Ōtara Heroes

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 did a writing workshop with students at Southern Cross Campus in Mangere. Here’s what some of the students thought about our time together: “I enjoyed learning the skill of using the newspaper into making a whole interesting story.” “It was fun making our own stories and plays because ours was funny and relatable.”…

Great day launching my new book about Yvette Williams in two communities: in Howick where Yvettte lived, with her family, and in Otara where Chad Robertson (illustrator) and I live and work, with our families.

I’ve spent the last two days in Napier and Hastings encouraging young people to believe in themselves and find out who they are  through reading. Finished at Hastings Boys’ High School whose motto is Ākina. This motto was given to them by local iwi and is a call to paddlers who may be losing energy…

Would you like some free books with that bread and milk? During the COVID lockdown schools and libraries were closed and many of our young people lost access to books. I reached out to some of the Auckland Local Boards and other organisations to sponsor book packs – home libraries – so our youth would…

Much alofa to all those parents who make the tough choice to move their families to places so different to where they’ve come from, just so their children can have amazing futures. This is Sola who attends Nelson Girls College. We worked on a book together in Auckland with other Tuvaluan young people. Now she’s…