Winner - NZ Children's Picture Book of the Year 2000
Winner - NZ Children's Book of the Year 2000
Spectrum Print Award - Best Use of Illustration in a New Zealand Book 2000
Listed as a Notable Book of the Year by the NZ Children's Book Foundation.

It is 1798 when Jack Bull Esq. arrives in Aotearoa to find a land strong in spirit and tradition. The Maori, the people of the land, are eager to have his iron pots, nails and blankets to enhance their daily life. But Jack's arrival is followed by more and more people from Europe. To the Maori, the land is their Earth Mother, Papatuanuku, who gives life to all things. However, the settlers pressure the Maori to give up their land to build farms and towns, and Papatuanuku is divided and sold. Tension over the loss of tribal land eventually leads to the Land Wars of the 1860's

As in the traditional rhyme, the house, the malt, the rat, the cat, the dog, the cow with the crumpled horn, the maiden all forlorn, the man all tattered and torn and the others help to tell Jack's story