Local author Amy Harrop releases new children's book

Children's author Amy Harrop with her latest book Goat on a Trampoline, with her husband Mark and 'kids' Ella (11), Finlay (8) and Josie (5). Photo / Dean Taylor

Lily Goat was white and lean and really quite a sassy queen. But she was bored and she was blue, she yearned for something new to do. She'd chewed a jandal and chased the dog, disturbed a wētā under a log ...

When mischievous Lily Goat gets bored one day, she discovers she has quite a talent for trampolining. But when her talent turns to boastfulness, her farmyard friends start to turn their backs on her. Will they help her out when she lands herself in trouble? Will Lily learn her lesson?

Goat on a Trampoline is an adorable story full of humour, endearing characters, and the timeless moral of the importance of being kind to others, by Te Awamutu author Amy Harrop.

The official launch takes place at Te Awamutu Paper Plus on Saturday at 11am – a chance to meet the author and get a first look at this new work featuring simple rhyming text and Ross Hamilton's lively, expressive illustrations, which are sure to appeal to both children and adults alike.

Amy came up with the idea after driving many times past a paddock near Ōhaupō where there were several goats and two old trampolines.

Sometimes Amy would notice the goats standing or sleeping on the trampolines.

"It had become a family tradition for us to look each time we drive by to see if the goats are up on the trampolines," she says.

"While we didn't see any goats bouncing and doing tricks, we always wondered what they might get up to when no one was looking."

Amy is a literacy support teacher at Te Awamutu Primary School who has always loved reading and writing.

She says she recently discovered a box of newspapers and books she "published" as a child.

"They are terrible," she says.

But she always had a dream of writing for children and being published, something she says is quite difficult to break into in New Zealand.

Amy got into writing with some seriousness when her son was born, and had her first book published in 2019 - There's a Hedgehog in My Pants.

She says getting a follow-up accepted wasn't easy, and she had to get used to rejection and learn to carry on.

Amy was rewarded this year, not once, but twice.

Goat on a Trampoline was wanted by two publishers, but she had already committed to Bateman Books. Luckily, the second publisher wanted to see more, and now Amy has Who Took The Toilet Paper coming out in time for Christmas.

She says despite the title, the book was written pre-Covid and is a humorous story of bears in the woods.

She is really grateful to her illustrators for bringing her stories to life for children, saying while she can write, she can't draw.

And with plenty more stories and ideas, Amy is hoping her dream of being a children's author continues.