In the last couple of months, we have seen the effects of COVID-19 wreak havoc worldwide. The mental health of both children and adults has been badly affected as we learn to cope with ‘the new normal’. One positive thing…
Jackie Clark is a woman who gets stuff done. She may be familiar to readers of The Sapling as the founder of The Aunties, a charitable organisation providing material and emotional resources to vulnerable people, around 500 whānau a year,…
This year’s NZCYA Awards coverage kicks off with the Russell Clark Award for Illustration Award finalists! We have some exclusive insights into the process of illustrating each book, including working sketches, storyboards, decadent interior spreads, and even a photograph of…
Hannah Benbow is the comics and cartoons librarian at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington – and she draws on that expertise in this essay looking into the early days of comics in the ‘children’s pages’ of Aotearoa newspapers of…
The annual New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults are a highly anticipated part of the Aotearoa literary calendar, for folks of all ages who have a passion for books for young people. They acknowledge excellence in writing,…
Here’s a fresh instalment of the Margaret Mahy Questionnaire, featuring author-illustrator Kat Quin. Read on for her takes on changeovers, rattlebang cars and sonsense nongs! 1. Describe yourself in three words I’m still learning. 2. During the height of adolescence,…
It’s a feeling all booksellers know too well. A book is one of your eternal favourites, you have perfected your sales spiel, you’ve pressed it into the hands of many a shopper. And then one day, the replenishment order you…
Dahlia Malaeulu found herself writing every day in lockdown, drafting 12 stories in seven days before realising what we all now know: it’s a book! We published a sampling of Teine Sāmoa yesterday: today, we present a personal essay from…
Manuia le Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa 2020 – Happy Samoa Language Week 2020! Today we have an extract from Teine Sāmoa, by Dahlia Malaeulu, a new collection of short stories.
Nalini Singh, author of the New York Times bestselling Psy-Changeling and Guild Hunter series, reminisces about the stories and books that formed her childhood. Books and reading and stories are an indelibly entwined part of my childhood. I remember sitting…