Julie Leibrich

Julie Leibrich was born in Salford, England, not long after the end of the war. Julie settled in New Zealand in 1974, to attend Victoria University, finishing her psychology degree in 1976. She then went on to complete a PhD in 1982. She had only meant to visit New Zealand, but decided to stay. In 1995, Julie received the Todd New Writer's Bursary from Creative New Zealand. This enabled her to follow her first love, poetry. Besides poetry, Julie enjoys writing children's picture books. Her first book, Once in a Blue Moon, was published in 1995, and tells the story of Amy, who dances for the moon. Her second book, The Ossossossorus was published in 1999. It combines alliteration and onomatopoeia with fantasy and monsters under the bed. While writing it, Julie invited a group of children to participate with ideas on how the story should proceed. ‘They said it should be scarier, so I 'let myself go' a bit more. I remember too that we talked about the ending - whether the Ossossossorus was really a monster or not. It made me decide to be ambiguous at the end. I still get asked by children whether it was the cat or a monster.... Getting children's feedback is the best thing of all.’ In 2003, Julie won the inaugural Storylines Joy Cowley Award. Julie comments: ‘… [Joy’s] suggestions were excellent. I think that any chance to meet someone you admire or to have them comment on your work is a wonderful opportunity to learn. Also, to get positive feedback from someone like Joy gave me more confidence in my own writing.'

Selected bibliography:

• Once in a Blue Moon illustrated by Jacquelyn E. Lane (Random House 1995).
• The Ossossossorus illustrated by Linda McClelland (Scholastic 1999).  
• The Biggest Number in the Universe illustrated by Ross Kinnaird (Scholastic 2004).
• Nesta and the Missing Zero illustrated by Ross Kinnaird (Scholastic 2006).  

Awards:

• Storylines Joy Cowley Award 2003.
• Storylines Notable Books List 2005 Picture Book list for The Biggest Number in the Universe.