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.
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.
On Thursday I attended an event called the May Meet Up at the Mangere Arts Centre. It was a gathering of artists and people with dreams from Mangere-Otahuhu and was such an inspiring evening. We heard about these awesome projects that are happening in our community and country like: Anonymouz creating a soundtrack to help blind people…
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…
Awesome day today with Jono Soo Choon and the team who came to our school and performed the Samoan legend The Eel and Sina. We hosted the show and had children from Rongomai Primary come up and see the show too. It’s really important for Pacific children to see Pacific stories on stage so they…
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.
It was a real blessing to be invited to participate in this year’s Auckland Writers Festival. I took a writing workshop and did two talks. When I taught English at Tangaroa College, I used to bring my students to this festival. I remember thinking one time, “Man it would be cool to be part of…
Cook Islands Heroes is the 4th book in the Pasifika Heroes series and the book won a Storylines Notable Books Award today. Awards are important for a self-publishing writer like me because they help people to trust the work. Two other books received special mention: Powering Up with Joseph Parker and Go Fiji Go. I think this is so awesome…
Today Reading Warrior launched a new book in the Reading Warriors series of biographies. This is the story of the All Blacks captain, Kieran Read. My favourite anecdote from the book comes from when Kieran was in year 12. He was really thin and was considering whether to focus on cricket or rugby. His rugby…
