Children's wriler revisits

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 602, 5 September 1995, Page 3

Children's wriler revisits

Prolific children's author William Taylor was in Ohakune last Thursday to promote his newest book,

Annie and Co and Marilyn Monroe. The ex-Ohakune Primary School principal and former

Ohakune Borough mayor was surrounded by friends, new and old, while he discussed his work and auto-

graphed copies of his books. The story for his 22nd novel to be published so far is set in a small New Zealand town — not Ohakune but "it could well be another town in this area", said Mr Taylor. The humorous novel is about Annie Brass who's "only problems to date have been her kid brother Milt and how to get rid of him; that Jock Squad may be taken off TV ; and that hair dye does not always have predictable results". That' s until she discovers that her best friend is really Marilyn Monroe' s love child. His book The Blue Lawn won the Aim Children's Book Award for senior fiction this year, drawing the comment that it was a winner "amongst a significant rise in the standards of the genre." Judge convenor Tessa Duder said the book "carries extra interest because of its theme which, for the first time in New Zealand, literature for young adults explainsthe possibility of a gay relationship developing between two young men." Mr Taylor is to travel back to Australia to promote his book — a part of the job he really enjoys. He said his last trip was to South Australia which included visits to remote outback schools. Two other books he has Turn to page 5

Writer revisits

FROM PAGE 3 written this year are on their way to being published — Numbskulls and The Fatz Katz — and he is working on a - fourth. He said he tries to write at least two books a year.