It’s mental health month in Aotearoa and I’m thinking about mental strength as I read the children’s book, “The White Mouse”, with my daughter. It’s the story of Kiwi nurse, reporter and spy, Nancy Wake. In our first reading we learned that Nancy’s husband was forced to join the French army to defend France from…
May is Mental Health Month in New Zealand and such an awesome theme to focus on. I’ve just started reading a book called “The White Mouse” with my daughter. It’s about Nancy Wake, a Kiwi nurse, reporter, rebel and spy who fought with the French Resistance during WW2. This is an inspirational lady, with incredible…
We’re nearly halfway through term one of the school year and it’s a good time to remind the young people we live and work with, and ourselves, that being successful isn’t about talent or gifts. It’s about learning, working with the right people and hard work. Kemba Walker is a basketball player. Kemba led his…
My youngest daughter enrolled in Auckland Libraries’ summer reading program back in early December. We started off well, reading every day for 20 minutes as a whole family 🙂 But then Christmas came and New Years and holidays away and we stopped reading as a family for a while. I’ve just finished reading two books…
Hey guys sorry about that last post – I thought I found a snazzy way to share a link but it came out all wrong! Anyway, happy new year to everyone. I started an open group on Facebook called The Reading Tribe. It’s a place where we can share the love of reading, whether it’s books,…
Do you guys sometimes get Impostor Syndrome? That’s that feeling you get when you start doubting yourself, about whether you can really do something and you’re just waiting for someone to catch you out and say “Faker!” To be honest, I get these thoughts sometimes when it comes to writing. I say things like this to…
Tonight I went to watch Rosalina by the Sau e Siva Creatives at Mangere Arts Centre. The guys adapted the story from a legend in my book, Samoan Heroes. It’s pretty cool seeing the way they took the story from off the page and brought it to life on stage with a celebration of Samoan culture,…
I visited Papakura Intermediate today and it was so awesome sharing stories with these talented young people, showing them that reading can change people’s lives … even a book about rocks! And then to hear that the kids took books about rocks out from the library afterwards – that’s pretty cool.
Today I visited Wesley College and spoke to the students about dreaming big and how reading helps us discover amazing things about ourselves we never knew before.
Hey guys today I want to talk about something important we can learn from Goosebumps, Lani Wendt Young and the Tongan rugby league team. I went with my family to see the film Goosebumps 2 today. The effects were cool, the story was interesting and it featured my favourite Goosebumps villain, Slappy. But there was…
Some people think the only place you’ll see women at a racetrack is dressed in bikinis, waving start flags and spraying champagne on the winners. You won’t find Jodie Donovan doing any of that. She’s been drifting for more than a decade and is one of the best female drifters in the world. Jodie rode…
I had an incredible week in Raro this week. The Cook Islands Ministry of Education invited me to come and share in their literacy week celebrations. I visited lots of schools on Raro, talking to young people, and being inspired by them. This photo comes form a writing workshop I did with children at Nukutere…
This week I launched a new book Fanene Peter Maivia: Son of Samoa. It’s the first in a new series called Reading Legends. These are picture biographies of legendary Kiwi and Pasifika heroes.
Today I had an amazing experience at Kelston Boys High School in Auckland. I was asked to speak to two classes of year 13 boys about the awesomeness of reading. I started with my pepeha – “Tuhituhia te kite, kia marama rawa ki nga papa …” and I saw one of the boys sit…
Have you heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge, the Level Up Challenge and the Kiki Challenge? Today I helped Kedgley Intermediate launch the Reading Chain Challenge. Children who sign up for it receive spot prizes along the way and special prizes when they’ve read 7 books. They’re also encouraged to tag 3 other people (family…
I’m working on a new book in the Pasifika Heroes series – Tokelau Heroes. Today my students performed a play about Lata, a legendary Tokelau hero. It was a show for children and was performed at Vodafone Events Centre in Manukau.
It’s Cook Islands Language Week and we’re celebrating by sharing a little about some of the inspirational people featured in my book Cook Islands Heroes. The aim of this book is to inspire Kuki Airani young people and anyone else who loves reading stories of people who overcame great challenges to achieve their goals in life. Today’s…
It’s Cook Islands Language Week and we’re celebrating by sharing a little about some of the inspirational people featured in my book Cook Islands Heroes. The aim of this book is to inspire Kuki Airani young people and anyone else who loves reading stories of people who overcame great challenges to achieve their goals in life. Today’s…
It’s Cook Islands Language Week and we’re celebrating by sharing a little about some of the inspirational Cook Islanders featured in my book Cook Islands Heroes. The aim of this book is to inspire Kuki Airani young people and anyone else who loves reading stories of people who overcame great challenges to achieve their goals in life….
It’s Cook Islands Language Week and we’re celebrating by sharing a little about some of the inspirational Cook Islanders featured in my book Cook Islands Heroes. The aim of this book is to inspire Kuki Airani young people and anyone else who loves reading stories of people who overcame great challenges to achieve their goals in…
It’s Kuki Airani (Cook Island) Language Week and to celebrate I’m going to share some stories with you from my book Cook Islands Heroes. To start our week, have you heard about the awesome conservation work of former Cook Islands and Kiwi rugby league player, Kevin Iro? Kevin played for the Warriors and Manly in…
Cool evening being interviewed by Fatima Lui as one of her “Live Talk” subjects. Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/livetalksnz/videos/1096004440555461/
Today I shared about how reading changes people’s lives with children at Grey Lynn Primary School.
I was invited to attend the World Final of the Kids Lit Quiz today. Canberra Grammar (Australia) won the final. In the evening we had a dinner and I sat with one of the Australian families. The dad went to buy us a drink and I began talking with the mum. “What kinds of…
So awesome today that I got to speak to children at Our Lady Star of the Sea School. This week is the school’s Book Week and they have lots of activities happening to promote reading. That’s a great school man!
Today I spent a morning at Manurewa High School with Michel Mulipola, talking about the power of storytelling.
This week I spent time with Year 6 students at Southern Cross Junior Campus in Mangere. We worked on a project called Pasifika Heroes in Homes, set up by school social worker, Tupou Evans. The children chose heroes from the Pasifika Heroes books and wrote about how these heroes inspire them. It’s really exciting to…
I spent today at a Boys and Reading workshop at the National Library. It was awesome to see boys inspired by books and to share exciting ideas with like minded friends: Linda, Henry and Dave from Books in Homes and the team from the NZ Book Council.
In the NBA there are a few megastar players like LeBron James, Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. The kinds of players that every team wants and will do all that they can to keep. And then there are players like Ish Smith of the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons are the 11th team that…
Hey everyone, we’re well into 2018 and I wonder how we are all doing with the goals and dreams we have for this year. I read, saw and heard lots of inspiring stories of achievement during the summer and I want to share some of them with you as an encouragement to keep going with…
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