The Sapling

The Sampling: Dear Moko

Nā Dr Hinemoa Elder E pārekareka ana mātou te tuari i ngā kōrero o Dr Hinemoa Elder’s mō tōna pukapuka Dear Moko. He kohinga whakataukī tēnei mai i tōna pukapuka rongonui Aroha e hangai ana ki ngā whakataukī mō ngā…

Photos from the Picture Me window painting

During Gecko Press’s Picture Me festival, European illustrators Antje Damm, Aurore Petit and Piotr Socha will be painting a window at Te Auaha Gallery in central Wellington. We’ll be posting updates as the mural progresses. Thursday 12 September The first…

Interview: Rachel Lawson on Picture Me 

Picture Me promises a vibrant cross-cultural celebration of illustration and identity for children and professional illustrators alike. The Sapling sat down with Gecko Press publisher, Rachel Lawson, to find out what the festival is all about. The Sapling (TS): During…

Interview: Maia Bennett on judging the 2024 NZCYA awards

Convenor of the 2024 NZCYA Book Awards Maia Bennett takes The Sapling behind the scenes on selecting the cream of this year’s crop of books for children and young adults. On Wednesday evening the winners of the children’s and young…

The Winners of the 2024 NZCYA awards are…

Fresh off the ceremony at Pipitea Marae, Wellington, the winners of the 2024 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults are… The Margaret Mahy Book of the Year and the Junior Fiction Award: Nine Girls by Stacy Gregg (Ngāti…

The Sampling: 17 Kings and 42 Elephants

Illustrated by Alba Gil Cedrán This month’s Sampling is from last year’s winner of the Margaret Mahy Illustration Prize, Alba Gil Cedrán, in a re-imagining of Mahy’s 17 Kings and 42 Elephants. The shortlist for this year’s award will be…

Quiz: All Things NZCYA

In honour of the shortlist announcement for this year’s NZCYA Awards, this quiz is about all things NZCYA related! How much do you know about the Awards of past and present? Check out our coverage of the award finalists here….

2024 PANZ Book Design Award Finalists: Children’s Books

It’s time to celebrate an oft overlooked aspect of book creation—the design. The Publishers Association of New Zealand has just announced the shortlist for Aotearoa’s best-designed books in nine categories. Here we are showcasing the three which focus on books…

2024 NZCYA Te Kura Pounamu Award Finalists

For the Te Kura Pounamu finalists we asked the publishers why it was important to them to publish these particular books in te reo Māori, and our te reo editor Faith Tupou makes some comments as well. Read our comments…

2024 NZCYA Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction Finalists

The Non-Fiction shortlist is absolutely top class. We asked the finalists to pose a couple of questions to each other about their books. Read our comments about the books in all the categories here. Selina Tusitala Marsh asks Gavin Bishop……