You can find more up to date posts about what Josh Morgan and I have been up to lately at our shared Facebook page: Cotter & Morgan
A Tiny Kitchen Concert
We were delighted to be asked by the talented poet Paula Green to make some videos for her super cool kids’ blog, Poetry Box. Her blog is choc full of inspiration, poetry, readings, cool activities and lots more! Make sure you check it out - and while you’re there, have a look at our other videos and Paula’s awesome activity suggestions!! For now, please enjoy our Tiny Kitchen Concert with Josh on the ukulele, me on the banana shaker and our 10 month old bubba on maracas and show stealing dance moves!!
Young Minds take the Library
Had loads of fun at our NZ Festival of the Arts events today at the National Library of New Zealand. Thanks heaps to the incredible organisers Pirate and Queen and to Ruby and the other amazing staff at the event!! Of course a big thank you also to Bret McKenzie for choosing us to be included. Last but not least, a huge thank you to the enthusiastic and very, very talented bunch of kids (& parents) that we got to spend the day with!!! You guys are rad!!
Young Minds take the Library - NZ Festival of the Arts event
Looking for something fun & free to do with your whānau tomorrow?? Come along to see us and many more at the National Library of New Zealand for a day of super FUNness with ALL OF THE COOL THINGS TO DO!!!! Stories! Music! Workshops! Crafts! Pop Ups! Tours! Everything AWESOME!! Our picture book workshop is on at 11.15 & we'll be doing some readings & songs at around 12.30. CANNOT WAIT!! Hope to see you there!!😎😁😎
Click on the image below to see the full event description:
Valentine's Day Picture Book Goodness from Giselle
Naaaaaaaaaaaaw ... and OMGiddyness!! This is WAAAY too adorable!! Love your work Giselle Clarkson Illustration & Comics! Feeling very spesh and honoured to be in your brilliant comic—always wanted to be a cartoon ^L^) Made our day! #crazyinlove
Click the image below to see Giselle’s gorgeous work:
Reading on Takapourewa
It's such as amazing feeling to see our books being read by tamariki all over Aotearoa! 😊 Here's some pics of my lil' cousins enjoying our books on Takapourewa, a remote island sanctuary at the tip of the Marlborough Sounds where my big cousin Jacob works for DOC. Aroha nui e te whānau - keep up all the good work reading and caring for all those tuatara! ❤️❤️❤️
Photo credit Brooke Healey - the talented resident photographer of Takapourewa!!
Letters from Otakiri School children
Tau kē!!!! I was SO excited to receive the most GORGEOUS letters from the children of Tūī, a class at Otakiri School - MY old primary school!!!! The children read all of our books in class with their awesome teacher Ms G. Afterwards they got in touch to tell me what they enjoyed about them and to ask me some fantastic questions. The children decorated their letters with beautiful artwork. Lots of them featured marble trees - the very marble trees that I used to play on as a kid AND which feature in and inspired our book, The Marble Maker!! Another very cool thing is my little cousin Matiu is in Tūī and he tells me that The Marble Maker is his favourite book of ours. So cool to hear from these awesome tamariki!! Ka pai tō mahi! Your letters are mīharo as!! (Here's some pics of a few of them and a great shot of Matiu and his fave!)
The Bomb on Goodnight Kiwi - TVNZ on Demand!!
ĒHE...awesome!!!! Check out the brilliant and super talented Evander Brown from What Now reading our pukapuka The Bomb and Te Pohū for TVNZ OnDemand's Goodnight Kiwi animated series!! TAU KĒ!!!
The Bomb / Te Pohū as well as Rowan Sommerset and Mark Sommerset's wonderful Baa Baa Smart Sheep (read by the hilarious Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek) kicked off the series on demand this week!!! Check 'em out!! https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/goodnight-kiwi
Other great stories in the weeks to follow including another brilliant Huia Publishers'
pukapuka, Santa's Worst Christmas (beautifully illustrated by Izzy Joy Art)!!!!
AAANNND importantly, for every Goodnight Kiwi featured book sold at The Warehouse, they will gift a book to a child in need through their Duffy Books in Homes partnership. Ka rawe!!!
xox
Eeeeeeeeeeeek-citing............!!!!!!
Aotearoa’s beloved Goodnight Kiwi is set to grace our screens again - this time with a bunch of New Zealand picture books and some very cool local celebs in tow! We are MEGA excited to share that two HUIA pukapuka have been selected to be part of the show - including THE BOMB!!!
Unity Books Bestseller List
SO COOL to see The Bomb still making a splash at Unity Books!!!
Thank you University of Washington Information School Study Abroad group!!
Thanks SO much to the truly amazing University of Washington Information School study abroad group!! The books you sent Finn are gorgeous and he LOVES them! Thank you for your kindness and generosity.
Last year we were lucky enough to spend an evening with this incredible group of passionate library/information studies students who came from all across the U.S accompanied by the brilliant Dr. Michelle Martin and Dr. Annette Goldsmith. We were completely blown away by their enthusiasm and warmth and they almost had us in tears when they sung for us! In fact, they ended up being the first group of people to hear a reading of The Bomb - before it was even published! Meeting this awesome group of people was a real highlight of our year. We wish you all the very best on your library journeys and thank you for taking special interest in Aotearoa. Ngā manaakitanga.
Kea Kids News!
We were SUPER chuffed to be interviewed by SUPER kid reporter James for Kea Kids News!! Jump into the video around the 4 MINUTE MARK to see James being an absolute STAR then stick around for some questionable dance moves from the Cotter & Morgan team!!! #don'tquitthedayjobscotter&morgan 😂😎
Cotter & Morgan on Seven Sharp!
Thanks heaps to Tamati Rimene-Sproat and Seven Sharp for making this rad story about our book baby... and baby baby... collabs! Was an awesome experience! Click here or the image below to see the video.
LIANZA interview with Helen Heath
The lovely and talented poet Helen Heath from LIANZA was kind enough to interview me. Click the image below for the full interview.
New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults 2019 at Te Papa, Wellington
Here's a few photos from our very special night at the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults where we were lucky enough to win the Picture Book Award and Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award.
Huge shout out to the HUIA team and our fellow HUIA authors and Illustrators, Whiti Hereaka, Steph Matuku and Katherine Hall. It was amazing to share the night with you!
Photos ©Vanessa Rushton Photography.
The Children's Book of the Year is an Absolute Joy - The Spinoff
Click the image below for the full article:
Cotter & Morgan in the New Zealand Herald
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The Bomb goes off at this year's NZ kids' book awards - NOTED
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Our sweet babe
Our beautiful boy, Finn Kahurangi arrived last Saturday morning, 22 June 2019, at 0047 hrs, weighing 7lbs 2ozs. We’re all back at home now and settling back into life with this precious wee babe.
Te Kani Price nominated for Young Designer of the Year at PANZ!!
This dude 😎!!! We're so proud and chuffed for the amazing Te Kani Price being nominated for the Young Designer of the Year Award at the PANZ Book Awards 2019!! 🤩 We have been very privileged to work with this super talented and super nice annd super styley guy on The Bomb / Te Pohū and The Marble Maker / Te Kaihanga Māpere! Check out more of his beautiful work in the link below! Ka mau te wehi e hoa!! 🥳🍾
