From Scribbles to Books

How do you take an idea and turn it into a book? That was the subject of the New Zealand Book Month events that were taking place around Auckland last week. It is a dream of many of us that those ideas that wake us up in the middle of the night might one day find themselves onto the shelves in a bookshop, but only a few of us take the next leap.

Maria Gill and Heather Arnold visited the Warkworth and Orewa Libraries to show us how their latest collaboration Call of the Kokako (coming out later this year) made the journey. This children's non-fiction book follows a similar style to their earlier collaboration Rangitoto and includes both fact and story to draw the reader in.

A packed hall of Warkworth Primary and Mahurangi Christian School students listened attentively as Maria showed us scribbled pages from her notebook, photos she had taken, people she had talked to and told us about the amount of research that she did. Heather then picked things up by showing us how she took those photos and turned them into the fantastic artwork that is part of the book. Along the way there were helpful tips for the budding authors and artists, a quiz or two and the opportunity for questions to be asked (and answered).

I have heard from colleagues around Auckland that the visits from authors and illustrators to their local libraries as part of New Zealand Book Month have been equally successful. Stay tuned here for any future events so that you can be part of it.