Local author Amy Harrop publishes new children’s book

Lily Goat was white and skinny and truly a sassy queen. But she was bored and blue, yearning for something new to do. She had crunched a jandal and chased the dog away, disturbed a wētā under a log…

When mischievous Lily Goat gets bored one day, she discovers she has a talent for the trampoline. But when his talent turns into boastfulness, his barnyard friends begin to turn their backs on him. Will they help her when she gets in trouble? Will Lily learn her lesson?

Goat on a Trampoline is an adorable story full of humor, endearing characters, and the timeless moral of the importance of being kind to others, by Te Awamutu author Amy Harrop.

The official launch takes place at Te Awamutu Paper Plus on Saturday at 11 a.m. – a chance to meet the author and get a first look at this new work with simple rhyming text and lively, expressive illustrations by Ross Hamilton, who only sure to please both children and adults alike.

Amy came up with the idea after walking past a paddock near Ōhaupō several times where there were several goats and two old trampolines.

Sometimes Amy noticed the goats standing or sleeping on the trampolines.

“It had become a family tradition for us to look every time we drive by to see if the goats are on the trampolines,” she says.

“Although we didn’t see goats bouncing and doing tricks, we always wondered what they could do when no one was watching.”

Amy is a literacy support teacher at Te Awamutu Primary School who has always loved reading and writing.

She says she recently discovered a box of newspapers and books that she “published” as a child.

“They are terrible,” she said.

But she has always dreamed of writing for children and being published, which she says is quite difficult to break into in New Zealand.

Amy got into writing in earnest when her son was born and had her first book published in 2019 – There’s a Hedgehog in My Pants.

She says getting a follow-up wasn’t easy and she had to get used to the rejection and learn to keep going.

Amy has been honored this year, not one, but two.

Goat on a Trampoline was wanted by two publishers, but had already committed to Bateman Books. Fortunately, the second editor wanted to see more, and now Amy has released Who Took The Toilet Paper in time for Christmas.

She says that despite the title, the book was written before Covid and is a humorous story of bears in the woods.

She is truly grateful to her illustrators for bringing her children’s stories to life, saying that while she can write, she can’t draw.

And with many more stories and ideas, Amy hopes her dream of being a children’s author will continue.