Dawn McMillan

McMillan worked as a primary school teacher, before beginning to write for children in the late 1990s.^[1] She has written more than forty picture books and over 200 educational works, with her first work, Sea Secrets, published in 1998.^[1] Her books have been sold internationally, including in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada.^[1]

Jason, the lead character in Jason and the Blind Puppy and Missing! (both published 2004), wears hearing aids and uses sign language.^[2]

In 2012 McMillan published I Need a New Bum!, illustrated by Ross Kinnaird, about a boy who is anxious about the crack in his bottom.^[3] The book has been translated into seven languages, becoming an international bestseller, and was the first in a series of bum-focused books.^[4][5] In 2018, a video of the Australian-based The Scottish Granny reading the book to her grandchild went viral.^[3][6] For the book's tenth anniversary, a bilingual English–Māori version was published, titled Kia Hou Taku Tou.^[7] In 2022, a teacher in Byram, Mississippi was fired for reading the book (published as I Need a New Butt! in the US) to his second-grade class.^[8][9][10] However, in late January 2026 his dismissal was reversed by an appeals court.^[11]

McMillan is married and lives in Waiomu, on the Coromandel Peninsula.^[7]

Picture book Why Do Dogs Sniff Bottoms?, co-authored with Bert Signal, won a Storylines Notable Book Award in 2003. The book also won the Children's Choice Award in the 2003 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.^[12][13]

McMillan also won Storylines Notable Book Awards in 2013, for Colour the Stars, and 2017, for The Harmonica.^[14]

In the 2026 New Year Honours, McMillan was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to children's literature.^[1]

McMillan has been awarded a Booksellers New Zealand Gold Medal.^[1]