I'm thrilled our book RURU Night Hunter has made it to the final round of the SCBWI Crystal Kite Awards! It is such an honour to be selected by your peers at the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).

​PEKAPEKA Secret Forest Bat is zip, zap, zooming into bookstores this week!
I'm so grateful to everyone who helped in bringing PEKAPEKA to life:
The Illustrations by Ned Barraud are AMAZING (some of my favourites below).
Published by Scholastic NZ.
Designed by Vida Kelly.
Thank you also to my wonderful critique buddies (you know who you are) and my agent Frances Plumpton.

I'm absolutely delighted that our book RURU, Night Hunter is a finalist in the Elsie Locke Award for non-fiction! It is such an honour to be selected at this level and I'm most grateful to the all the people who have helped RURU on its journey so far - thank you to the team at Scholastic, Vida Kelly, Frances Plumpton, my writer friends and critique buddies.

This week I visited Te Uho o te Nikau Primary School in Flatbush, Auckland during their Book Week. I had a great day reading RURU, Night Hunter and TUATARA, A living Treasure and speaking about our special native species with many enthusiastic tamariki in year 1-3 classes. Here's some photos: 

Absolutely delighted that Ruru, Night Hunter has been selected by the NZ Listener as a best book for children and young adults in 2024! There are so many incredible pukapuka in this list from both Aotearoa and overseas, including Ned Barruad's wonderful book, Tasting with Your Feet. I'm so happy to see Ruru included - thank you Ann Packer and the NZ Listener!

​It was such an honour to be a finalist in this year's Book Awards.
The day started with BooksAlive in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, where I was thrilled to meet some of the other finalists as well as thousands of book-loving tamariki and rangatahi. Ned Barraud and I read our book Tuatara, A Living Treasure to a packed auditorium at the National Library, followed by a joint workshop: Writing and Illustrating Nature. It was the first time we'd presented together (and also the first time we'd met in real life) so it was a pretty special occasion all round!
After BooksAlive, Scholastic NZ and the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ) put on drinks and nibbles at the Backbencher. I really appreciated this opportunity to meet and chat with more finalists, publishers, and others involved in the industry in a relaxed setting before the big event ... the awards ceremony at Pipitea Marae. Da dum, da dum, da dum.
As a first timer at the awards, I felt a little starstruck being in a room filled with so many of my kidlit heroes. What ensued was a warm and wonderful evening, full of joy and laughter, and a few tears – a fitting celebration of children's literature in Aotearoa. It was a fabulous event to be part of and I was so grateful to be included. It was evident that many people had put in months of hard work behind the scenes – the judges, organisers, sponsors, the NZCYA Trust, and others – what a special community we have! 
Photo by Vijay Paul (via NZ Book Awards Trust)

RURU has swooped into bookstores all over Aotearoa!

Absolutely thrilled that TUATARA has been selected as a finalist in the The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults! There's a stellar line-up in all categories and it is such an honour to be included! Check out all the wonderful pukapuka here: New Zealand Book Awards ​