For those of a certain vintage, Alan Duff is best known as the author of Once Were Warriors.
But for children at Forbury School, he is better known as the founder of Duffy Books in Homes.
The generation gap was obvious when principal Janice Tofia introduced Duff (60), during a surprise school assembly, as the man who wrote two books which were turned into movies.
It was not until she said he was the founder of Duffy Books in Homes that the pupils began to get excited.
The programme provides free books to more than 100,000 New Zealand children, three times a year. Since it started in Hastings in 1993, more than eight million books have been put into homes.
The programme aims to make a connection between success and reading by convincing children it is "cool to read and cool to achieve".
Duff has been in Dunedin since last Friday to celebrate his daughter's graduation from the University of Otago, and is visiting several schools in the South as part of his trip.
He spoke to pupils at both Forbury and Caversham Schools yesterday about his life in France and what it was like to be a writer.
Although Duff now lives in Europe, he said he had been spending time in the United States, where he was working to help establish the Books in Homes programme. It has already been established in 20 schools.
He is also working with Ben Carson, prominent United States neurosurgeon and director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, who has established "reading rooms" for children across the United States.
Duff said children used the rooms to read in after school, and he plans to supply the rooms with books.
In between travel and Duffy Books in Homes, he has managed to find time to continue writing, and has recently completed his 12th book.
Not surprisingly, he is staying tight-lipped about the plot, saying fans of his novels would have to wait and see.
