Happy happy 2012. 
My brand new series of picture books in te reo Maori is finally available. I am so excited that a dream I have held in my heart for more than six years has finally become a reality - thanks to the help and guidance of a lovely friend named Madelize Bekker. 

I dreamed up this fabulous idea when I was a te reo Maori student, children's author and part time kindergarten teacher in Kihikihi. It was hard to find exactly the right resources to help the preschool children I was teaching to get some Maori language skills. So what does an author do when she can't find the books she wants? She writes them herself, of course!

It was pretty easy to teach the children isolated words but very hard to give them skills to put those words into sentences. I could see that a picture book with simple repetitive sentences in te reo Maori, coupled with a CD that featured the words of the story as a song, would be a catchy way to learn. Lots of people agreed with my theory, but it took a while to get someone to catch the vision and make it possible for the books to be translated from my head into reality. Now it's happened and I'm over the moon. 

Go to the books page to see more about this exciting series of picture books with song CDs. Or just click here to go straight to my Te Reo Singalong website! See you there.

Rotokauri School visit
I had a wonderful time with six excellent young writers at Rotokauri School today. Well done girls! You are a very talented bunch of students. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with you and I really look forward to keeping in touch.

Last week I had a whole day at Deanwell School in Hamilton. The day was divided into three sessions - junior, senior and middle school. After each session of 30 - 40 minutes with the whole group in the library, I spent another 45 minutes or so with a smaller group of keen writers. It was a very full on and enjoyable day in a school with a wonderful lively spirit. The teachers were friendly and fabulous - particularly my wonderful host, Joanna. Thanks for a

Today I visited Hebron Christian College in Mt Albert, Auckland to launch their Book Week. I spent the first half of the morning in the assembly with the junior school and between morning tea and lunch I worked with about 15 students aged 6 - 12 years. We worked on some "instant poems" and achieved some great results. I plan to add a section to the website with instructions for my instant poems soon. Thanks Hebron, I had a great time at your school.

It's taken more than a year for this website to metamorphose (apparently that's the correct verb!) from idea to reality. I welcome your comments! There will be lots of extra bits and pieces to come... including a video, some free writing advice and writing competitions for children and adults. I hope you'll enjoy being a regular visitor to the Writing Bug!