James Russell and Donovan Bixley Visit Tahuna

Two kiwi authors/illustrators by the name of James Russell and Donovan Bixley came and talked to students at Tahuna about their past and their books. They told us about one series of their own books. Both of them had interesting book series. I liked “The Dragon Defenders” series that James told us about.

James Russell told us about his current novel series “The Dragon Defenders.” I instantly took a liking to the book, just by the title. I love fantasy books with mythical creatures and especially ones that are based in New Zealand. James told us that he has a picture book series based on younger children. The first one was called “Dragon Hunters” which he said he read chapters to his son as he was writing it.

Donovan Bixley was a boy from Taupo. He explained how much he loved to doodle and draw on the floor as a child. He also mentioned that the best time to doodle was when he was surrounded by family and close friends. While explaining why he liked to doodle, he drew a plane on a white board. Donovan said “I love to draw animals!” So what he did was draw a small cat flying a plane. The series Donovan told us about was called “Flying Furballs” which was real life based - Cats flying planes!  Aria R4

James Russell

I liked when James was talking about his childhood when he said that he felt like his Dad loved his boat more than his kids. As a child he was just waiting for it to hurry up and die, but when he was 12 he actually ended up causing the death of the boat by accident, when he didn’t bolt the motor to the boat!

One year when it was his birthday his parents brought him a new bike and he thought it was a BMX like everyone else, but it turned out that it wasn't. He was also waiting for that to break so he could get a new one. Then a few years later he wanted to join in a skid race. All the other kids had BMX bikes, so they didn't expect him to get very far, but he actually won it on his Raleigh 20! Georgia R4

I learnt that Donovan has written over 100 books and that most of the books that he had out on display had an award.

What I found funny was that one of his cats was so fat that when he went to the vet, the veterinarian said the cat had cancer in its throat which meant the cat couldn't eat anymore. The vet said he would live for three more days but because the cat was so fat it lived for three more weeks! He based his stories on real cats he had owned and he had lots, cause he lived on a busy street! I enjoyed watching him draw a picture of the cat flying the plane with lots of wings. Matai R4