Book Week at East Taieri Primary School

Swapna HaddowHalfway Round the World with the Haddows, On the Road, Scrapbook, The Bad Panda Club

I was back at East Taieri Primary School today to celebrate Book Week. I met with all the pupils from Year 0 to Year 6 and we spent the morning having heaps of booky fun.

Years 0-2 helped me create the East Taieri library card and told me all about the penguins, seals, albatross, owls and whales they have seen during an interactive reading of But Then.

And then Years 3-4 came up with overdue library book excuses of their very own. There were clams, kiwis, flying books and even a smackdown!

I finished the morning with Years 5-6 who got to hear me read from the latest Bad Panda book and came up with their very own Bad Panda stories. I loved hearing how Lin fell into a gorse bush on a run and had a bit of trouble blocking a toilet with all forty of her poos.

I even got to see the pupils ‘Book in a Box’ creations and had the hardest time judging all the exceptional hard work that went into making them. Hugest congratulations to the winners – I hope you love your booky prizes.

Thank you so much to the staff and pupils at East Taieri who made me feel so at home in your school.

It’s an AWESOME news post!

Swapna HaddowPawsome News, Roarsome News, Scrapbook

So many wonderful things to report from Writing HQ today.

Dr Diplo and his pals have been making a DINOSAUR-sized splash in the world of children’s books with Little Dinosaurs, Big Feelings.

Little Dinosaurs, Big Feelings has been longlisted for the Jhalak Children’s and Young Adult Prize 2025.

And Little Dinosaurs, Big Feelings has been shortlisted for the Queen’s Knickers Award 2025 too!

AND Little Dinosaurs, Big Feelings has been shortlisted for The Week Junior Children’s Book of the Year Awards 2025 in the Wellbeing category! I’m so proud of Team Diplo and all this lovely celebratory news.

To add to the celebrations, Reggie Rabbit: The Great Carrot Heist has been longlisted for the Alligator’s Mouth Award this year as well!

Hugest congratulations to all the other authors and illustrators on these awesome lists – it’s an absolute honour to see my books nestled in there amongst yours.

And thank you to all you brilliant readers who keep supporting my books. It means the absolute world to me.

Lots of love, Swapna

‘Ten Titles Not to miss in July’ – The Bookseller

Swapna HaddowScrapbook

My brand new book, illustrated by Jess Bradley, is in The Bookseller as one of the ‘Ten Titles Not to Miss in July’!

How to Save your Granny from a Runaway Train has been a dream project and a return to one of my first loves: science.

I was a kid who loved making sense of the world through science and once my son came along I couldn’t wait to share that love with him.

We spent his younger years going to the Science Museum and playing with all the interactive exhibitions and once he was old enough to talk he started asking serious questions like: how do you trick a shark? So, of course, I turned to science where I knew all the answers lay.

We made the most of our time in lockdown, experimenting (and experimenting and experimenting) with what we could find in the house and it was then that I thought perhaps this would make a good book.

A few years later and now we have the first in the Solved by Science series: How to Save your Granny from a Runaway Train.

The book is packed with bonkers dilemmas that can be solved with science and a bunch of brilliant physics experiments you can try at home and at school too. What are you waiting for? Preorder the book at your local bookshop or online and let’s save Granny!

Reggie Rabbit is back!

Swapna HaddowPawsome News

The third book in the Reggie Rabbit series by me and Becka Moor is out today.

Reggie Rabbit: Robbery at the Masqued Ball is hopping on to bookshop and library shelves across the UK and it’s time for the GRANDEST event in Bearburgh: the Masque family’s Masqued Ball! And this year it’s even more exciting because famous pop star Kitty Qita is going to perform! 

Young detectives Reggie Rabbit and Pipsquark are there as waiters for Auntie Hibiscus’s catering company. But not everything goes to plan. In the middle of Kitty Qita’s big act, the lights go out, and the guests’ jewels are STOLEN!

It’s a tough case and Reggie and Pipsquark are on it but there is more to this mystery than meets the eye…

Hoppy reading, everyone!

Bad Panda at Cliftonville Primary

Swapna HaddowThe Bad Panda Club

It finally happened! After a decade of school visits, Beti, my trusty laptop, experienced her first technical difficulty. (It probably didn’t help that she’s a first generation computer whose predecessor was cave painting.) But Cliftonville Primary School and I persevered and after twenty minutes of trying to log in and a brief panicked moment where I seriously considered a two thousand dollar thirty-two hour flight to the UK to make sure the author visit happened, we managed to get online for our virtual Bad Panda visit.

I read them an excerpt from Bad Panda: For Sale and then the awesome Year 2s came up with two brand new stories for the baddest panda, including Lin at a theme park struggling to get on the rides because of her height and Lin befriending a Megalodon in an underwater adventure.

