A local author of more than 50 children’s books has recently released her latest work.
Botany resident Jennifer Beck has won numerous prizes, awards and accolades for her large range of books in her 82 years of life, and her most recent story, My Mum is Queen of the Road, is set to continue the trend of delighting New Zealand children around the country.
Born in Auckland, Beck’s rural childhood on a farm was a flurry of making up plays and word games with her siblings and, of course, reading.
These activities, along with the influence of her mother working part-time in a library and her father tutoring art classes, influenced and shaped Beck’s creativity and love for books.
“My writing has very much come from a love of art,” she says. “When I write, I actually see a picture and I write underneath it.”
Beck graduated from the University of Auckland with a BA, MA and diploma in clinical psychology. She worked as a teacher and psychologist.
She made early books for her children by drawing pictures and writing simple sentences underneath them. Beck was heavily involved in Cockle Bay play centre as a parent and was influenced by “several very creative friends”.
“I was a late starter,” she says. “I didn’t start writing (published) books until my 40s.”
Since then, Beck has written more than 50 books that have claimed the hearts and minds of young Kiwis. Several of her stories have won awards and received national attention.
Her favourite achievement, Beck says, was winning the Children’s Choice Award for her book Nobody’s Dog in 2006, which was voted for by thousands of New Zealand kids.
Beck’s latest book, My Mum is Queen of the Road, wonderfully illustrated by Lisa Allen, is about two children playing with trucks and diggers in a sandpit. The main character Ari tells his friend Isabella that his mother is a road-worker who works the stop/go sign and is the queen of the road.
Isabella proceeds to ask Ari numerous questions, such as ‘does she wear diamonds?’ in an attempt to figure out why she’s called a Queen. It is an ode to those living in rural areas and essential workers and deconstructs the stereotype of what makes a typical Queen.
Additionally, the book highlights how every person, no matter their job, is important and valuable.
“It’s about kids knowing what their parents are doing and being proud of it.”
Several of Beck’s main themes that are core to many of her stories – rural life, good family relationships, humour, and a positive ending – are alive in her current book.
“For some reason, I’m very much an anti-war person but I’ve written about five children’s books about war. In a way, this one was fun to do because it wasn’t about war.”
There is a Maori and English version of the story.
My Mum is Queen of the Road is available at several bookstores, including Poppies Bookshop.
