On 17th April we heared from Marie Munro and her long apprenticeship to writing and publishing a children's book, "Nanas Shed", which was launched in July last year, at the Tawa Library.
To find out more information about Marie's book "Nanas Shed", or to purchase, see : www.nanasshed.co.nz
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Marie Munro, author of the children’s picture book “Nana’s Shed”, talked to members about her journey, from the day that she was given her very first book to the publication of “Nana’s Shed”.
Books have always been important in her life from that very early age as a way of engaging with ideas and the experiences of others. The enthusiasm of one of her high school teachers for literature was particularly inspirational for her.
It was an exercise at teacher’s college that alerted her to the fact that, although she had found learning to read easy, it wasn’t so for everyone and that it was a very complex skill.
Marie took that information into the classroom with her to the extent that she was prepared to flout the rules and allow her pupils to read comics because at least they were reading and engaging with the printed word. Books would almost certainly follow in time.
She built up an extensive library in her classroom and, as a relieving teacher, carried with her an invisible magic book from which she told stories. It was on one of these occasions in the 1980s that a pupil commented that that particular story was a great story and that she should be a kids’ writer.
That comment stuck in her mind. She decided that, if she was to do that, she needed to establish a writing discipline. For the next 30 years she recounted how she immersed herself in a range of writing-related jobs, including journalism and writing course materials for the construction industry.
It wasn’t until 2015 that she felt she had served enough of an apprenticeship and was ready to write for children and over two-year period worked with her illustrator, Rachel Doragh, on writing “Nana’s Shed”.
Now, three years on, two more books are at various stages in the publication process and Marie is working on the story that brought the comment from the ten-year-old in the 1980s that she should be writing for children.