Storytelling is powerful

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…

These are some of the children I’ve been working with to write a Chinese story teaching children what to do in a thunderstorm. They are members of the New Zealand Multicultural Arts and Sports Center, a group dedicated to the cultural and educational development of young people from the age of three. They provide free…

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…

Havelock North Intermediate. My question to the kids: what did you learn from my talk today? Answers: “We can publish books at our age.” “If my work gets rejected – publish it myself.” “My voice is powerful!” “A book is a dream that you hold in your hands.”

I’ve been working with an awesome group of Niue young people and their families at Favona Primary School in Māngere. This week we launched a collection of their writing in Vagahau Niue and English to celebrate Niue Language Week. I love how storytelling brings generations together. Check out the book here: https://readingwarrior.com/product/ko-au-ko-e-tama-niue/

I’m working on a children’s book about UFC champion Israel Adesanya. The illustrator is the amazing Ant Sang and you can see more of Ant’s work here: http://www.antsang.co.nz/. This is a sneak peek from the drafting stage, can’t wait to see the final artwork!