FEATURE: Loryn Engelsman - Creator of Kiwicorn's Unique Hand Lettering

FEATURE: Loryn Engelsman - Creator of Kiwicorn's Unique Hand Lettering

We are beyond spoilt to have collaborated with Loryn Engelsman in the birth of our new Kiwicorn book. Her amazing creativity and skill for hand lettered typography is what brought the text in the story to life! She not only hand lettered the title & every word in the book, she also created a one of a kind Kiwicorn font for us.  The uniqueness of Loryn’s work perfectly parallels the ethos in the book.

OCTOBER - Save Kiwi Month Success

1st of October marked the beginning of Save Kiwi Month

As part of my Kiwis for kiwi ambassador role, Kuwi and I will be launching the new book, visiting schools, attending events, and raising money for kiwi conservation initiatives (via the amazing Kiwis for kiwi charity).

As a result of October's Save Kiwi Month, we have managed to just just hit $10,000 raised for Kiwis for kiwi from the sale of Kuwi the Kiwi books!

Every $100 raised protects one kiwi for one whole year. Now, that's a lot of kiwi!  ❤️

Kuwi's Creative Colouring Book Reviews

One of my fave reviewers from the KIWIreviews website (Melissaandchloe).

This is Melissa's clever Miss 3 colouring in Kuwi's Creative Colouring Book and building the burrow from Kuwi's First Egg.

I was so stoked to see a 10/10 out of the 9 reviews for the colouring book. Thanks so much all of you amazing reviewers, and thanks KIWIreviews!

Here's a snippet from Melissa's review:

"Throughout the colouring book there are lot's of fun facts about Kiwi's and Miss 3 has loved learning about these and sharing her new found knowledge at daycare with her teacher's and friends, she has become quite a Kiwi expert thanks to this colouring book and will often get me to read her her colouring book as her bedtime story."
– Melissa

Click here to read Melissa's full review and more reviews like this.

Other Kuwi book reviews:

Children's Choice Te Reo Maori Winner 2016

Thanks to the tamariki! Children's Choice Te Reo Māori Winner 2016. 🎈

I couldn't have got there without my amazing friend, translator and colleague, Pānia Papa. <3 

Thanks to the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

A huge honour to be there with such amazing authors and illustrators, that I have looked up to for many years.

And thanks to all of you AMAZING, supportive friends and fans.

 

WINNER Children’s Choice Te reo Māori
Te Hua Tuatahi a Kuwi

FINALIST Children’s Choice Picture Book
Kuwi’s Huhu Hunt
by Kat Merewether

FINALIST Te reo Māori (Te Kura Pounamu Award)
Te Hua Tuatahi a Kuwi (Te Reo version of Kuwi’s First Egg)
by Kat Merewether
translated by Pānia Papa

North Island brown kiwi chick named Kuwi

The awesome Otorohanga Mayor Max Baxter got to name a new North Island brown kiwi chick at Otorohanga Kiwi House & Native Bird Park today. And, he named it Kuwi!!! Welcome to the world little one. ⭐️

I had the privilege of meeting the baby brown kiwi - 'Kuwi', named after our very own!

Otorohanga Kiwi House & Native Bird Park invited me into her daily weighing. At 65 days old, she weighed in at 664gm. She was so small and soft. I am in love 💕

‘Kuwi’ the Kiwi – 5 days old

'Kuwi', the Rowi chick

Update from West Coast Wildlife Centre Franz Josef:

'Kuwi', the Rowi chick is now 5 days old and is a very active little bird! Last night Kuwi was offered food for the first time which he/she had good play with. Since the chick is not eating yet it is still losing weight, which is completely normal for a kiwi chick of this age. Kiwi chicks hatch with a large internal yolk sac in their gut which acts as a food source for the first couple of weeks of life. It is highly nutritious and initially weighs around 25% of their body weight, so can even inhibit movement in freshly hatched chicks. When we are handling the chicks the yolk sac can be easily be felt in their soft rounded bellies. As it gets utilized, their bellies will progressively get smaller and firmer while the chick progresses onto eating solid food – and usually a little bit of soil too! This chick is showing excellent foraging behavior and is constantly probing around in the soil in its brooder. In the wild a kiwi’s main diet is underground invertebrates, which the nostrils and vibration sensor at the tip of their bill easily help them locate underground. Analysis of wild diets have shown that Kiwi are omnivorous with a wide range of fruits, seeds and leaves eaten and even evidence of fishing for underwater invertebrates, crayfish and small eels. Once ‘Kuwi’ is eating well and gaining weight, we will microchip and vaccinate it to prepare the chick for release to an outdoor enclosure – the next exciting step in the Kiwis for kiwi Operation Nest Egg journey!

Beautiful!!

$4002.90 raised for Kiwis for kiwi

HOLY MOLY! $4002.90 raised last month for Kiwis for kiwi Save Kiwi Month…

This is directly from all of your Kuwi the Kiwi book purchases during October. THANK YOU! We gave $1 from each book purchase (& $5 each for educational venues), and the total (so far) has come back. I am blown away. That makes the total donated this year $5102.09.

That is enough to save 51 kiwi for one whole year. Now that is pretty damn cool.

Kuwi loves Frizzell

Fan girl moment… A picture of my art + illustration superhero Dick Frizzell reading Kuwi! I lovingly parodied one of his amazing artworks in the book and had been in contact before it was published to get him to check it out and make sure he was happy with my cheeky ‘hat tip’. At the time he messaged back to say “Ha ha…very nice!! go for it…and good luck!”

Today Christian from the Dick’s World crew sent me this: “I am with Dick at the moment and I see your book on his desk. He is impressed…”

The best thing ever ♡ Thanks Dick