This story started life many years ago, when Joy Cowley wrote Mouse Bride for Scholastic Inc. The artist who worked on the project created a wonderful tractor that subsequently inspired The Rusty Trusty Tractor which was published by Philomel in the USA. And that inspired Gavin Bishop to ask Joy to write a story he could illustrate and so A Nice Little Tractor was born. The little tractor starts its working life on a farm where it does a good job - but the family grows up, the city swallows up the farm and the tractor is retired to sit in the local car yard gathering dust. First one interesting character then another buys the tractor on the salesman's word that "It's a nice little tractor, a strong little tractor, a chug-chug, can't-go-wrong little tractor." But each time the tractor does go wrong until at last the son of the farmer, now a grown man and a farmer himself, discovers the tractor of his youth and buys it for his new farm. A charming 'circle of life' story.

Author Biography

Joy Cowley New Zealand's most prolific writer for children, and arguably its most successful. Most recent work for Scholastic, Pip the Penguin, Duck Walk and Weta (shorlisted for NZ Post Book Awards). Gavin Bishop Recent joint winner of the NZ Post Children's Book Awards 'Book of the Year' for his illustrations in Weaving Earth and Sky, Gavin continues to build an international reputation for illustration. Recent work: The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Pip the Penguin