Day 12: Christmas Eve! My turn, and Gordon Bagshaw's, too. We present to you, a sneak peak at an illustration from my up-coming middle-grade novel, "Peter Little Wing"...

At a certain point in Peter Little Wing, Peter and the others meet a group of wētā, which is the common name for a group of insects endemic to New Zealand. These flightless cricket-like bugs are among the heaviest insects in the world!

Wētā are preyed on by introduced mammals, and some species are now critically endangered, as are so many of the endemic animals of Aotearoa.

About the novel:
Peter, a captive Southern Fiordland tokoeka kiwi, and his friends from the National Aquarium—Onion, a little blue penguin with an inner ear imbalance; Tim, a tuatara with Generalized Anxiety Disorder; and Rangi, a kea with clipped wings—embark on a quest through the unfamiliar wilderness of New Zealand in search of three ingredients needed to create an elixir to cure Peter’s ailing grandfather. Together, they traverse the length of the South Island of Aotearoa, all the way across the Cook Strait and back home to the North Island. They learn what they are all capable of in the wild of the wop wops, and what the world beyond the "Wall of Shadows" of Peter’s habitat is all about.

About the author:
That's me! Check out About Me and My Background and Other Projects on this very website!

About the illustrator:
Gordon Bagshaw, is a Canadian comic strip author and freelance illustrator. He is the creator of the entertaining online comic strips Stories According To Whom? and Frodo the Sheltie, including three book galleries. Gord drew the children’s book Sleep Time For Mammals, which garnered 1 of 3 L.M. Montgomery Literature for Children Awards in 2014. He illustrated the multi-award-winning Libby The Lobivia Jajoiana, which won 2021 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards for Best Illustrations (2nd place). Gordon resides in São Paulo, Brazil, with his lovely wife, where he teaches ESL.

PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY OF PETER LITTLE WING NOW!

And join us for the launch party Saturday February 4th 1-4pm ... in person at Hot House Restaurant in Toronto, or virtually for the readings at 2:15pm & 3:15pm.