Betty Gilderdale

Betty Gilderdale is an author and New Zealand children’s literature expert and has been a lecturer, researcher and reviewer of children’s books. She is a past president and life member of the Children’s Literature Association of New Zealand and, in 1994, she was awarded the Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award.

In 2000, the Children’s Literature Association of New Zealand renamed their Award for Services to Children’s Literature to the Betty Gilderdale Award. Apart from The Little Yellow Digger, Betty’s other titles include A Sea Change: 145 Years of New Zealand Junior Fiction, The Seven Lives of Lady Barker and the other titles in the Little Digger series.