By Helen Vivienne Fletcher Helen Vivienne Fletcher is back with Explosive, the fourth instalment in her fast-paced young adult ‘Reactive Magic’ series featuring a tried and true recipe for literary success: a magic school, spells and prophecies. Enjoy this excerpt…
Leela Chakraborti (11) and Rajorshi Chakraborti are the daughter and dad co-authors of The Bad Smell Hotel, published by The Cuba Press. Rajorshi is the author of five novels and a short fiction collection for adults, and a young adult…
RARGH! Whether you like your creatures loud and scary with mouths full of pointy teeth, or small and magic and flittering around your head—or somewhere in-between—the kids-lit canon of Aotearoa has plenty to offer. But how’s your existing knowledge? 1….
By David Hill A nerve-wracking underground adventure from a master storyteller, Below follows Liam as he dares his classmate Imogen to come on a forbidden tour of the railway tunnel being drilled through a nearby mountain, in the hopes she’ll…
If you, like our quizmaster, live in a part of Aotearoa affected by the floods, you too may have found starting off February with seaside swimming a bleak prospect. Luckily the world of Aotearoa literature for kids has plenty of…
From late 2021 till late 2022, The Sapling lay dormant, waiting to unfurl once more. The hiatus gave our team much-needed time to regroup and plan the way forward. But it also meant that we missed some major children’s literature…
The Sapling editors have compiled a list of recommendations of this year’s releases for your Christmas book shopping! Picture Books How My Koro Became A Star Written by Brianne Te Paa Illustrated by Story Hemi-Morehouse Published by Huia Publishers RRP:…
By Denika Mead Denika Mead brings us the final title in The Crystal Continent series. After defeating the Ghost Warriors, Ivy is now Queen of the Crystal People. But peace doesn’t last for long when a dragon hatches in the…
By Richard Fairgray Four-Color Heroes is a touching love story which follows two star-crossed young men who—in spite of their disparate backgrounds—find escape and one another through the pages of a comic book. The coming-of-age romance is set in a…
Begone, hiatus! Lets bring back the most vital space for discussing Aotearoa’s fabulous kids books! Editor Sarah hands over the reins to Linda Jane and both put in a call for greater diversity on the page and behind it. For…