Melanie Drewery
Taking part in this year's On the Bus writers' tour
24 Jun 2009
All information has been gathered from the New Zealand Book Council’s website, accessed April 2009.
Melanie is a writer was born in Palmerston North, and lived in Fielding, Auckland, Picton and Blenhiem before settling in Nelson. She has worked as children’s librarian, a potter, an artist and as a pre-school teacher. She has been a professional writer since 1998. Melanie’s concern as a writer is to introduce te reo Māori in a way that is both non-threatening and engaging. For Melanie the Māori tradition in story form gives children easy access to Māori language and culture, and encourages further learning.
Melanie is best-known for her Nanny Mihi series (illustrated by Tracy Duncan) about two little children and their visits to their beloved grandmother’s house. The Grumble Rumble Mumbler (Huia 2007) was chosen to be read at the 2007 New Zealand’s Biggest Storytime, during Library week. In 2008 Melanie won the Picture Book section in the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults with Tahi: One Lucky Kiwi (Random House, 2007) illustrated by Ali Teo and John O’Reilly. Her latest publications include Big Fish, Little Fish (Reed 2007) and Jiminy Shows Off (Mallinson Rendel, 2008) which is Melanie’s first book for older primary school children.