Thank you to everyone who joined Darshika, Rosie and I for a Diwali storytime today. I had such a blast reading The Night Before Diwali with you all and I can’t wait to see your Diwali-inspired pictures from Darshika’s drawalong. Do send them to Swapna Haddow HQ so I can add them to my awesome online gallery.
Happy reading and happy Diwali for next month!
We’re having all the celebrations today at Swapna Haddow HQ because it is double publication day with Scholastic UK!
First up, The Night Before Diwali is out today and just in time for Diwali next month:
Join a little boy and his grandmother as they plan for the BEST DIWALI EVER! There are diyas to light, laddoos to roll and beautiful rangoli patterns to make! Can they get everything ready in time to throw their biggest Diwali celebration yet?
This is my Diwali-twist on the traditional ‘Night Before Christmas’ poem with Darshika Varma’s illustrations beautifully capturing the joy of celebrating Diwali. It features a Diwali fact sheet and a delicious laddoo recipe – I really hope young readers absolutely love this book.
And it’s also publication day for The Terrible Trio in the UK and they have their very own UK cover:
Let me know if you spot The Terrible Trio out in the wild in the UK or anywhere else in the world and HAPPY READING to you all!
It’s finally the day The Terrible Trio: The (not so) Superheroes hit bookshop and library bookshelves across the world. Yes, that’s right! It’s a world takeover! The Terrible Trio has officially sold into SIXTEEN territories and there is more on the way!
In a world where all animals have superpowers, Zeb the zebra, Margarine the penguin, and Barry the lemur have the WORST powers of all.
Zeb, Margarine, and Barry end up at the back of the line to have the Superpower Manager grant them their superpowers and end up getting the short end of the stick. Margarine is granted the special ability to make macaroni and cheese. Barry is gifted with the power to write neatly. And Zeb can now blend in with a zebra crossing.
Working at a café and watching everybody else save the world day in and day out, Zeb, Margarine, and Barry wonder if they will ever get to be superheroes for a day themselves…
Written by me and illustrated by the awesome Minky Stapleton, The Terrible Trio books are a fun graphic novel series perfect for young readers, full of hilarity, friendship and the struggle of folding napkins. Reviews are in and here is a brilliant one in the NZ Herald:
And THANK YOU to absolutely EVERYONE who put this trio of buddies on the bestseller list! It is an absolute dream come true and I hope you enjoyed their adventures.
We have free downloadable activity sheets here and there are free teacher notes here for teachers, librarians and homeschoolers too.
Happy reading, everyone! You are all superheroes because reading is a superpower. I hope you love this book as much as I do!
Earlier this week, The Terrible Trio goodie boxes were sent out…
The Terrible Trio then landed in the University Book Shop window…
Well, that could only signal one thing… THE TERRIBLE TRIO SUPER PARTY BOOK BIRTHDAY LAUNCH was on!
Dunedin turned out to pack University Book Shop and help Minky and I celebrate the launch of The Terrible Trio, which is out on the 2nd of September. It was incredible to see so many family and friends and make so many new friends too.
We introduced everyone to the characters of the book, the trio of animals with the worst superpowers in the world: Zeb the zebra, Margarine the penguin and Barry the lemur and in honour of the book, had a competition to see who had the worst superpower with a joint that extends too far being the winner.
There were super cupcakes from Criollo Cakes, a super photo booth hosted by Moment Booth, a super zebra, a super dress up and cape competition and of course we couldn’t resist a reading and drawalong.
Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart to everyone who turned up to celebrate with us.
I’m so extremely thankful to have such a wonderful community of booklovers around me who are raising the next generation of booklovers. You are all terribly brilliant – you even got us into the UBS Weekly Top Five!
If you spot The Terrible Trio in the wild do let me know – I’d love to know where Zeb, Marge and Barry have travelled to.
I was invited to write the Rama and Sita story for Hachette’s ‘Little Myths’ series and today it is officially out in the world! Gorgeously illustrated by Darshika Varma, this is a must-have if you are collecting the ‘Little Myths’ series.
Most people know Rama and Sita as the good guys and VIP guests at Diwali. But once upon a time, Rama and Sita were just a little boy and girl. Sure, he was the reincarnated god Vishnu, and she was a champion archer with super strength, but in lots of other ways they were just like you.
When they grew up, Sita was taken by a demon king and Rama had to get her back. This is their story.
All the books in the ‘Little Myths’ series are packed with facts from mythology and graphic art panels, making this the perfect series for mythology-mad kids.
Happy reading!
Happy day! How to Save Your Granny from a Runaway Train is out today! Illustrated by Jess Bradley, this book is packed with bonkers comic strips, super science and easy-to-do experiments.
This is perfect for kids who love science and also for those who don’t because the science is paired back and made relevant to the real world with not-so-real dilemmas!
I had an absolute blast working on this one and I’m so grateful to my awesome editor, Emma Dodds and our science consultants for all the advice. I am a certified science geek and I love the idea of kids enjoying this book and maybe learning a little something as well.
Happy reading and happy saving Granny day!
My second picturebook with Team Scholastic NZ and Daron Parton, celebrating my love of libraries and librarians is out today!
Why Not? is the follow up to But Then…, which was published last year. Where But Then… followed the story of an excuse for a very overdue book, Why Not? is based firmly in a library and is a cautionary tale about the dos and do nots of a library. This story was based on things that have actually happened in libraries around the world.
I had a hoot finding out about the weirdest things that have happened in libraries. I heard about returned books that contained sandwiches used as bookmarks. I heard about racoons, hawks, and an actual bear breaking into libraries and I even heard a story about a ghost. Not all of these incidents made it into the book but I wonder how many you can spot in the story now you know what I know.
And we already have an lovely review for the book in the NZ Herald Canvas magazine:
You can watch the awesome Suzy Cato read the book too:
I hope you enjoy this one as much as I have researching and writing it.
Happy reading and say hello to your librarian from Swapna Haddow HQ!
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 is the Queen’s Knickers Award runner-up for 2025! Such happy news for Team Little Dinosaurs!
Not only was it a silver medal for Little Dinosaurs, Big Feelings but the book was also shortlisted for The Week Junior Children’s Book of the Year Awards 2025 in the Wellbeing category!
AND Little Dinosaurs, Big Feelings was longlisted for the Jhalak Children’s and Young Adult Prize 2025. 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 nominated authors and illustrators – 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
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.
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!
