Who’s rocketing into our orbit?
?
Miriama Kamo – award-winning broadcaster and author of The Seven Stars of Matariki, and its Te Reo translation Nga Whetu Matariki Whanakotia. Miriama is a huge proponent of Te Reo, proud of her South Island connections, and so quickly and enthusiastically agreed to be part of Ignition Kids 2018. Ka pai Miriama! Nau mai ki te ?tepoti.

Gareth Ward ?- magician, hypnotist, storyteller, bookseller and author. What could be cooler than that? How about soldier, policeman, teacher, steam punker and Zombie apocalypse survivor! Author of the award-winning The Traitor and the Thief. A Steam Punk odyssey!

Pauline Smith – ?raised a stone’s through from the banks of the mighty Mataura River, Pauline is an exceptional storyteller who discovers magic while swinging in a hammock under a chair at her seaside crib. Don’t know what a ‘crib’ is? Ask a Southlander! Dawn Raid, her first book, is a stand-out YA novel of the last year.

Barbara Else – author of Go Girl, and The Travelling Restaurant. Barbara is an exquisite storyteller for children of all ages and a passionate advocate for children’s literature and literacy. Barbara loved being the University of Otago College of Education Children’s Fellow so much last year, that she never went home – moving with her husband Chris full-time to Dunedin.

Rachel McCoubrey – Rachel is a trained primary school teacher, illustrator and publisher of the recent children’s picture book St Clair Splash. It tells the true tale of a how an inquisitive New Zealand sea lion went swimming at the famous St Clair salt pools.

Ray Huber – Raymond is the multi-award children’s writer who helps put nature and science very much at the centre of things. Through his captivating stories he brings generations old and young into contact with the natural world gently prodding us to think more carefully about how we tread on our earth.

Robyn Belton – Robyn is the magical illustrator (and sometimes author) of some of New Zealand’s most endearing picture books for children. She is one of Dunedin’s special taonga with a sensitivity and whimsy in her books that makes a each page of a work of art on its own.