This week I’ve visited three schools who have been taking part in #NZReadaloud and reading The Bold Ship Phenomenal : Selwyn Ridge in W...

Recently, at the rock pools in Tairua, I had an amazing encounter. Octopi! Two of them, in the same rock pool. That in itself is worthy...

A photo from the 2016 New Zealand Children's Book Awards ceremony, held at Circa Theatre in Wellington on 8 August 2016.     These...

It's the season for school visits and I've had several fabulous ones recently, with more scheduled for next month. The wonderful p...

  I'm so excited that The Bold Ship Phenomenal has been shortlisted for the 2016 New Zealand Children's Book Awards . The...

  There’s a witches’ cauldron on Ngarunui Beach. Have you seen it? Three dinosaur eggs lie inside, smooth as stone.   Enormo...

Ben built me my own whare manaaki tangata.   Here it is in action at the Waikato Show last weekend, where, along with Judi Billcliff a...

Last year I had shed envy (for Dawn McMillan’s writing hut overlooking the Thames coast). Now I have bookshelf envy. I have just finished...

What is it about egg-shaped chocolate that makes it taste so much better? To celebrate the arrival of Easter eggs in the shops (one of my ...

I think it's as important to celebrate the year that's just past (or if it hasn't been happy, to at least acknowledge it), as ...

I'm chuffed that my book, The Bold Ship Phenomenal , was listed by The New Zealand Herald 's Canvas magazine as one of the best book...

I have just finished reading Sue Copsey's fabulous ghost story for kids - The Ghosts of Tarawera (Treehouse Books, 2015). The Ghosts...

Everywhere I go, I see Wooden Arms houses. Homes and buildings that have been used, inhabited, perhaps cherished, and now have been left b...

Look at this wonderful blog post by the kids in Room 8 at Pukete School. Thanks guys, I had such a nice time... Room 8 is GREAT!: Author ...

Tui Allen has loaded this review about my book on Goodreads . Tui is an author in her own right, and our local New Zealand Society of A...

What a week! On Saturday I launched my latest children's book (twice) at the Word Café writers and readers festival: once for adults an...

Advance copies of my new book, The Bold Ship Phenomenal . Are those pirates' footsteps I see beyond them? The rest of the shipment ...

  The Bold Ship Phenomenal is safely out of my hands – in China being printed – so I thought I would look at the thorny question of c...

I’ve had two pleasant surprises and two firsts in one week. First (of the firsts) is this online listing for The Bold Ship Phenomenal on...