How New Zealand developed an obsession with Spike Milligan’s beloved baddest witch in all the world. In this five-part series, Gemma Gracewood adventures through the many iterations of Spike Milligan’s Badjelly the Witch to find out why New Zealand loves…
We grew up watching the world end – at least on-screen. Our children are growing up watching it happen in real time. How do we prepare them to inherit a world that’s (supposedly) about to end? Today Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod, an…
As a nation, we like to think of ourselves as conservation-minded, but that hasn’t always been the case. Sarah Ell’s new book Lost Wonders highlights a range of the ‘vanished creatures of Aotearoa’, as well as bring our attention to…
Your favourite Mahy Questionnaire is back! Our second instalment of the year features author, playwright, poet, columnist, and critic David Hill. Read on for his takes on hauntings, witches and giraffes! 1. Describe yourself in three words Vague, methodical, surprised….
Damien Wilkins has written over a dozen books for adults, including novels, short story collections, and poetry, and this month he releases his first novel for young adults, Aspiring (Annual Ink). Aspiring is set in a town in Central Otago…
The NZ book awards season has really kicked off in earnest today, but alongside the grown-up awards (The Ockhams) generating a lot of talkonline, it’s also the day that both the Storyline Notable Books 2020 and the Storylines manuscript award…
Eileen Merriman has been a constant fixture in the Aotearoa YA scene since the 2017 release of her debut, Pieces of You. Each of her books has taken an unflinching approach towards teenage lives and their associated challenges and issues.
Welcome to our first School Librarians of Aotearoa instalment for 2020! Here, we hear from Paul Munnerley, who has the double duty of overseeing the Hurunui College Library and Hawarden Community Library in North Canterbury. Hurunui College Library – also…
Carly Thomas spent most of her childhood either reading about horses or riding them. Here, she takes a look at what’s on literary offer for kids that are horse mad. Finding New Zealand books for horse mad kids was not…
Today is apparently the day for romance, and what can be more romantic than working on a picture book together? Giselle Clarkson explores some stories behind the power couples of children’s publishing in her twenty-sixth comic for The Sapling. Happy…