When I spoke to her over Zoom, Valley was a matter-of-fact, casual presence, but one who seemed quietly, confidently delighted in the world she’d created, even as her dog created pure chaos around her. Valley, who is a high school teacher and has a bachelor’s degree in design – her website states she is using both to teach teenagers how to have good taste – comes from Tāmaki Makaurau and now lives in the Waitākere Ranges. The judges called her book “charming and hilarious … selected from a record number of submissions, and was instantly beloved by the team”. It is also an opening that is reflective of its author, HS Valley (a pseudonym, but the H is real), who walked away with the 2020 Ampersand Prize, Australia and New Zealand’s premiere award for unpublished writers of middle-grade and young adult fiction.
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