Authors

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Melinda Szymanik (Author) Melinda writes picture books, short stories and novels for children and young adults. She has been a finalist for a number of awards, and five of her titles are Storylines Notable Books. Her picture book, The Were-Nana, won the New Zealand Post Children's Choice Award in 2009, and was shortlisted for the 2010 Sakura Medal. Her novel, A Winter's Day in 1939, won Librarian's Choice at the 2014 LIANZA Awards and her picture book Fuzzy Doodle, was a 2017 White Raven Selection. She lives in Auckland with her family, and loves watching movies, eating out with her favourite people, and travelling abroad when the stars are aligned. She strongly believes that you can never have too many books, and you can never be too kind. Vasanti Unka (Illustrator) Vasanti is an award-winning writer, designer and illustrator noted for the originality of her storytelling, her riotously colourful and inventive illustrations and the gorgeous design and production of her picture books. She illustrated Hill & Hole by Kyle Mewburn (Puffin 2010), and wrote and illustrated the The Boring Book (Puffin 2013), Stripes! No, Spots! (Puffin 2015), Who Stole the Rainbow? (Puffin 2018) and I Am the Universe (Puffin 2020). These books won or were shortlisted for major awards in New Zealand and overseas, and have been translated into several languages. Vasanti lives in Auckland, New Zealand, where she juggles creative work and numerous book projects.

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Merren Tait is the award-winning author of The Good Life series, a humorous exploration of kick-arse women changing gears and seeking a quieter life in the less-well travelled places of a (fictional) New Zealand. Merren has lived a series of bookish lives. Her first incarnation was as a book-hungry child, then as a mildly pretentious English literature student. Her third life saw her teaching English to somewhat-willing high school students, and her fourth, sharing her love of books as a librarian. Now she has been reincarnated as a fiction creator. She is of Scottish, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, English, Irish and German extraction and attributes her cross-cultural comedic flair to the enthusiastic interbreeding of her ancestors. Merren lives in a small house on a large piece of land near Raglan, New Zealand, where she dreams up fabulous names for her chickens, like Princess Layer.

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