Aunt Effie and the Island That Sank (12 page)

Before I went deaf,
I used to talk about my writing to kids in schools, and they always asked, “Where do you get your ideas from?” But I was too cunning for them. I knew that if I told those kids my secret, they’d write their own books, and they wouldn’t buy mine.

If you promise not to tell, here’s my secret: I used to pinch my ideas from things kids said. Now I’m deaf and can’t hear the kids, I have to climb in the school windows after dark and read their stories on the wall. That way, I can still steal their ideas.

Here’s another Aunt Effie story. Every idea in it, I stole off some kid. But don’t tell them, or they’ll start hiding their stories, and I’ll run out of ideas for another book.

—Jack Lasenby

Charlie the Cheeky Kea 1976

Rewi the Red Deer 1976

The Lake 1987

The Mangrove Summer 1989

Uncle Trev 1991

Uncle Trev and the Great South Island Plan 1991

Uncle Trev and the Treaty of Waitangi 1992

The Conjuror 1992

Harry Wakatipu 1993

Dead Man’s Head 1994

The Waterfall 1995

The Battle of Pook Island 1996

Because We Were the Travellers 1997

Uncle Trev’s Teeth 1997

Taur 1998

The Shaman and the Droll 1999

The Lies of Harry Wakatipu 2000

Kalik 2001

Aunt Effie 2002

Harry Wakatipu Comes the Mong 2003

Aunt Affie’s Ark 2003