'Tamariki inspire me': Shelley Burne-Field

Shelley Burne-Field (Sāmoa, Ngati Mutunga, Ngati Rārua, Pākehā) is a kaituhituhi from Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke's Bay. She writes articles and creative non-fiction as well as fiction of all sorts, including short stories. Kimi the Kekeno’s Big Adventure is her second children's story. It follows the epic middle-grade adventure book, Brave Kāhu and the Pōrangi Magpie, published in 2024. She is an alumni of the Master of Creative Writing from Auckland University 2020 and also Te Papa Tupu mentoring programme. Her story 'Speaking in Tongues' was the only New Zealand Finalist in the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her work is now in print in anthologies around the world, and has appeared in Newsroom and on RNZ. Her story 'Pinching out Dahlias' is the most read short story published in Reading Room. Shelley is a proud member of the NZSA.

Kia ora Shelley! What’s been the best part of writing and releasing Kimi the Kekeno’s Big Adventure? 

Kia ora Team Kete! I love Kimi’s story. It flowed so easily onto the page. I loved writing it and imagining being under the sea. Lou Ward from Wardini’s bookshop gave Kimi a review on RNZ and it was so awesome that it almost made me cry. Lou captured exactly the feelings of the characters, and what it might be like to swim and somersault like a kekeno in the ocean. 

Releasing the book into the world has involved my closest friends and family at a neat launch at the CHB Readers’ & Writers’ Festival ‘Between the Lines’. I also have a kids’ launch coming up that my local library has organised – shout out to CHB Libraries Waipukurau and Waipawa! There will be 600 tamariki at the winter reading event! I’m excited. It’ll be fun! It’s great that many people have welcomed Kimi into the world of books and stories, and really hope he thrives! 

Can you tell us more about it? Where did the story emerge from? 

I imagined a whole lot of kekeno meeting in a stone circle under the full moon on the beach at Ahuriri Napier. One Christmas holidays I was at the Cape Palliser lighthouse when I saw a group of kekeno on the beach. They reminded me of dogs, barking and playing. Then I read an article about a kekeno breaking into a house in Mount Maunganui through a cat flap door – and boom! These threads wove themselves into the story: Kimi the Kekeno’s Big Adventure! The original title was Race to the Stone Circle.

Who is your ideal reader for this book? Who needs to read it? Kids. Parents. Teachers. Anybody. 

I have a great friend who reads it to her mokopuna at bedtime – and that’s where the magic comes in. He knows every character. He loves it. I love that it can create a moment between kids and their caregivers. 

My teacher friends read it to their classes and the story and characters make an awesome classroom project. 

Two grown-ups I know read Kimi the Kekeno together, and they both ended up loving the characters and laughing and crying along with Kimi and the kekeno crew! 

So the book is loved by kids and adults alike. Spoiler alert: it’s exciting and has a nice ending.

I would love libraries and schools to put this book in front of kids who don’t normally read, or for adults to read it in class or at story time for tamariki who love a great read-aloud adventure.

Tell us what inspires you? An author, a book, a place, or whatever you like…

Tamariki inspire me. Kids will tell you the truth – and they always hope for the best. I never want to dumb a story down for the reader. I want kids to laugh and cry and love the characters. They inspire me to write cool stories. I really hope kids get to read or listen to Kimi the Kekeno – it’s a home-grown adventure and kids will recognise the wild coastlines and oceans surrounding the lower east coast of the North Island, Aotearoa New Zealand – their place! Our place! What Aotearoa New Zealand book do you wish you’d written?

Oooh that’s a tough one! I’m not sure I’ve read all the kiwi books I should have lol. Maybe, it’s something like Maurice Gee – Under the Mountain. Maybe, it’s a short story: The Reservoir by Janet Frame. It is profound and perfect. The writing captures tension, childhood, fear, generations, potential, and hope – and all in a sharp New Zealand setting. What’s been your best read this year so far?

For kids / teen books, it has to be Bear by Kiri Lightfoot. 

For YA / grown-ups I have to tell you about an indie author who lives in my little town. His name is Owen Clough and his fifth novel is Liquid Gold (owencloughbooks.com). I think he is a prescient writer! It is set in the future and is about Australia turning its envious attention on New Zealand’s abundant water … I love it. Secondary schools will like it, and several English departments already have his historical time-slip trilogy novels set in the NZ bush.

And last, but definitely not least, what are you writing next? 

I’m writing a grown-up book set two hundred years in the future. It’s called In-Land with two brother characters. It’s about climate change, AI, and a countdown to save the world – all set in Aotearoa NZ. I’ve also started a YA novel with a teen character called Elleia. Kimi the Kekeno’s Big Adventure (Allen & Unwin, 2025, $19.99) is available in all good bookstores now.