Profiles > Profiles N-S > Jean Prior
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Jean Prior
Jean went on to become a home economics teacher, as well as a wife and mother. Her family is grown up now, and she has five grandchildren. She is looking forward to further education in 2005 when she will possibly train as a resource teacher of literacy. Jean currently lives in Orewa, north of Auckland. Her ambition to write stories was always simmering quietly in the background, but was given extra impetus by her studies for the Diploma in Children’s Literature with the Christchurch College of Education. Jean has two more papers to complete, and is thinking about undertaking an MEd (ChLit) with Charles Sturt University. Jean is active in the Kiwi Write4Kidz group on Auckland’s North Shore. Jean says that she is inspired by the top class speakers organised by the group, and also by the smaller critique groups which provide feedback and motivation for the members. The idea for the award-winning text of The Waka (originally called 'Out of the Wind and Rain') came to Jean one day when she was gardening, accompanied by her dog and two cats. ‘The first draft was written about three years ago,’ she says. ’After that various lines and rhymes would come to me at odd times. I scribbled them down on paper and eventually put the first draft on my computer. It was tweaked at intervals, printed off, and carried round in my bag for about a year before I submitted it for the Joy Cowley Award.’ Jean thoroughly enjoyed working with Joy Cowley on the picture book manuscript. ‘It was a steep learning curve for me,’ she says, ‘but I have a much more critical for my own work now.’ Select bibliography:
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Jean’s love of books and storytelling was inspired by the stories told by her father when she was a child. Jean and her sister spent many evenings listening to tales about the Little Folk from Bunnyhill Farm. Immediately after World War II there weren’t many children’s books around, but Jean had a small library – with NO comics. She remembers receiving and treasuring Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Grimms’ Fairy Tales. After winning book vouchers in the ASB Thrift Essay competitions, Jean added The House at Pooh Corner and A Tale of Two Cities to her bookcase. She adored the Enid Blyton books that also had a place on the shelves.