Kiwi Christmas Books founder Sonya Wilson established the charity in 2019 for people to buy books to give to children at Christmas.
Broadcaster-turned-writer Sonya Wilson is gearing up for a big holiday season, as her charity Kiwi Christmas Books prepares to gift thousands of books to young New Zealanders who would otherwise be going without.
But as Wilson explained in a recent interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan, the idea for the charity came about because she was battling a bad case of writer’s block while still a fledgling author.
“I was doing a course at the University [of Auckland] about writing short stories and essays, and I had a short story due for my course,” Wilson explained.
“I was lying in bed at about 3am lamenting the fact that I hadn’t read more, because the story I was trying to write was so terrible and going so terribly,” she told Cowan.
“And then I got to thinking about my kids and all these books that they’re surrounded by at home, and then about all these kids around our country who have not a single book in their house and generally no access to books.”
Wilson – who while completing that Master’s course in creative writing penned Spark Hunter, an adventure-fantasy novel that won her the 2022 NZSA Best First Book Award – told Cowan she had recently come to learn the value of books and of reading fiction, in particular.
Research shows reading for pleasure – reading made-up stories like fairytales and fiction novels – is a bigger indicator of future success than anything else, including socio-economic background, she said.
“There’s heaps of research around that shows that children who read for pleasure are far more likely to succeed in life – [and] that’s not just succeeding academically and having a better vocabulary and being better at English.
“But they’re generally better at maths, more empathetic, more emotionally intelligent, more likely to take part in their communities later on; when they get older they’re less likely to suffer from cognitive decline.
“So in my mind, it is not fair that lots of kids have access to that tool of fiction and books and many, many kids do not.”
Wilson resolved to do something about it.
“That’s why it started: let’s get a few books out through various charities that work on the ground with families – to begin with, that was the City Mission and the Women’s Refuge – and then see how it goes.
“And it just snowballed, that idea. I asked friends and family to donate some books to me as well, and it’s a pretty easy kaupapa to get on board with, right? Kids and books, no one’s going to argue against it.”
The charity has given out more than 54,000 books since launching, its website says, working in conjunction with 47 other charities in 38 towns and cities around New Zealand.
Wilson says the feedback to Kiwi Christmas Books has been “amazing”.
“Parents burst into tears when they see the books because their children have never owned something new and something of their own,” she said.
“We have stories of kids clutching their new books to their chest and not letting anyone else touch them or not letting their social workers touch them because they want them.
“One woman told me a couple of months ago that … an 18-month-old was given The Gruffalo and it’s now his absolute favourite thing – he makes every visitor that arrives read it to him and then kisses the Gruffalo goodnight on the last page of the book every night!”
Wilson’s own career as an author has also taken off in recent years, with The Secret Green – a sequel to Spark Hunter – released this year.
It’s been quite the career pivot, with Wilson turning her back on more than two decades in broadcast journalism to start her new profession. The adjustment hasn’t always been easy.
“I think it was particularly hard for me, coming off a background of news reporting and then current affairs, where obviously you’re working to deadlines that are usually very tight and very quick and everything is very fast,” Wilson explained.
“To then be dealing with what felt like an octopus of a project that was, you know, 60-80,000 words long – even just to read it through once takes you a couple of days, let alone rewriting the whole thing.
“Writing a book in general, some of it is talent, but most of it, perhaps, is perseverance. It’s a very long road.”
Both Wilson’s books have been optioned for adaptation, but given they feature a cast of small supernatural forest creatures, Wilson expects the cost of making a TV series or a movie might be a little eye-watering.
“But there are people that want to do it and I’m going to have a crack at doing the screenplay,” she said. “So if anyone out there has got a spare $30-40 million to send our way to make the movies, then get in touch!”
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