Annemarie Florian
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
FLORIAN, Annemarie (1953 - ) is a writer of books for young children that are inspired by her particular interest in how books and language can influence who we are and how we view ourselves, as individuals and as a community.
As a parent and grandparent, curriculum designer, book awards judge, bookseller and librarian, as well as a reader and writer, Florian has “spent the whole of my adult life in the company of children’s books”.
Observation of how her own children experimented and played with sounds from the very start of their lives led her to write her first book, Time to Sleep (Reed Publishing/Penguin Books), which has been reprinted three times since it was first published in 2004.
Florian followed this with the even more successful Books for Babies, which was published in 2010 by Penguin in New Zealand, and Kane Miller Publishers in the USA, and to date has sold over 30,000 copies. A review in The First Years: Nga Tau Tuatahi, New Zealand Journal of Infant and Toddler Education described it as a “vibrant contribution to the genre of board books for babies…The value of reading with and not just to a child and the essence of how to share a book are captured in just eight pages.”
Both Books for Babies, and Florian’s next book, Getting To Know You (Niche Books, 2010) are small board books designed with the very youngest of the family in mind, to reflect their present life experiences.
Florian’s latest and multi-award-winning book, KIWI: The Real Story (New Holland), illustrated by Heather Hunt, was published in 2012. It succeeded in showcasing our national bird in the most real and compassionate sense, to reveal this living, breathing creature with its own agenda. A reviewer said: “The authors have layered poetry and non-fiction narrative over illustrations to create a book that will bring pleasure to any inquisitive young person wanting to understand more about this well-known but little-seen bird…[an] enormously appealing book to be treasured by children and adults alike.”
“This is a story of a dogged survivor, a bird who deserves our respect for its sheer resolve to survive and live its own life in the face of overwhelming odds,” says Florian.
KIWI: The Real Story was a 2013 Storylines Notable Book (Non-fiction), a finalist for the 2013 LIANZA Russell Clark Award, and the 2013 Children's Choice Non-Fiction Winner in the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.
Her recent books for children include Gentle Giant Wetapunga (2017), Karearea: Fearless Falcon (2018), Kea: Curiouser and Curiouser (2019), Snapper: The Real Story (2021) and The Monarch Butterfly (Oct 2022, Upstart Press).
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