The Boy Who Made Things Up

An award winning illustrator living in Nelson, New Zealand. Lily Emo spends her time juggling the demands of an illustration/art career and freelancing as a graphic designer and relief art teaching. Her portraiture work of Covid 19 essential workers was displayed in 2021 in The National Portrait Gallery in Wellington.

Margaret Mahy (1936–2012) is New Zealand’s most celebrated children’s writer. As the author of more than 120 titles - which have since been translated into 15 different languages – Mahy’s readership is vast. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a librarian for over 10 years. Mahy’s books ring with humour, fantasy, adventure, science, and the supernatural, aspects that the author skilfully balances with her interest in the narrative possibilities of the ordinary world. Awarded the Order of New Zealand in 1993, she also won many global prizes for children’s writers, including the Carnegie Medal and the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award.