29 April 2009 - Award winning author, Joy Cowley, has teamed up with Bible Society to write the remarkable story of Tarore.

In 1835, Bible Society published 100 copies of the New Testament book of Luke in Maori. In 1836, missionaries gave a copy to a young Maori girl, Tarore, at a mission school near Matamata.

Tarore's subsequent acceptance of the Christian faith and then her murder at a young age had a great impact upon the Maori people with many coming to faith as a result.

The Tarore story will be published and distributed free to 140,000 primary school children.

The book will be illustrated using a series of eighteen paintings depicting the story created by Waipawa artist, Mary Glover Bibby, in the 1920s.