Maketū author Angie Belcher’s new bounce-along book

Maketū author Angie Belcher with her latest book Pipi Dance or Te Pikari Pipi.

Maketū author Angie Belcher is sharing the love with her latest book - Pipi Dance.

Publisher Scholastic have an open submission day on Valentine’s Day each year. Belcher originally sent her manuscript to the publisher’s Share the Love Day two years ago.

But the story had its birth when she was talking to a young writer in Maketū six months earlier.

“I’d been running these Kimi Kupu [finding the words] workshops and one of the young participants had come to me to talk a bit more about her writing and said she was having difficulty finding stories to write about.

“I said the biggest thing is you just have to look around you and listen. Stories are there around you all the time, you just have to be open to receiving them.”

As if to prove a point, Belcher looked out to the beach and saw people gathering pipi.

“I said look at what they are doing, they are shuffling to the left and shuffling to the right and as I was saying it I was thinking, ‘hang on, there’s a little story there’ and after she had gone I started scribbling down some notes.”

When the next Share the Love came around, she took out her notes, had another look, then sent them to Scholastic.

“I didn’t ever dream that anything would come of it.”

But it did.

Scholastic engaged Wellington illustrator Lily Uivel.

“She seems to be very popular for illustrations at the moment,” says Belcher, who likes the way Uivel has shunned the usual dominance of blue that is common on beach and sea-based story books.

“I was also very lucky that they had it translated into te reo as well.”

Te Pikari Pipi is the title in te reo Māori.

Belcher says Share the Love is a way of submitting manuscripts and knowing they will be read.

“It’s really hard when you’re writing to send submissions in to publishers and get them to read it because they get literally thousands.”

She says it can provide a kick-start for those just starting out.

Having been a teacher, Belcher says she knows the importance of rhythm in engaging children.

“I like bouncy patterns and you get that rhythm and musical ups and downs and that’s what I’ve got with this [book]. Because it bounces along it works to read it aloud.”

She has written about 30 educational books and six trade publications.

The launch of Pipi Dance will be at Te Puke Library on February 29 at 3.30pm.

“That way I can get support for my book and also support the library.

“We’ll get children to bring in a decorated shell, or there will be the opportunity to decorate a shell and we’ll put them in a box and pull out a couple of shells to win any of my books - to make it a bit of fun.”