Nicola Daly and Marion McKoy worked together on the creation of this website over the summer of 2010/2011. Nicola had previously worked with children’s literature experts to create the NZPBC. Marion wrote the book annotations and created the activities for each book.
Here is a little more about us…
Nicola Daly is a Senior Lecturer in the Arts and Language Education department of the University of Waikato, New Zealand, who is passionate about New Zealand children’s picture books and interested in how they reflect the national identity of New Zealanders.
I think my interest in picture books comes about because of my interest in both language and visual art. Picture books are incredible blends of these two areas. My interest in national identity must be linked to the fact that I am the child of immigrants who came to New Zealand when I was about 7 and a half. This interest in national identity was further extended by a year as an AFS exchange student in Thailand, and by my marriage to a Sri Lankan New Zealander.
For more information about Nicola’s publications and research interests, you can visit her home page.
Marion McKoy
I live in Hamilton with my hugely supportive husband and our two young daughters. I keep myself busy looking after the girls, teaching part time and doing renovations ‘projects’ on our old state house. I like to keep myself sane with lots of coffee and regular visits to the beach.
In 1997 I obtained a Bachelor of Education degree at Waikato University and went headfirst into the big bad world of teaching! Thirteen years on, I have developed a passion for supporting children in their journey to becoming literate. I especially enjoy working with emergent readers and writers and most of my teaching has been in New Entrant classrooms. I am currently studying towards a Post Graduate Diploma in Language and Literacy Education at Waikato University.
Dave Blackwell’s help in developing this website was much appreciated.
The logo and website banner for the NZPBC were designed by Michael Collins.