Dawn McMillan’s writing nook is an unassuming little shed tucked into a corner of her garden in Waiomu Bay.
Inside, the walls are adorned with posters and notes from her young readers. The Thames Coast author’s desk sits at one end, framed by shelves stuffed full of the more than 200 picture books, junior novels, educational texts, poetry, plays and early readers she has penned.
It’s this impressive stack of texts which has earned Dawn a New Year Honour for services to children’s literature.
Dawn was “stunned and honoured” to be appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, she said.
“It’s not something you do [for the accolades],” she said.
“It’s a team effort… There’s a huge journey involving wonderful people. There’s the kids, the publishers, the illustrators, then there’s me. I’m just very privileged to have belonged to some very good teams.
“And it’s been really nice to have the support of my husband and family and friends – all the times [my husband’s] cooked dinner for me while I’ve been typing away. In no way is it an individual pursuit.”
Although Dawn has loved writing since she was a child, her writing career only really began when she moved to Waiomu over 30 years ago, after spending most of her working life as a teacher.
“As soon as I got here, I just had this urge to write,” she said.
“The first book I had published was actually set in Waiomu, at the beach.”
Nature and the environment feature heavily in Dawn’s stories, inspired by the view from her studio window which overlooks the pohutukawa trees sheltering Waiomu Bay.
“They sort of stand guard. They’ve got an energy that I like, and I actually notice that energy when I’m writing,” Dawn said.
“And sometimes I come out here and write at night… Somebody said night time is the best time to write because everyone else is asleep so you’ve got the ideas to yourself.”
Not all of her tales are serious, of course. Dawn also loves writing about people’s journeys, and stories like her I Need a New Bum series talk about life in a whimsical, lighthearted way.
“I write sensible stories, and I write silly stories,” she said.
“The bum books are the biggest selling series, of course. I think we’re up to about number 13 on that, and it’s all really about the young boy and his family and problem solving. It’s not about what bums look like, particularly.”
It’s this child’s perspective that keeps her work relevant, Dawn said, and she loves meeting and spending time with children whenever she can.
“I love writing in rhyme too, for children, because as a teacher I can see that the rhyme gives them the reading clues, the patterning, and the sound repetition, and so they can read it quite easily.
“[And] It’s really important that an adult enjoys the book as well as a child – I’m really happy when an adult and a child share a book, because I think reading to kids is really important.”
Over the years, Dawn’s books have been read in classrooms throughout New Zealand and around the world. Some have been translated into Māori and Braille. I Need a New Bum even went viral when it was read by the “Scottish Granny” in an online video.
But it’s the response from children that Dawn treasures most.
“The feedback from the kids is really special to me, because this is what makes my writing life,” she said.
“They send me their work, they send me their stories. I’ve got a story on a wall from a little girl in Italy… Somebody sent me his comic. I don’t expect them to do it, but when you get a book full of neat comments, it’s really awesome.”
