Butler, Dorothy (1925-2015), was a New Zealand author, bookseller, teacher, and authority on children’s books. She was credited with driving the golden age of children’s literature in New Zealand. Butler first won acclaim for her nonfiction guide to children’s books, Babies Need Books: Sharing the Joy of Books with Children from Birth to Six (1980). She was also known for her “My Brown Bear Barney” series of picture books for young children. The series, published from 1988 to 2001, is about a little girl who takes her teddy bear with her everywhere she goes. It began with My Brown Bear Barney (1988). All of the books in the series were illustrated by Elizabeth Fuller.
Muriel Dorothy Norgrove was born on April 24, 1925, in Grey Lynn, Auckland. In 1946, she married Roy Edward Butler, an engineer. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Auckland Teachers Training College (now part of the University of Auckland) in 1947. In 1963, Dorothy Butler began working as a supervisor at a local preschool . In 1964, the Butlers opened a small bookstore in their home in Auckland, which became the Dorothy Butler Children’s Bookshop. At the time, there were not many stores dedicated to children’s books in Auckland. The store later expanded and moved to another location in Auckland. In 1999, the Butlers sold the shop, which still operates today.
In 1975, Butler received a diploma in education from Auckland Teachers College for her study of her disabled granddaughter Cushla. This research was later adapted as Butler’s first book, Cushla and Her Books (1979). Butler’s other books for children include Come Back Ginger (1987), Higgledy Piggledy Hobbledy Hoy (1994), What a Birthday! (1996), and Seadog: A Tale of Old New Zealand (2007). Butler’s other nonfiction books include Reading Begins at Home: Preparing Children for Reading Before They Go to School (with Marie Clay, 1979), Five to Eight: Vital Years for Reading (1986), and the autobiographies There Was a Time (1999) and All This and a Bookshop Too (2009).
In 1979, Butler received the Eleanor Farjeon Award for her contribution to children’s literature. In 1992, she received the Margaret Mahy Award. It is awarded for an especially distinguished and significant contribution to children’s literature, publishing, or literacy. Butler was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1993. She died on Sept. 20, 2015.
