Former All Black Keven Mealamu, Selau Ifopo, Loughlin Mosen and artist Otis Frizzell get a sneak peek at <i>Kindness, courage and more uplifting stories</i>.
Former All Black Keven Mealamu, Selau Ifopo, Loughlin Mosen and artist Otis Frizzell get a sneak peek at <i>Kindness, courage and more uplifting stories</i>.
Rugby great Keven Mealamu is used to fans wanting to have their picture taken with him but the former All Black hooker seemed equally star-struck when he met artist and chef Otis Frizzell this week.
Mealamu and Frizzell are among the sportsmen, musicians, designers and artists who illustrated the latest book from the Barfoot & Thompson Young Authors Challenge, Kindness, courage and more uplifting stories.
Now in its ninth year, the children's book features short stories written by young Auckland and Northlanders illustrated by well-known New Zealanders and edited by award-winning author Maria Gill.
The books are sold to raise funds for the real estate company's Magic of Reading programme which donates children's books to Starship Hospital and the children's ward at Whangarei Hospital. To date, more than $200,000 has been raised and around 90,000 books distributed.
Mealamu, a keen amateur artist, has been illustrating stories for the Young Authors Challenge books since the beginning but it's the first-time Frizzell joined in the challenge. He initially turned down the opportunity to work with one of the nine winning authors but quickly changed his mind.
"I woke up at around 5am the morning after sending an email saying I couldn't do it and thought, 'why not? I can find a way to make this work!'"
The winning stories were chosen out of a record 1600 entries, written by children from primary and intermediate schools across Auckland and Northland. Illustrators get to choose which story they work on; Frizzell picked Gorillas Can't Swim by first-time author and book challenge entrant Loughlin Mosen, 7, from St Mary's Catholic School in Papakura.
Budding young author Loughlin Mosen and artist Otis Frizzell discuss illustrations for the story <i>Gorillas Can't Swim</i>.
Loughlin was inspired to write about a gorilla called Gus, who never gives up, after returning home from swimming lessons, showering and hopping into his gorilla onesie. He was able to give Frizzell some tips on how he wanted Gus to look but Frizzell admits Gus bears an uncanny resemblance to himself.
"I did the first drawing and my wife said, 'oh, you've drawn a self-portrait'!"
Like Loughlin, he sees scope for a series of stories featuring Gus - something the young author says he's keen to explore.
Meanwhile, Mealamu drew the cover for Kindness, courage and more uplifting stories based on a story by home-schooled Selau Ifopo, 12. Selau, from Mt Roskill, based her story, Blind Beggars Gift, on a fable and says it's about two characters - one a blind beggar, the other lame - who work together to make it to a king's birthday party.
She told Mealamu she didn't want a romanticised beggar but one who looked suitably ragged.
After nearly a decade working on the project, Mealamu says the standard of writing improves each year as, he hopes, does his artwork.
"I look at what I did for the first books and think, 'I hope I do better than that now!'"
Looking over at Mealamu's artwork, Frizzell, who started as a graffiti artist, is full of praise and reassurance. Both hope to be asked to work on the 10th anniversary Young Authors Challenge book next year.
The storybook is now available for purchase in Barfoot & Thompson branches and through its website.
• Kikka Okuno, Olive Whatmough, Amy Wang, Maia Holland, Kelly Zheng, Caleb Palmer and Alayna Finlay were the other school pupils whose stories appear in Kindness, courage and more uplifting stories while guest illustrators also included musician Benny Tipene, Zambesi founder Elisabeth Findlay, artists Max Thompson, Tracey van Lent and Hannah Jensen and Starship patient Casey Gilbert.
