​Rosemary Tisdall is passionate about getting kids into books



Trained as a primary teacher, Rosemary taught until the arrival of her two daughters. During their growing years she remained connected with education and reading, running book clubs at the neighbourhood school and getting involved with the Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand.



Through Storylines, where Rosemary is a Trustee, she has been exposed to, and formed strong and rewarding relationships with, authors and illustrators from throughout New Zealand and around the world.



Rosemary spent many years working as the librarian at Remuera Primary School and then moved onto National Library of New Zealand’s Services to Schools where she has served as both a reference librarian, providing targeted fiction and non-fiction books and online resources to assist schools with their curriculum teaching, and a school library consultant. In the latter role, she operated the National Library’s initiative to assess and improve library collections for low decile schools around the upper North Island. Currently, Rosemary is Collections and Programmes Advisor - National Reading Initiatives, at the National Library of New Zealand.



In 2009, Rosemary was selected as a NZ Post Children’s Book Awards judge, and was invited back the following year as convener of the judging panel.



Rosemary is also a Trustee of the trust behind Tim Bray Theatre Company, New Zealand’s largest dedicated children’s theatre company, where she has been able to assist in bringing to life many wonderful children’s books including those by Margaret Mahy, Joy Cowley, Lynley Dodd and Roald Dahl as well as international classics such as Wind in the Willows and Spike Milligan’s Badjelly the Witch.



For many years Rosemary has authored well-researched Teachers’ Resource Guides for these plays, which effectively bring together her knowledge of children's literature with her experience in the classroom and understanding of the education curriculum.