Winter in July

Leading New Zealand and Australian children's authors not only tell the stories behind their books and share some of their writing secrets, they describe trends that influence what is being published now. Until the past decade or so, children in Australia and New Zealand grew up reading mostly books from Britain or the United States. Several of the authors explain why so few children's books were published in Australia and New Zealand before the 1980s and why children's book publishing is now a flourishing industry there.

Each chapter features an informal presentation given to a group of American librarians, teachers, readers, and writers during a story tour of New Zealand and Australia. The reader will meet New Zealand authors Dorothy Butler, Tessa Duder, Gavin Bishop, and Margaret Mahy, and Australian authors Jeannie Baker, Robin Klein, Peter Gouldthorpe, John Marsden, and Ivan Southall.

Overviews by Betty Gilderdale, professor of children's literature in New Zealand, and Mark MacLeod, children's publishing director for Random House Australia, set the stage for chapters about the authors.