the best place in the world, because the bright green wardrobe was there.

The bright green wardrobe was FULL of BOOKS.

• Big books 
• Little books
• Soft cover books
• Hard cover books 
• Pop-up books and 
• Colouring books.

When Flora wanted to find Janet, she would always know where to look for her first - in the back shed.  Janet would be there reading one of the beautiful books.

Janet had a friend called Eliana-Rose, who was a beautiful happy, smiling Samoan girl.  

All the family called Eliana-Rose, Ana it was their name for her because she was their special friend.

One day Janet told Ana, “When I grow up, I want to be a Tusitala.”

Ana laughed and said, ‘Tusitala is a Samoan word, do you know what it means?”

Janet smiled and said, “I know a Tusitala is a person who tells lots of stories.  I read it in a book, so I will be a Tusitala for the McGoram Family, when I grow up.” 

The best part of this story is Janet, is the Tusitala of the McGoram Family and this is a story for all of them, but especially for Eliana-Rose.