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Additional background
This book is a richly illustrated book set in rural New Zealand in the 1970s, when kids ate Sunmaid Raisins for snacks and bike helmets were optional — but the story itself is timeless.
This rhyming, whimsically funny adventure story is about a young boy trusting himself to take risks and discover what he’s capable of. His mother’s stern warning, ‘don’t go near the creek’ is simply an expression of protective love; is about focusing on your strengths and taking steps to make your own dreams come true through ingenuity and about caring for other inhabitants of our planet and for the world we live in.
Like the author, as a child, the main character is bookish and un-sporty with respiratory problems and poor coordination but has an awakening of understanding about caring for other creatures and cleaning up the environment and he cleverly turns pollution into a business opportunity.
About the Kiwi creators
Adam Blackwell has his own marketing agency called Stun, along with two small businesses: Blackwell and Sons and Greytown Distilling Company. He’s married to Millie Blackwell who owns Mrs Blackwell’s Village Bookshop in Greytown. This is his first book.
Paul Rees is an award-winning artist whose passion is painting in oils. He won a Disney art competition in the 1970s and has been painting ever since. He designed the original Cookie Time Muncher and all the visual branding for Blackwell and Sons. He lives in Christchurch, works at Cube Design in Christchurch and in 2022 opened Cube Gallery.
