They say everybody has a book in them, but one Dunedin high school pupil has already proven he has more.
Kavanagh College pupil Tom Davis (15) has published three books since 2019, a trilogy which now resides in the school library.
The Lizard trilogy is a series of books aimed at readers aged 7-13 following the tale of Scale, a jewelled gecko on a fantastical adventure.
Tom said he always liked expressing his imagination through writing, but had never tackled anything longer than a short story before the trilogy.
He was inspired by series like Wings of Fire and How to Train Your Dragon.
Those series focused on great winged fire-breathing beasts, but Tom decided to make their more realistic counterparts his star.
Lizards were "like dragons, but simpler".
The first book was illustrated on paper, but by the final book he had progressed to digital.
His father helped him get the books made through a printer in Auckland.
Sixty copies were printed of Lizard, 100 of the sequel Komodo and 55 of the final book Legend.
The three books spanned more than 340 pages and had more than 200 original drawings between them.
He had sold every copy of the first two books but still had a few copies of Legend available.
A portion of every sale went to charity, such as the Caritas Aotearoa Fijian cyclone relief fund, local Syrian refugees and most recently Ukrainian refugees.
He had started getting into animation and writing would be put on the backburner for now, but he would definitely continue in his creative endeavours, he said.
