Sheldon the shag and Frankie the fantail will help impart important messages about wildlife to youngsters this year, when the Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre Wildlife Trust releases a series of children's books.

A New Zealand fantail. Photo: file.

The wildlife trust is looking for schools that might be interested in the books, and possible printers and distributers as well as a main sponsor to produce about eight children's tales in 2015.

'We're hoping to use the books mainly as an education tool for schools, but possibly to help with fundraising for ARRC – and have them marketed through a variety of channels,” says ARRC director Dr Liza Schneider.

‘Frankie the Fantail' is the first tale, with each book set to cover information about what people can do to help when they see an animal or bird in danger.

'Frankie's story basically introduces ARRC and tells everybody about his experience here, what's happened to him and what people can do to help,” says Liza.

She's hoping the other seven books – titled ‘Willy the Waxeye', ‘Kingi the Kereru', ‘Manu the Morepork', ‘Pipi the Penguin', ‘Sheldon the Shag', ‘Sue the Seagull' and ‘Tilly the Tui' – will be published in the next few months.

Anyone interested can email ARRC at [email protected] or phone them on 07 579 9115.