Sarah McAneney is an author as well as a psychologist, so the internal workings of her book characters’ emotions are important to her, such as empathy, kindness, and self-compassion. She believes that children’s books that teach good values are important, but that the storyline has to be the priority and books that are too openly moralistic can bore young readers. She finds that children learn best through imagination and play so stimulating their imagination is the focus if anything is to be learnt.

As a mother whose kids are biracial – half New Zealander, half Lebanese – showing diverse family structures in children’s books is something that is also very important to her, simply as a matter of fact and everyday life, not to impart a social lesson. Sarah finds that whereas many children’s books provide a window for children to view stories about race or cultural differences, not many books provide a mirror for biracial children to simply see themselves, someone familiar, as a part of the story.

When she isn’t writing children’s stories, Sarah works as a psychologist specialising in working with adults who have survived trauma. She lives with her two-year-old daughter and four-year-old son in Sydney, Australia where they enjoy spending time exploring different places together on what her son calls “Never Adventures” —places and things they’ve never done before.