Writing from the Heart - How to write for children by Joy Cowley

By Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand | Te Whare Waituhi Tamariki o Aotearoa | Posted: Tuesday May 27, 2025

Back in Print and Available Now! Unlock your potential with Joy Cowley's 'Writing from the Heart: How to Write for Children.' Learn from a master storyteller and create enchanting tales for young readers.

This book offers wise and invaluable advice for all writers wanting to publish books for children and young adults.

New Zealand’s celebrated children’s author Joy Cowley distils 40+ years’ experience as an author in her book Writing from the Heart.

Writing from the Heart is essential reading for practising or intending children’s writers. Joy’s warmly written content covers plot development, discipline, dialogue, humour, presentation and editing, with chapters on the special genres of early readers, fiction for children and teenagers, poetry and plays.

The cartoon-style illustrations are by the well-known Auckland artist Fraser Williamson.

Writing From The Heart is published by the Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust as a fund-raising venture. All proceeds go to assist Storylines in its work to promote New Zealand children’s books and literature and support New Zealand children’s writers and Illustrators. 

Joy Cowley is internationally recognised for her more than 800 early readers, along with novels and poetry for children, and her work for more than three decades as a teacher of creative writing for children in more than ten countries. She has won many awards and also critical acclaim for her adult novels and short stories.

Find out more and order here: Writing from the Heart - Storylines Children's Literature Charitable Trust