Room 18's Author Study

This term our class accepted a library challenge to study a NZ Author and Artist.  Lucky us to pick out....

GAVIN BISHOP 

Here’s what we found out about our talented author…

Gavin Bishop is a children’s author and illustrator. He was born in Invercargill, a city right down the bottom of New Zealand. Can you believe that he use to go to a school where there were only eleven students and he was the only one in his class?

Gavin Bishop loves reading. When he was nine years old, he couldn’t stop reading ‘The Hobbit’ he found in a school journal. Gavin Bishop read this novel about twelve times and never got bored of it. He found it exciting every time he read it.

Mr. Bishop taught art at Secondary school for 30 years as an art teacher. I can tell he was a fantastic art teacher because we enjoyed reading some of his books and studying his illustrations. Thank you for inspiring us to be great readers, writers and illustrators Mr Bishop.

-      Written by Anna Iakopo (Year 6)

Check out our library display inspired by Gavin Bishop’s story “The Legend of Kahu and the Taniwha” Can you recognise any characters from other stories he’s written?

Be careful, we’re zooming in on some of the fire-breathing taniwha’s….here we go….

 

This taniwha is fast and furious and he likes to battle with other taniwha’s. He is a Maori sea creature who lives in the deep, deep sea. This taniwha is brave and would risk tearing his scales to defeat anyone or anything that intrudes his waters. He only comes out at night so his shiny scales glow in the water when he comes to the surface.

Written & Illustrated by Josephine

This taniwha is known for breathing fire when he is angry. He is so powerful that when he breathes fire volcanoes nearby erupt in fury to reflect his anger. He is a Maori creature that can live on both water and the land. Some people think he’s only angry because he is lonely, so they have tried to befriend this taniwha to avoid random explosions near their village.

Written & Illustrated by Nora 

This taniwha is really selfish and easily annoyed. He lives in the short side of the mountain where people usually walk through. This taniwha is not just an ordinary creature, he is fierce and creepy and always up to mischief. He is known as a ‘trouble maker taniwha’ among people of the nearby village. This giant creature is in search of someone to scratch his scaly, fiery back. Only then, will he be able to leave the village people in peace!

Written by Galuso’o

Illustrated by Keithaline

 

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading our author study on the talented and inspirational Mr. Gavin Bishop. Do  check-in again to make sure these Taniwha’s do not come to life!