Shauna Ray Ratapu

Hey there! Thanks for visiting my Author Page!

Just a bit about me: I'm a California Kiwi who lived in Aotearoa/New Zealand for for 17 years with my husband Phillip and our three (now grown) kids.

I have run two successful After-School Drama businesses, am a registered High School Drama and English teacher (now retired) and have also run my own Black-Box Theatre company in New Zealand.

Currently, I am a full-time carer for my youngest child who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 3.

While I am enjoying being home with my family once again, I thought that my experiences over the past twenty or so years were just too good to waste and so I've published "After-School Drama for Kids" in order to share my delights and my disasters with anyone who is interested in creating Drama opportunities for kids in their communities.

I wasn't a registered teacher when I started, nor did I have any experience teaching kids - I just had three young children of my own who loved Drama and were missing it when we moved to our new home. Little did I know that it would set me on an amazing, fun and rewarding career path for the following 12 years!

"Very Different Monica" was actually written and illustrated over ten years ago and was written for my kids, especially my youngest who was facing some challenges about being in a wheelchair. I just never got around to publishing it as life was so busy when the kids were little. My husband Phillip encouraged me to dig it out and publish it on Amazon and I'm so glad I did!