He’s most well-known for his best-selling pre-school books such as The Wheels on the Bus and The Great Kiwi ABC Book, as well as his colourful and humorous retellings of of the legends of Māui. His award-winning titles span high–brow to low–brow and every brow in between, from his illustrated biography Much Ado About Shakespeare, to the hilarious hijinks of pussycats in planes in Paris in his Flying Furballs series. Poetry allowed me to think less about grammatical structure and the amount of words and more about how I could bend words to my advantage, by investigating how groups of words sound together to paint a picture.ĭonovan Bixley is one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed picture book creators with over 120 books published in 31 countries. The problem that I had always had with writing was not the actual ideas and content, it was the physical writing and having a link between what I was thinking (which goes 100 miles an hour) to what I was writing (which was much, much slower). In the last few years I went from disliking writing quite strongly to enjoying it very much. That then brought me into the world of writing. The first writing I enjoyed was poetry, which my many teachers at my old school, Hukanui School, made me do all the time.

I am very passionate about that and look forward to the next season.

I have also developed an interest in waterpolo earlier this year. I am working towards Grade 5 for practical trumpet and music theory. My many hobbies include Irish dancing, reading, and trumpet, which have all become very important to me. I live with my sister (Abby), my mum (Kate) and my dad (David). I am 11 years old, turning 12 in December. My name is Daniel, I was born in Hamilton and still live here. It is set in the city of York, where Gareth went to University. Brasswitch and Bot is Gareth’s third novel and the first in the Rise of the Remarkables series. His first novel, The Traitor and the Thief, a rip-roaring young adult Steampunk adventure, won the 2016 Storylines Tessa Duder Award, the 2018 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Youth Novel, a 2018 Storylines Notable Book Award and was a finalist in two categories at The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. His second novel, The Clockill and the Thief was released in August 2019 and won a Sir Julius Vogel award for best youth novel. He has a goldfish called Luna, a dog called Tonks and is certain his letter from Hogwarts has been lost in the post. He currently resides in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand where he runs two independent bookshops, Wardini Books and Wardini Books Napier with his wife Louise. He basically likes jobs where you get to wear really cool hats.

He has worked as a Royal Marine Commando, Police Officer, Evil Magician and Zombie. The Great Wardini, is a magician, hypnotist, storyteller, bookseller and author.

A Lion in the Meadow by Margaret Mahy