I'm Kathy White. I'm a writer. If I wasn't a writer, I'd like to be a wildlife photographer. The other day, I was sitting, watching a duck, and it blinked. Did you know that ducks have eyelids on the bottom of their eyes that move up when they blink? Or that possums wink one eye at you? Perhaps they don't trust us enough to close both at the same time. Something happens when I watch animals. I feel something stir in my soul. It's this connection that makes me want to know about them, and write about them.

Animals and words bring out the best in me, so I try to combine the two. Even when I write about things that seem like they don't involve animals, I try to put them in the story somewhere. One of my characters had a haircut that made her look like a baby gorilla called Lulu. Fraser Williamson created the gorgeous illustration in A Hairy Tale And then there's the vegetarian wolf battling against the gun-toting granny in the slightly warped tale of Little Green Riding Hood. There's an adventurous mouse on a plane in Alex and Josie (which is my mother's favourite book), and oodles of awe and pride in Animal Heroes and Wildlife on Film. Muffin Magic didn't have any animals in it (but it did have a lot of muffins because I love baking muffins). It's famous for being one of the few books in the Kiwi Bites series that had the bite painted on the corner of the book, rather than cut out of it.

In this website you can find out about my books. You can also read about how I started writing stories, plays and articles for children's magazines like Explore and the School Journal in other writing. Let me know if you've acted in one of my plays. Hit that contact button and tell me about it. I'd especially like to know if you learnt some­thing from one of my articles or laughed over a story or play. After all - that's why I like writing for you. You can find out more about me and why I write what I write, you can look at the blog I wrote when I was in Iowa on the International Writing Program or you can read the feature article about writing on the books page. There are suggestions about other books to read all over the website and there are great book websites and blogs listed in Links. I've also suggested things you can do after reading my books, and included an Activities page with links to your favourite book-related games. If I've been to your school lately to talk to you, send me a photo so I can add it to the Photo Gallery and if I haven't visited your school or done a Skype Book Talk in your classroom, get your teacher to make a booking on the School Visits page.

I've had 13 books and about 130 short stories, magazine articles and plays published. A short story called Sugar Bag Boy is about to be published in the Scholastic anthology Pick 'n' Mix. There are another three or four books hidden away in a drawer, waiting to escape.

Come on in and have a look around.