Kuwi has become a New Zealand number 1 bestselling, award-winning kiwi, with over 350,000 copies printed in the series.  Together Kuwi and Kat have raised over $50,000 for Kiwis for Kiwi, to support kiwi conservation projects throughout Aotearoa/New Zealand.

BRIEF HISTORY OF Kuwi THE KIWI.

I first came up with the idea behind Kuwi’s First Egg when I was surviving through the perils of life with a newborn. I felt a little like I was learning to be a parent through trial and error. I made mistakes, had to ask for help, and learned so much. Kuwi is me, and any parent who feels a little like they were thrown in the deep end when they became a parent.

in 2013, I had 2 year old Willow and was pregnant with my third daughter Florence, when I actually put pen to paper to write and storyboard the book. I had been reading very basic and un-stimulating books to Willow, aimed at her age group. I wanted to write something I could read to a child of that age, that they would enjoy as much as the parent reading it.

In my research, I discovered that the male kiwi typically cares for the kiwi egg. I thought that was quite interesting, and so the character Kuwi, being female, turns that idea on its head. She is a confused first-time mother Kiwi, who has found herself alone with her new egg. The kiwi population is so fragile, I imagine kiwi often lose their partners to predators. And what would happen if a pregnant kiwi lost her mate?

I added basic Māori words into the story, to introduce children to a little te reo Māori at a young age. The story is simply written to suit the 1-5 year age group, but it has a broader appeal due to it’s sense of humour and subtle iconic New Zealand feel.

PROCESS - How do you create a children's Book?

I spent over a year working on the illustrations for Kuwi’s First Egg. Firstly I put together the sketched storyboard to create an illustration for each page of text in the book. I did a lot of research on kiwi, then I drew the main character, Kuwi, again and again in many different positions and with different expressions to get her looking just right. Practice really does make perfect! I also created a plasticine character model of Kuwi which helped me with consistency of the character throughout the book.

I then created the layout of the book in the program Adobe InDesign. I made sure there were the correct number of pages for the printing process I had chosen, and placed all of the text on the pages. The next step was to draw each illustration spread to scale, with traditional pencil. Then, using tracing paper I drew these over and over until I was completely happy with the composition.

I then printed out the book with all of the draft sketches and text in place. I read this draft over and over to my girls, to make sure the text flowed and that the illustrations had the right level of detail. I also tested it on their friends, my friends, and other family members. When I was completely happy with the text and illustration ‘skeletons’, I scanned them and created a digital file of each sketch using Adobe Photoshop. I created my own brushes and swatches within Photoshop and used them to start the arduous but absolutely enjoyable part – painting each spread.

My style guidelines for the illustration of this book were to create a cute, emotive, detailed and humourous images, that together with the story can be read over and over again, and with each time, something new can be discovered within the illustrations.