Wesley College

To celebrate Olympics year I asked Kiwi Olympians and Paralympians to write letters to young people sharing what they learned about “success” from their experiences in Tokyo. Then I got each letter illustrated by a different Kiwi children’s book illustrator and put them together in this new work, Standing In My Own Shoes. There’s letters…

(Ode To An(often dis)Regarded Audience) Earlier this year I started a writers club at Tupu Youth Library in Ōtara. It’s a place young people can come and just write without worrying that their writing will be judged or “marked”. This evening we launched a book of some of the writing – a collection by ten…

A pic from our photoshoot at Wiri Central School today. These awesome young people have written a pukapuka about their pride in being Māori. We’re launching their pukapuka during Matariki later this term. 15 new published authors unleashed into the world. Thank you to Manurewa Local Board for supporting this project.

Today we launched my new children’s book Freestyle: the Israel Adesanya Story at City Kickboxing, Izzy’s home gym. This photo is with Izzy and Ant Sang the awesome illustrator. You can get a copy here: https://readingwarrior.com/product/freestylethe-israel-adesanya-story/ “I like the idea of having my story written for kids because I know how hard things were for…

The Reading Tribe is a new book I’ve made where I ask some of New Zealand’s most successful people to share the books that have travelled with them through life. UFC champion Israel Adesanya found safety in the school library from bullies when he was younger and he was inspired to dream big by reading…

Today ‘Alisi Tatafu and I launched our children’s book Rise of the To’a (the MMT story) online in Tonga. We would have been there if it wasn’t for COVID but there’s still so much to be thankful for, especially learning how beautiful Tongan culture is through this whole process.