Janet Hunt is one of New Zealand's best known natural history writers, for adults and children. A former teacher, she lives in Taranaki, and is the chair of the Northern Taranaki Branch of Forest & Bird. Some of her books include: A Bird in the Hand: Keeping New Zealand Wildlife Safe (2003), which won Book of the Year and Best in Non-Fiction at the 2004 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and the Elsie Locke Award at the LIANZA Children's Book Awards in 2004; From Weta to Kauri: A Guide to the New Zealand Forest (2004), which was a finalist in the 2005 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and was listed as a 2005 Storylines Notable Non-Fiction Book; Wetlands of New Zealand: A Bitter-sweet Story (2007), which won the Montana Medal for Non-Fiction at the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards; E3 Call Home, a true story of godwit migration and misadventure, which was listed as a 2010 Storylines Notable Non-Fiction Book and was a finalist in the 2010 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults; Paradise Saved: The Remarkable Story of New Zealand's Wildlife Sanctuaries and How They Are Stemming the Tide of Extinction (2014) with Dave Butler and Tony Lindsay; and Our Big Blue Backyard: New Zealand's Oceans and Marine Reserves (2014).