Siubhan's vision to change lives
Mission to ignite self-belief in every NZ primary student
When Siubhan Green published her children’s book I Believe In Me in 2018, it was with the dream of instilling children with a sense of self-belief and helping to inspire them to achieve what they are truly passionate about.
Now the Stratford-based author is appealing for help to achieve an ambitious goal she herself is truly passionate about — getting a copy of that book into every primary school across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Siubhan says the idea of getting copies of the book into schools across the country was inspired by the reaction of pupils in one particular school to her book.
“I was paired up with Bombay Primary School in Auckland through the Kiwi Author Pen Pals programme, which pairs New Zealand authors with a primary school class. They read my book, and their teacher said it had fascinating listening to and watching the conversations unfold around the ideas in the book.”
In the book, children share what they want to be when they grow up, with each character and their career dream named for a letter of the alphabet.
While the alliteration makes it an entertaining and education read for classes, Siubhan says the crux of the story delivers a deeper lesson.
“I have had adults tell me it made them cry, so I know it resonates with
people. It’s about little Thomas Tippet, who wants to be a teacher. His parents, who were probably very wellmeaning, had told him teaching wasn’t for him, that he wasn’t smart enough to be one. Fortunately, his teacher and his friends don’t agree.”
Kids are “really resonating” with the storyline, says Siubhan.
“The key message is about believing in yourself, and that’s such an important message for all children. After the feedback from the Bombay Primary class and their teacher, I had
the idea to get the book, and that message, into all primary schools in New Zealand.”
In looking into the logistics of making this idea a reality, Siubhan came up against some big numbers.
“I did my research; there are 1082 primary schools across New Zealand. That’s a big undertaking. It will be around $8000 just to print enough copies, and then another $6500 to post them out. That’s a lot of money, but I didn’t want to give up, I was thinking, ‘There must be a way to do it’.”
Then, says Siubhan, she read about another Taranaki author, Helen Griffiths, who is appealing for sponsors to help get her latest book Ross The Cat, about a well-loved Taranaki cat, into every school in Taranaki — 120 in total.
“It’s a cracking idea. I thought I could do this with this book — get businesses, people or groups to sponsor a copy of I Believe In Me into their local school.”
As Siubhan sat at her computer to start making a plan to bring her idea to life, she saw an email from MakeA-Wish, she says.
“I support them monthly, so get update emails. And seeing this email at that point got me thinking, ‘How could this book help Make-A-Wish too?”’
The answer, she says, is to keep the price of the book at $25 per copy.
“That covers the cost of printing and getting it posted to a school, with about $10 left. That $10 will be donated to Make-A-Wish.”
That leaves no profit for Siubhan herself, but that, she says, is how she wants it.
“This was never about making money, this is about getting an important message out to children. And now, here is a way to do that and to help a charity I really believe in as well.”
To find out more, or to arrange sponsoring a copy of the book for a primary school of your choosing, contact Siubhan at siubhan@thatsinspired.com.