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The winners of the 2019 Book Awards are …

Fresh off the ceremony at Te Papa Tongarewa, the results are in and your New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults winners are… The Margaret Mahy Book of the Year and the Picture Book Award The Bomb Written…

Book Awards: The Te Reo Māori Finalists

It’s the final instalment of our NZCYA finalist coverage for 2019! Our final category is the Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for Te Reo Māori. When she’s not busy being a Sapling editor or a bookseller at Little…

Book Reviews: Four Board Books & a Pirate

Board books including English and Te Reo Māori for basic concepts are being welcomed with open arms by young families all over New Zealand. Jane Arthur evaluates four, plus a tale with a tough princess at its centre. My Body…

Te Tiriti | The Treaty – The New Book

Following the release of the School Journal Story Library graphic novel Te Tiriti o Waitangi into schools a year ago, Lift Education have published a larger, bilingual version of the book. This is their first trade publication and unlike anything…

Te Tiriti O Waitangi – Te Pukapuka Hou

I muri mai i te tukunga o te pakimaero whakairoiro Te Tiriti o Waitangi nō te Puna Pūrākau o ngā Hautaka Kura i tētahi tau ki mua, ka whakaputaina e Lift Education he putanga rahi ake, putanga reorua o taua…

School Librarian of Aotearoa: Lydean Herman

Lydean Herman is a school librarian at Taita College in Lower Hutt. She has used the HELL reading challenge for the past few years to motivate her students to get books out of the school library, with great success. She…

Authors Felicity Williams and Weng Wai Chan talk

The Sapling has asked two first-time middle-grade authors, Felicity Williams and Weng Wai Chan, to interview one another about their first novels and how they went about getting them published. F: The route to publication is enormously difficult. ‘Take a…

Fraser Smith: Hooking Children Into Reading

Many of our country’s magnificent writers also have different day jobs, and chief among them are the teachers – or in this case, the principal. Fraser Smith, principal of Oturu School and author of Awatea’s Treasure (and forthcoming Awatea and…

Book Reviews: Three NZ Picture Books

Each of these vibrant, colourful books comes from an independent publisher. Helen Vivienne Fletcher finds a lot to love about them. A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies & Other Such Collective Nouns, by Kate Hursthouse A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies & Other Such…

Book Awards: The Young Adult Finalists

The Young Adult finalists in the NZCYA Awards encompass a variety of approaches to fantasy, a touch of dystopia, political intrigue and coming of age storytelling. The Young Adult category also happens to be one where the target demographic is…