The day has come, the occasion where even a hiatus can’t keep us down! The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults was held on the evening of 10 August, and although distance and lurgy kept Team Sapling…
Fresh off the ceremony at Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, 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 Junior Fiction Award: Charlie…
Where do we usually get our recommendations for books to read? The bookshop, of course. We’ve asked people from five bookshelves to sell us our stunning array of junior fiction titles. Tunnel of Dreams, by Bernard Beckett (Text Publishing, 2020)…
One of our favourite bits of the lead up to the NZCYA Awards each year is getting the finalists in one of the categories to interview one another—and this year is no different. Each of the finalists in the Best…
By Leonie Agnew Leonie Agnew is back with a magical new title, The Memory Thief, following the unexpectedly heartwarming friendship between Seth, lonely troll, and Stella, a young girl going through a hard time. Enjoy this excerpt from chapter one…
Every year, we pick one of the NZCYA Awards finalist categories to get a publisher perspective. This year, we came down ki te taha o ngā kaiwhakaputa ō ngā pukapuka kei roto ki te rōpū reo Māori—on the side of the…
We at The Sapling always love a good behind-the-scenes look into our favourite books, and we know you do too! So, as part of our coverage of this year’s NZCYA Awards, we’ve asked the authors of the Elsie Locke for…
There are some cracking YA reads in the NZCYA finalists this year; there’s realness, drama, history, fantasy and just some downright good storytelling. We love hearing about the process, characters and inspiration, so we have asked our finalists some probing…
This year we’re kicking off our NZCYA Awards coverage with the Russell Clark Award for Illustration finalists! We have some exclusive insights into the process of creating the illustrations for each book, including storyboards, mood boards, working sketches, hand cutting…
It’s New Zealand Music Month, so our quiz for your brain teasing pleasure today is all about singalong books from writers, illustrators and performers from Aotearoa. Good luck! Test yourself, share with a friend, and let us know on Facebook…