A new children's picture book series is giving Sumner a role that is usually reserved for bigger tourism campaigns: it is turning a familiar Christchurch suburb into a place children can recognise in a national story. Daisy and Gus, created by Christchurch broadcaster Adam Percival with Matt Wild, has launched across New Zealand with a deliberately local setting. The first book, Don't Feed the Seagulls, uses the kind of beach outing many Canterbury families know well.

The value of the story is not only that a local broadcaster has made a children's book. It is that the project is trying to put everyday New Zealand family life into a format usually dominated by overseas settings and voices. Percival has said the idea came from looking at what his own children watched and read, and wanting stories with a stronger New Zealand flavour.

Sumner is a practical choice because it gives the series a visual and emotional anchor. It has the beach, village scale, hills, sea air and bird life needed for simple picture-book conflict. It is also specific enough to be recognisable without excluding readers from outside Christchurch. A child in Auckland, Dunedin or Hamilton does not need to know every Sumner landmark to understand a seagull ambush at the beach.

The creative team behind the project gives it another layer. Beth Harvey, an animation director who has worked on Bluey, helped develop the characters after Percival and Wild approached her. That connection will interest parents because Bluey has become a shorthand for warm, family-centred storytelling that respects both children and adults.

The series also has a local tourism implication. Percival has spoken about future books featuring recognisable Christchurch landmarks, including Sumner, the new stadium, trams, the gondola, mountains and the beach. If the books endure, they could become a soft invitation for families to visit the places children have read about.

If Daisy and Gus succeeds, Sumner will not just be a backdrop. It will become part of the way a new group of young readers imagines Christchurch.