Sarah Elton tells us about her journey to becoming the librarian at Bellevue School, the joy of reading aloud, and how to encourage creativity and enthusiasm when it comes to reading and creating a safe space for kids to be…
Claudia Palmer encounters Dunedin City Libraries’ mobile library service, the bookbus, and learns about its legacy across the city. After 75 years, this unique service has become much more than just a place to borrow books. It’s Wednesday, 9.38 am,…
Bee Trudgeon shares a list of manga featuring characters with disabilities. Over the past decade, Japan has made strong progress affirming the rights of people with disabilities, working towards removing the physical and social barriers that have stymied their interactions…
Saadiyah Musa introduces us to My Little Library, the first Islamic children’s book and lifestyle store in New Zealand. The idea for My Little Library was born in 2020, shortly after the birth of our daughter, during the height of…
The University of Otago has announced that the future of the Children’s Writer Residency is uncertain, following a funding cut. Ella West looks at the significance of the residency. This year’s Children’s Writer resident, Samantha Montgomerie from Dunedin, could be…
The winners of the NZ Booklovers Awards will be announced at the end of the week. Before we find out who takes out the picture book, junior fiction and young adult prizes, we spoke with the Booklovers team to find…
Bee Trudgeon provides an introduction to manga, for grown ups who may be trying to keep up with the kids. Japan has had a failsafe way to attract teens to books for decades, but in Aotearoa the magnetic wonder of…
Kiri Lightfoot, author of the young adult novel Bear, on how writing a book for teens reminded her how tricky the transition to adulthood can be. I spent nearly a decade writing a novel for young adults. Yes, it took…
Hannah Bennett shares her family’s insights into the libraries of Auckland after their epic quest to visit all of them in 2024 It began, as many good conversations do, on a long family car trip. ‘I wonder what we’ll do…
Librarians Penny Walch and Julie Huggins have been sharing their enthusiasm for Aotearoa’s children’s books in podcast form since 2021. Here, Penny takes us through the highs and lows of podcasting. What do two librarians with verbal diarrhoea who are…