Dan and Karla Vallely 

I was born in Gisborne New Zealand and am of Maori descent from the East Coast and Irish heritage. I am a mother and grandmother of an incredible group of people.

My background is in Early Childhood Education and I have a deep love for the children of the Pacific. Since retiring I have supported educational programs in both Tonga and now Solomon Islands. I have discovered there is a huge lack of resources for young children in the Pacific especially children living village lives.

In 2017 I founded Friends of Brilliant Star a not for profit charity to support Children’s education in Solomon Islands. I work with an amazing team of people with huge hearts for these children.

I have always been creative and love to draw and paint. I married Dan Vallely a children’s author, in 2018 and it seemed so natural for us to collaborate

Dan Vallely was born in England of Irish and American descent. He had a love of writing and words since he was young. Dan is an accomplished author, who retired 20 years ago but is back writing. since his marriage to Karla 2018 combining their skills to produce more books. Most known for his Australian Bush poems for children. He sold 600,000 children’s books including the Possum Creek series. There are still some of his original books in both school and local libraries’. Dan and Karla have many exciting manuscripts they are working on. Dan is looking forward to returning to writing for children.