Matariki at St Francis

Cool morning working with filmmaker, writer, director and actor Vela Manusaute and his sons Rocky Manusaute and Hector Polataivao, filming girls from the Manurewa Marlins u13 Maidens. The girls are writing a book called Whakapau Kaha Mārika Mātou! We Go Hard! that shares their perspectives playing rugby league and it’s awesome to catch their voices…

Pretty amazed that Freestyle: the Israel Adesanya Story has made the shortlist of the 2023 NZ Children’s Book Awards in the non-fiction category. Never did I think I could reach this level but I’m grateful to have one of my books recognised this way. Not for the ego but because it means more people can…

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 received an awesome message from David Ackery, librarian at Waitakere College. “I finally got around to getting a copy of The Reading Tribe. What a great book! So unique, and so NZ. And so much material there for librarians to use to drive reading engagement. We made it into a  feature display at…

Today we launched 5 bilingual Fiji children’s books at Kedgley Intermediate. The books were written by Fijian young people with the help of their families. I love this project – it’s called Ask the Elders – because it creates content for Pacific and other young people that’s written by Pacific young people and their families….

I did a zoom sharing talk as part of the Reading Oceania conference recently. Whenever I’m blessed to do presentations I’m always proud to represent my home town Māngere, and let everyone know about the village that raised me.