Counting The Stars

Gavin Bishop is a highly acclaimed children’s book author and illustrator of over 60 books. His diverse body of work spans original stories, retellings of Māori myths, European fairy tales, and nursery rhymes.

Born in Invercargill, Bishop spent his childhood in the remote railway settlement of Kingston, situated on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. He pursued his artistic education at the Canterbury University School of Fine Arts, graduating with an honours degree in painting, where he studied under Russell Clark and Rudi Gopas. Following his graduation, he dedicated time to teaching art at Linwood High School and Christ’s College in Christchurch.

Bishop’s distinguished career has been recognized with numerous fellowships and national book awards. Notable accolades include the Te Waka Toi Nga Tohu a Ta Kingi Ihaka/Sir Kingi Ihaka Award in 2018 for his significant contribution to strengthening Māori art and culture through his children’s literature. In 2013, he received The Arts Foundation’s Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award. In 2000, he was honored with the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal for a lifetime of achievement and his distinguished contribution to children’s literature in New Zealand. Further recognition came in 2013 when he was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit and became President of Honour of the NZ Society of Authors.

In 2018, his impactful book Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story achieved the supreme Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award and the Elsie Locke Award for Non-fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. The judging panel lauded it as a “masterful in its execution - a work of art that bears repeated and thoughtful viewing and reading of its vibrant and informative illustrations. It is also a book of enduring significance in the canon of New Zealand children’s literature - a landmark title which will stand the test of time.” In the same year, Aotearoa also garnered a Storylines Notable Non-Fiction Award and Best Children’s Book at the PANZ Design Awards.

His 2003 publication, Weaving Earth and Sky, triumphed in the non-fiction category and secured the Book of the Year Award at the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards, and was also shortlisted for the LIANZA Elsie Locke Medal. Bishop has been awarded the LIANZA Russell Clark Medal for Illustration on four occasions: for Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant (1981), Kiwi Moon (2006), Rats! (2008), and There was a Crooked Man (2010). The judges of the 2006 Russell Clark Award described Kiwi Moon as possessing “all the appeal and promise of a future folktale classic. It is an outstanding example of how text and illustrations can be interwoven to produce a marvellous whole.”

Bishop has enjoyed successful collaborations, notably with writer Joy Cowley. Together, they won the Best in Junior Fiction and Book of the Year at the 2008 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards for Friends: Snake and Lizard.

Other award-winning titles by Gavin Bishop include:

• Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant (Russell Clark Medal 1981)
• The Year of the Yelvertons (illustrator; the 1981 Esther Glen Medal)
• Mr Fox (Noma Concours 1984 Grand Prize)
• Hinepau (New Zealand Picture Book of the Year 1993)
• The House that Jack Built (Book of the Year and Best Picture Book at the 2000 NZ Post Book Awards)
• Friends: Snake and Lizard (with Joy Cowley, Children’s Choice Junior Fiction, 2010 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards)
• Mister Whistler (written by Margaret Mahy, winning Best Picture Book at the 2013 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards)

Several of Bishop’s books have been shortlisted for the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards:

• Stay Awake, Bear! (2000)
• Tom Thumb (2001, picture book category)
• Taming the Sun (2005, also a finalist for the Russell Clark Award in 2005)
• Riding the Waves (2007)
• Rats! (2008)
• Piano Rock (2009, which won the 2009 PANZ Book Design Award in the children’s category)
• Cowshed Christmas (2010)

Many of Gavin’s works have also been listed as Storylines Notable Books, including:

• Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story (2018)
• Tom Thumb (2002)
• The Three Billy Goats Gruff (2004)
• Taming the Sun: Four Maori Myths (2005)
• Kiwi Moon (2006)
• The Waka (2006)
• Te Waka (2006)
• Riding the Waves: Four Maori Myths (2007)
• Snake & Lizard (2008)
• Rats! (2008)
• Piano Rock: A 1950s Childhood (2009)
• There Was a Crooked Man (2010)
• Cowshed Christmas (2010)
• Friends: Snake & Lizard (2010)
• Counting the Stars: Four Maori Myths (2010)
• Teddy One Eye: The Autobiography of a Teddy Bear (2015)

Gavin Bishop’s artwork has been showcased in international exhibitions in countries such as Japan and Czechoslovakia. He has also contributed to the performing arts, writing and designing two ballets for the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company: Terrible Tom and Te Maia and the Sea Devil. In 2003, he shared the Ursula Bethell Residency with Catherine Chidgey.

In recognition of his significant contributions to children’s picture book illustration, the Storylines Gavin Bishop Award for Picture Book Illustration was established in 2009 to foster emergent illustrators.

Gavin Bishop resides and continues his creative work in Christchurch, New Zealand.

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