Whangarei Author Releases Fifth Book

Whangarei Author Releases Fifth Book in Popular Children’s Series

Whangarei author Donna Blaber has released the fifth book, ‘Hide and Seek’, in her hugely-popular Kiwi Critters® series of early reader children’s picture books.

Published by Lighthouse Media Group, a company run by Ms Blaber and her husband Rupert Shaw who creates the bright illustrations for the books, the Kiwi Critters series sells extremely well in New Zealand in print format. International sales through major distributors such as Amazon are also building steadily in both print and electronic formats.

Ms Blaber describes the books as “super simple with engaging rhymes”, designed as quick and easy reads for busy parents and for young children who are beginning to read.

“There's always time for a Kiwi Critters story,” says Ms Blaber, a mother of twin girls and the author of the five Kiwi Critters books and more than 30 travel and tourism books for publishers in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Ms Blaber began developing the characters for the Kiwi Critters when her own daughters were pre-schoolers, and used the books as a tool to develop their reading and writing skills.

“Like many Mums, I always felt terrible growling ‘no’ if I was asked to read a story during witching hour – you know, dinner on the go, baths to be had, washing to be folded, the house an uproar. With the Kiwi Critters books they’re nice and short, the kids easily learn the words off by heart and so there’s always time for a story, even if they’re just following you around, turning the pages, and chanting the words themselves.”

Ms Blaber says, with her tourism writing background, she is always inspired by New Zealand’s great outdoors, unique flora and fauna and the lifestyle Kiwis lead.

“This filters into my works for children. The main Kiwi Critters characters, Keri the Kiwi and Piri the Pukeko, have fun times together in the first two books, ‘Keri's Party’ and ‘Piri's Picnic’, then do quintessentially New Zealand things like hosting a fundraising BBQ in the third book, ‘Sausage Sizzle’, to raise money to save Kenny the Kakapo’s family. In the fourth book, ‘Bruce Goes Home’, the characters work out a fun and interesting way to send Bruce the Possum, who is very sad because he's in the wrong country, back to Australia.”

The series’ fifth book, ‘Hide and Seek’, is a fun, light look at what has to one of the all-time favourite games played by Kiwi kids and sees the characters work together to help Keri the Kiwi, who's always the first to be found, to find a great hiding place.

“All these books draw on parts of our unique Kiwi lifestyle and are simply written so they are easy for pre-schoolers to understand. The books are short, but each has its own unique message and provides multiple layers of learning.

“We’re looking forward to hearing how our many thousands of Kiwi Critters’ readers enjoy seeing the familiar characters, as well as meeting a new Kiwi Critters character, Billie the Bull. By reading the book they can also see, perhaps through further discussion with their parents, that helping others by making games fair is the right thing to do.”

Ms Blaber is now a participant in the New Zealand Book Council’s writers in schools programme where she is available to visit schools nationwide to talk about her own writing and/or run workshops with children of any age on a range of topics including non-fiction, fiction and creative writing, modern journalism, editing, print and digital publishing. She also developed and runs a well-attended school holiday writing club for Whangarei children aged nine and over.

“I get just as much inspiration from the children on the course as I hope they get from me,” she says. “There was no limit to their imaginations during the recent ‘creating memorable characters’ workshop.”

The sixth Kiwi Critters book will be published in late November and Ms Blaber has created special sets of all the Kiwi Critters books available to purchase directly from Lighthouse Media Group’s website, www.lmg.co.nz. The books are also for sale, RRP $5 each, in many book, gift and souvenir stores around New Zealand.

ENDS/

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