Ruth Paul

Paul, Ruth (1964-) is a Wellington-raised writer and illustrator. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at Victoria University of Wellington, and a Diploma of Visual Communication Design at Wellington Polytechnic (now Massey University Wellington).

In 1991, she became a freelance illustrator. In 2002 she began to write her own books, with her first publication as an author/illustrator being The Animal Undie Ball (Scholastic, 2004). She has since written and illustrated 28 books, including The King’s Bubbles (Scholastic, 2007), Two Little Pirates (Scholastic, 2010), Stomp! (Scholastic, 2011), Hedgehog's Magic Tricks (Walker Books 2012), My Dinosaur Dad (Scholastic, 2013), Bad Dog Flash (Scholastic 2013), Bye-Bye Grumpy Fly (Scholastic 2016), I Am Jellyfish (Pengin Random House 2018), the Little Hector series (Penguin Random House 2018), the Mini Whinny series written by Stacy Gregg (Scholastic 2018-21), Cookie Boo! (Harper Collins, 2020), Lion Guards the Cake (Scholastic, 2022), Hatch and Match (Walker Books, 2024), You Can’t Pat a Fish (Walker Books 2025), Anahera, the Mighty Kiwi Māmā (Penguin Random House 2025), Ghost Kiwi (Scholastic, 2025) and The Farmer’s Pyjamas (Walker Books, 2026).

Ruth's picture books have been published in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, China and Korea, with translations into Māori, Korean, Chinese, French and Spanish. Paul’s books have also been translated into different media forms including stage (Stomp!, Capital E, 2007), TV (featuring on Channel 10 Australia’s Whurrawhy and the ABC network’s Playschool), e-books (Bad Dog Flash, Sourcebooks, 2014 and Hatch and Match, Candlewick Press, 2024.) and radio (Radio New Zealand's Storytime). Paul's poems Sparkle and Greedy Monkey are included in A Treasury of NZ Poems and Roar Squeak Purr, edited by Paula Green (Penguin Random House NZ 2014 and 2022) with her debut mid-grade fiction Ghost Kiwi published by Scholastic NZ in 2025.

Stomp! was a finalist in the Best Picture Book category of the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and The King’s Bubbles won the Children's Choice Award at the 2008 awards. Bad Dog Flash was selected for the Kids Indie Next List (Autumn, 2014) by the American Booksellers Association after is publication in the United States.

I Am Jellyfish won Picture Book of the Year at the 2018 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Lion Guards the Cake won the same award in 2022.  Many of Paul’s books have been included in the Storylines Notable Books list.

Two of the Mini Whinny series, Mini Whinny: Happy Birthday to Me and Mini Whinny: Goody Four Shoes, which Paul illustrated, were shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2019 and 2020. 

In September 2019, Paul was awarded the Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Laureate Award by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. In 2023 she received the Otago University Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence Fellowship.

Hatch and Match was shortlisted for the 2024 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.