Alison Ballance

Alison is a zoologist who loves telling stories about nature, using words, sounds and pictures. She has written many non-fiction books, on subjects such as beautiful birds, rare wildlife, mountains and kakapo, and has been a finalist at both the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. She worked as a wildlife film-maker for many years, making more than 16 award-winning documentaries for TV channels such as Discovery Channel and National Geographic on animals as various as tigers, wild horses, weta, spectacled bears and marine iguanas, in countries such as Mongolia, Russia, India and Ecuador.

Selected bibliography:

• Hoki: The Story of a Kakapo with Gideon Climo, illustrated by Jo Ogier (Godwit Press 1997).
• Habitats of the World, a series of 10 children’s books (Dominie Press 2000). 
• Animal Lifestyles, a series of 10 children’s books (Dominie Press 2002).
• Island Magic: Wildlife of the South Seas with Rod Morris (David Bateman 2003).
• Dancing with Cranes: On Location with a New Zealand Wildlife Film Maker (Longacre Press 2005).
• Beautiful Birds of New Zealand with Rod Morris (Random House 2006).
• Don Merton: The Man who Saved the Black Robin (Reed Publishing 2007).
• Southern Alps: Nature and History of New Zealand’s Mountain World (Random House 2007)
• Rare Wildlife of New Zealand with Rod Morris (Random House 2008).

Awards:

• New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards 1998 Non-fiction shortlist for Hoki.
• Montana New Zealand Book Awards finalist 2008 for Southern Alps.