Thank you to everyone who tuned in to join me, Aditi and Rosie for our read and drawalong for The Night Before Holi.
I had a blast reading the story and showing off pictures of my family enjoying Holi and then taking part in Aditi’s drawalong. I’m now an official Holi rocket illustrator! If you took part in the drawalong, do send your drawings in so I can show them off in my gallery.
Happy Holi from my family to yours!
Today is the day! The Night Before Holi is out now!
I had the most fun riffing off Clement Clarke Moore’s poem ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ and celebrating one of my favourite festivals during my time as the University of Otago Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence in 2022 and now finally the book is here! The Night Before Holi is our now and celebrates the wonder of the colourful festival of Spring. Join a little girl and her grandad as they plan for the BEST HOLI EVER! They know all the best spots to throw the bright Holi powder but can they cover the whole neighbourhood in colour in their biggest celebration yet?
Aditi Kakade Beaufrand’s illustrations bring the joy of colour to every page of the book. The book also features a non-fiction page at the back all about Holi, including a recipe to make your own mango lassi in this bright and bold picture book, perfect for the Holi season.
And this year Read It Forward is back! If you purchase a copy of the The Night Before Holi from Bookshop.org UK, 10% of sales will go to support BookTrust and Scottish Book Trust in the work they do to help disadvantaged and vulnerable families access early reading support.
And there’s more! Teachers, educators and homeschoolers, Scholastic has put together lesson plans to go along with the book that you can download for free and use in your classrooms or at home:
Happy Holi, everyone!
Today was my first event of the year and I’m chuffed to bits it was with NLT‘s Libraries for Primaries campaign. The Libraries for Primaries campaign work to address the lack of investment in primary school libraries which is a cause very close to my heart.
With a copy of Bad Panda: For Sale arriving on my doorstep earlier this month, it seemed only right to give all the schools who tuned in an exclusive reading of the book and tell them why I love pandas so much.
Emma from NLT then hosted a Q&A session and I got to tell them everyone about my upcoming book The Terrible Trio: The (Not So) Superheroes and how I became an author.
Thank you so much to everyone who tuned in today and I can’t wait to hear what you think of the finale of Bad Panda.
Dr Diplo and the dino gang are back and they are talking about those DINOSAUR-sized questions we all have in my brand new book Little Dinosaurs, Big Questions.
Illustrated by Yiting Lee and written with the help of clinical psychologist Amber Owen, in this book, Dr Diplo and his ten dinosaur friends ask complex questions, including:
– Is it ever good to lie?
– Why do bad things happen?
– What is fairness?
– How do we remember someone we’ve lost?
So pick up a copy of the book from your local bookshop or library or online and hear Dr Diplo’s answers and learn how to navigate these difficult questions with simple exercises and activities. This book is perfect for guiding your little ones through the BIG questions they may have and even got a shoutout, in the January roundup of the best new children’s books to look out for, in The Guardian.
And later this month, an accompanying set of cards to go along with Little Dinosaurs, Big Questions and its predecessor Little Dinosaurs, Big Feelings will be available at your local bookshop and online too!
Help your little ones feel calm, grounded and focused with this boxed deck of 30 mindfulness activity cards, inspired by Dr Diplo and his friends. The Mindful Dinosaurs cards come with a full-colour illustrations on both sides of the cards to break down each practice into easy-to-follow steps, with a booklet included to help guide carers through the activities.
Happy reading, everyone!
It’s been an incredible year for books and I’ve had quite the crop in 2024.
I can’t thank you all enough for all your love and kindness. Sending a WHOPPER-sized hug of thanks to all the booksellers, librarians, teachers, educators, bloggers, caregivers and most importantly, BRILLIANT readers who have supported my books – I appreciate you all. To say thank you, here’s a wee pic of my Archie with this year’s haul:
If you are buying a Swapna Haddow/Swapna Reddy book this year and would like a signed bookplate, do get in touch, otherwise I wish you all a wonderful season of books and cosy nights in reading.
See you in 2025 for more brilliant things!
October 12th marked Bookshop Day. Here in Dunedin, University Book Shop hosted The Big Teddy Bear Sleepover with The Sleepy Storytellers.
Making up The Sleepy Storytellers were me, Emma Wood, Gillian Torckler and Susan Wardell. Children were invited to bring along their teddy bears for a story time and a crafts session where they made a bed for their bear.
First they had to check their bears in:
Then we had storytime and I read But Then to all the children, bears and their grown ups:
Once all the children tucked their bears in, they said good night before leaving their bears at the sleepover.
The staff at UBS and the awesome foursome of The Sleepy Storytellers made sure the bears were safe and happy all night.
There was a little mischief, after all their was cake in the fridge, but all the bears were fantastically behaved overall:
The next morning the children came back to pick up their bears and share a porridge breakfast with more stories from Emma, Gillian, Susan and I.
What a weekend! I had such a wonderful time and I know all the bears have made fantastically magical memories. After all, where would be better than a bookshop to have a big sleepover?
I’m so thrilled to be one of the featured authors on ReadingZone this month.
There is heaps of fun stuff to catch up on on the ReadingZone website including mine and Becka Moor’s Q&A, more about the Reggie Rabbit books: Reggie Rabbit: The Ghost of Seagull Rock and Reggie Rabbit: The Great Carrot Heist, the news feature and a video about the Reggie Rabbit series on Growing Readers page.
Have fun browsing!
It’s October and Halloween is around the corner so Reggie is BACK with his second book in the Reggie Rabbit series because there is a spooky mystery in the coastal village of Seagull Rock to solve.
In Reggie Rabbit: The Ghost of Seagull Rock, young detective Reggie Rabbit isn’t sure about his partner Pipsquark’s friend, Kai. The seagull seems too perfect to be true and she tells UNBELIEVABLE stories!
Kai says that a terrible, wailing ghost is haunting her home in Seagull Rock. All VERY suspicious, Reggie thinks, since ghosts don’t even exist! But when he and Pipsquark come face-to-face with the phantom, he begins to wonder…
A real ghost? Or a mystery with a very simple answer? It will take all of Reggie and Pipsquark’s detective skills and bravery to crack this case!
Written by me, as ‘Swapna Reddy’, and illustrated by the awesome Becka Moor, this is the second book in the Reggie Rabbit detective series and I can’t wait for you to get your paws on a copy.
Hoppy reading, everyone!
I’m chuffed to bits to be September’s Open University Reading for Pleasure Author in the Spotlight. You can read about my favourite books and why I choose to read here, with a handy download for classrooms and projects available too.
Thank you to The Open University and all they do to encourage reading for pleasure.
It’s launch day for Dave Pigeon (Zombies!) and I got to share the day with Mr Dilly, superstar authors Lisa Williamson, Lucy Strange, Steve May, James Turner, Justin Somper, Anne Fargher AND a whopping three thousand children!
We took on the speed round of introducing our books in less than a minute and then got to share a reading from each of our books – this was my first reading of Dave Pigeon (Zombies!) and I’m so chuffed it was with so many brilliant schools.
Thank you to everyone who sent in questions for the author panel and happy reading to everyone who picks up a copy of Dave Pigeon (Zombies!) in time for the spooky season.
