Author & Illustrator

Hannah Nanovu has always been curious about the ocean and the life within it.
She studied a BSc in Marine Environmental Science and went on to complete her MSc in Heritage studies in the UK. She was a part of a Great White Shark Research program in South Africa and been a Scuba Diving Instructor in Fiji. Her passion continues to grow which in turn has ignited a desire to help children have a greater understanding about how important the ocean is and the impact humans have on it. 

Hannah is currently a Primary School teacher and Primary Ocean Coordinator in Fiji helping the school to develop their ocean program. She has organized beach clean up’s, mangrove planting, celebrations for World Ocean Day and runs a children’s ocean group which supports ocean projects in the school. She also is integrating the Ocean Literacy Frameworks in with the schools Curriculum. 

Hannah’s passion ebbs into her family who share her love for the ocean. As a family they are often doing beach clean ups and are currently participating in a coral restoration project with Reef Explorer Fiji. This project was part of the inspiration for her first book and series; Ocean Adventures – Coral Catastrophe. Through the coral restoration project and her sons school project on coral bleaching, Hannah gained a deeper understanding about the human impact on coral reefs. She felt this knowledge should be shared with primary school aged children and especially with the children of Fiji, as the coral reefs are their back garden so to speak. 

Using her knowledge as a teacher she decided to merge fiction and non-fiction together in her book. She engages the children through her creative characters, simple illustrations and rhyming; to support the story on each page she adds facts and images to help the reader learn more. There is a sequel to the first book under the same series called Ocean Adventures 2 – Coral Attack. Both books are set in Fiji. The first looks at coral bleaching due to climate change. The second book looks at how humans can cause outbreaks of natural predators to coral reefs which can be devastating. 

Hannah would like to continue to write and illustrate children’s books to help children gain a deeper understanding of the ocean and their connection to it. She has plans to write about mangroves and the importance of them and how they need to be protected. Another idea is about “Hope”. It is hard for children to hear about the devastating impact we are having on the oceans through overfishing and pollution etc so she would like to write a story about hope and some of the positive ways humans are trying to help the oceans. 

Hannah uses her passion for the ocean and her experience as a teacher to write books that are informative, engaging and accessible to all primary aged students and are aligned with some of the SDG goals.