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Book Reviews: Brilliant Picture Books

To kick the month off right, we’ve got four wonderful books from New Zealand publishers, with everything from a parable on bravery, to some unlikely housemates, an unlikely friendship, and a soothing book for bedtime. All reviewed by the incomparable…

The Mahy Questionnaire: Sarah Wilkins

This month’s instalment of the Mahy Questionnaire features award-winning illustrator Sarah Wilkins! Sarah does editorial, educational, and promotional art in addition to illustrating children’s books. Her most recent picture book, the beautiful Abigail and the Restless RaiMatndrop, is out now!…

Book Awards: The Reo Māori Finalists

Our coverage of the category finalists continues with reviews from a couple of talented tamariki. Elliah and Hineraukura have provided their thoughts on the finalists for the Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for Te Reo Māori, both in…

Matthew Cunningham and Susan Brocker

Children’s authors Matthew Cunningham and Susan Brocker caught up over email to talk story ideas, inspiration, and wrangling animals in text. Matthew is the author of the Abigail series, the most recent of which is Abigail and the Restless Raindrop…

Bookseller Top Picks: Books That Surprise

Here’s a fresh and delicious selection of top bookseller picks, straight from the team at The Children’s Bookshop in Christchurch! There’s something for all kinds of reading ages here, so read on to discover some surprising suggestions… There’s nothing better…

Book Awards: The Junior Fiction Finalists

As part of our coverage for the NZ Book Awards, we asked the publishers of the junior fiction finalists what it was about these particular stories that caught their imaginations, and why they seemed right for this format. These are…

Across the Ditch: Bob Graham talks storytelling

The Sapling’s Simie Simpson, a long-time fan girl of award-winning, Australian picture book author and illustrator Bob Graham, literally bombards him with questions about his books: what it takes to create books that speak to us, stand the test of…

Book Quiz: The 2020 children’s book awards

The final announcement of the 2020 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults is less than a month away, and we’ve been doing a fair bit of coverage of the finalists here on The Sapling. But have you…

Illustrating new kiwi tale The Longdrop

Bob Darroch is known New Zealand-wide for his depiction of bedtime favourite The Little Kiwi, but for this book he has taken a swerve into the bush, to the humble longdrop. The Longdrop is published by Oratia Books. .

Book Reviews: Reo Māori Picture Books with Birds

Here are some awesome new book reviews from Mikaere Flavell! He read the books with his niece Māia and wrote up his thoughts for us here at The Sapling. So all you have to do now is get ready for…