CELEBRATED CHILDREN’S AUTHOR JOY COWLEY PUBLISHES PICTURE BOOK TO SUPPORT LOCAL MUSEUM

This week Scholastic New Zealand is delighted to release Hero of the Hill, a new picture book by Joy Cowley, with the author’s royalties supporting the preservation of a local treasure.

One of New Zealand's finest children's storytellers, Joy Cowley has penned a very special tale about the last surviving Fell locomotive, H 199, which resides in Joy’s home region of Wairarapa.

Joy Cowley’s lyrical text shares the story of the amazing little Fell engines, while illustrator Philip Webb’s atmospheric illustrations sympathetically capture a bygone era in this handsomely designed hardcover picture book, featuring gorgeous endpapers and gold cover trim.

Engine H One-Ninety-Nine

worked the Wairarapa line,

pulling carriages up the steep incline

of the Rimutaka Hill.

It’s a darned long way to the summit of the Rimutakas, and a steep climb at that. But Engine H 199 used to do its bit to get people and freight through the Rimutaka Ranges.

The story is told in Joy Cowley’s faultless rhyme and rhythm and concludes with a double-page fact spread about the locomotives and brake vans that were needed to achieve this feat.

All of Joy Cowley’s royalties for this title will be donated to support the Featherston Fell Museum, home to the world’s last surviving Fell locomotive, H 199. For more information about the Fell Locomotive Museum visit http://www.fellmuseum.org.nz/

Joy Cowley is a prolific, widely published and much-celebrated writer of fiction for adults and children. She began her career writing short stories and novels, followed by children’s literature. She has written a remarkable range of children’s books and stories, often illustrated by renowned artists. Joy Cowley was made a Distinguished Companion of New Zealand Order of Merit for services to children's literature in 2005.

Philip Webb is a Wellington-based illustrator who has previously teamed up with Joy Cowley to produce the picture book Fly Pie, but might be best known for his illustrations in Diana Neild’s Piggity-Wiggity Jiggity Jig series.

Hero of the Hill is being launched at a public event on Saturday 28 September at 2.00pm, at the Anzac Hall, 62 Bell Street, Featherston.