Thank you to the brilliant staff and pupils of Year 2 Cliftonville Primary for being so patient with this technologically-challenged author and making the event so much fun.

It’s the finale of Bad Panda…

Swapna HaddowThe Bad Panda Club

Today is the day you finally get to read how Lin and the zoo gang’s story finishes. Bad Panda: For Sale is out and the fourth book in the series starts with the news that the zoo is going to close and all of the animals will be sent back to where they came from.

Of course, Lin is overjoyed about the idea of being returned to her panda sanctuary and being reunited with her beloved family, especially her brother, Face-Like-A-Bag-Of-Potatoes. But it dawns on Lin that the zoo closing also means she now has to leave her zoo family and she is definitely NOT happy about that: Lin is about to become the BADDEST panda ever so she can have ALL her family together.

It has been an utter joy to live with Lin, Fu, Liony McLionface and the whole troop of animals in this series for the last four years. But the most wonderful part of this journey has been YOU, the readers, the fans of the series. If you hadn’t loved Lin as much as I have, we wouldn’t be here four years later, still putting her stories out into the world. I have loved every picture, letter and costume you have sent me over the years – it has meant so much to me to see how much you have welcomed Lin and her friends into your hearts. Bad Panda fans are the most pawsome fans in the world!

But all pandatastic things must come to an end but I promise, though this is the end of the series, it ends on a happy note for Lin. I really hope you feel this is the perfect ending to the series.

Love and panda hugs,

Swapna 🙂

Happy World Book Day!

Swapna HaddowRoosting With Dave, Scrapbook

Happy World Book Day, readers! I started my World Book Day celebrations at the Otago Literacy Association’s local authors showcase. Alongside Samantha Montgomerie and Rachel McCoubrey, we were invited to share our books with teachers from all across Dunedin.

It was so inspiring to hear Sam and Rachel talk about their work and I got to speak about my 2025 releases – it’s a very exciting year this year so watch the blog for more information.

To round off my World Book Day week I tuned in for a virtual visit with Year 1 and Year 2 at Epsom Primary School. After a reading from Dave Pigeon, we created LOADS of story plans for brilliant stories for the character of Mean Cat from the Dave Pigeon series. There were sandstorms and rainbows and superglue and dinosaurs and I had such a blast meeting everyone.

Thank you to everyone who has got in touch and shared costumes, bookish classroom doors and potatoes – I have LOVED seeing all your pictures. It is so special to see and I appreciate all your hard work and love.

Happy World Book Day to you all!

The Night Before Holi with Scholastic Schools Live

Swapna HaddowScrapbook

Thank you to everyone who tuned in to join me, Aditi and Rosie for our read and drawalong for The Night Before Holi.

I had a blast reading the story and showing off pictures of my family enjoying Holi and then taking part in Aditi’s drawalong. I’m now an official Holi rocket illustrator! If you took part in the drawalong, do send your drawings in so I can show them off in my gallery.

Happy Holi from my family to yours!

The Night Before Holi is out now!

Swapna HaddowScrapbook

Today is the day! The Night Before Holi is out now!

I had the most fun riffing off Clement Clarke Moore’s poem ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ and celebrating one of my favourite festivals during my time as the University of Otago Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence in 2022 and now finally the book is here! The Night Before Holi is our now and celebrates the wonder of the colourful festival of Spring. Join a little girl and her grandad as they plan for the BEST HOLI EVER! They know all the best spots to throw the bright Holi powder but can they cover the whole neighbourhood in colour in their biggest celebration yet?

Aditi Kakade Beaufrand’s illustrations bring the joy of colour to every page of the book. The book also features a non-fiction page at the back all about Holi, including a recipe to make your own mango lassi in this bright and bold picture book, perfect for the Holi season.

And this year Read It Forward is back! If you purchase a copy of the The Night Before Holi from Bookshop.org UK, 10% of sales will go to support BookTrust and Scottish Book Trust in the work they do to help disadvantaged and vulnerable families access early reading support.

And there’s more! Teachers, educators and homeschoolers, Scholastic has put together lesson plans to go along with the book that you can download for free and use in your classrooms or at home:

Happy Holi, everyone!

Libraries for Primaries

Swapna HaddowThe Bad Panda Club

Today was my first event of the year and I’m chuffed to bits it was with NLT‘s Libraries for Primaries campaign. The Libraries for Primaries campaign work to address the lack of investment in primary school libraries which is a cause very close to my heart.

With a copy of Bad Panda: For Sale arriving on my doorstep earlier this month, it seemed only right to give all the schools who tuned in an exclusive reading of the book and tell them why I love pandas so much.

Emma from NLT then hosted a Q&A session and I got to tell them everyone about my upcoming book The Terrible Trio: The (Not So) Superheroes and how I became an author.

Thank you so much to everyone who tuned in today and I can’t wait to hear what you think of the finale of Bad Panda.

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