Samoan author Kenneth Chapman says his new fantasy book gives a character he never saw when he was growing up.

Kenneth Chapman said he loved reading series like Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, and His Dark Materials as a child. But he said those stories did not reflect the mixed-race Polynesian background he came from.

His new book, “Lonasei and the Mystery of Origin Grove,” follows an 11-year-old girl and her older sister who move into their mother’s childhood home. The house is a mansion filled with mysterious paintings created by a distant aunt.

Chapman told RNZ that the story places a Polynesian character inside a fantasy world.

"When you're a 10-year-old kid, and you're in love with reading, you're not really, or at least I wasn't thinking about representation and relatability on that kind of cultural level," he said.

“But looking back as an adult, it never even occurred to me that there would be a Polynesian character in books like the ones I was reading.”

He said the main character, Lonasei, is based closely on his own experience growing up in New Zealand as a mixed-race child.

“For me, it’s not a massive cultural emphasis,” he said. 

“It’s just about basic representation that these kinds of people can exist in worlds where people have special abilities and things like that.”

Chapman said the support from children in his former Girl Guides group encouraged him to pursue publishing the book. He first shared the story with two sisters he once nannied and later read it to the Girl Guides group.

One child told him she would read it over and over again.

He printed early copies of the manuscript for the group after promising them each one, and said that the positive response from the children and parents gave him confidence to approach publishers.

Chapman, who is also a teacher and filmmaker, said working with students helps him write believable young characters.

“I’m hearing the way that they speak, and having conversations with people these ages every single day,” he said.

He said he has written several other novels in different genres, including stories for teenagers, adults, and middle-grade readers. One, he said, is a zombie apocalypse Gossip Girl-type drama set for re-release next year.

Chapman said he has already written a second manuscript for the Lonasei series and hopes to continue the story if the first book is successful.