Swapna Haddow
Swapna Haddow (1982 – ) is a London-born, Dunedin-based author of books for children. Her Dave Pigeon series has won a number of awards, and is currently four books long. Little Rabbit’s Big Surprise (2019) has been translated into Polish and Russian. As well as writing picture books and junior fiction titles, she has contributed to a number of anthologies.
Swapna Haddow (1982 – ) is a Dunedin-based author of books for children. Born in London, she obtained a BSc (Hons) in Medical Sciences before deciding it wasn’t for her and moving into the creative world. Her first writing job was at The Prince’s Drawing School (now The Royal Drawing School), where she wrote blurbs for catalogues and artist biographies for the school’s website.
Her first book, Dave Pigeon, published in 2016 by Faber and Faber, was illustrated by Sheena Dempsey. It’s the story of Dave Pigeon and his sidekick, Skipper, on a quest to defeat Mean Cat, the most evil cat in town. It won the North Somerset Teachers’ Book Award, Read Aloud category 2016, the Surrey Libraries’ Children’s Book Award 2017, the Fantastic Book Awards 2018, and was also shortlisted for the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards 2016, the Leicester Libraries Our Best Book Award 2017 and the Sheffield Children’s Book Award 2017. Dave Pigeon now has three sequels: Nuggets (2017), Racer (2018) and Royal Coo (2019).
Her book Little Rabbit’s Big Surprise (2019), illustrated by Alison Friend, is a story about helping others and spreading kindness, starring Little Rabbit and her grandfather, Big Rabbit. It has also been translated into Polish (as Wielki dzień Małej Króliczki) and Russian (as Большой сюрприз для маленького кролика).
As well as her picture books, Swapna has contributed stories to three anthologies. The Legend of Pemba in Wish Upon A Snowflake (2017), A Winter Surprise in One Snowy Night (2018) and The Missing Book in Return to Wonderland (2019).
Haddow is the author of the funny and popular Bad Panda middle-grade series, illustrated by Sheena Dempsey and published by Faber & Faber. Among other awards and listings, Bad Panda was selected for BookTrust's Bookbuzz Reading Programme in 2022.
In 2021, Haddow's middle-grade book Torn Apart – The Partition of India, 1947 was published by Scholastic. A moving account of the largest movement of people in history, telling both sides of the story through the voices of children at the heart of Partition, it was named Runner Up in the NZ Society of Authors' Heritage Book Awards 2022.
Two playful and warm picture books published by Macmillan and illustrated by Dapo Adeola, My Dad is a Grizzly Bear (2021) and My Mum is a Lioness (2022) have been celebrated in the United Kingdom with a number of awards and recommendations including from The Independent, The Times and The Guardian.
Also in 2021, her book All About Diwali: Things to Make and Do was illustrated by Aditi Kakade Beaufrand and published by Scholastic.
Links
Swapna's Website
Swapna on Twitter
