For the second instalment of our shiny new Mahy Questionnaire, we thought we had better select an author who we knew would construct some brilliant answers. So we went to none other than famed Roadworks author Sally Sutton. Sally’s latest…
Helping children deal with obstacles and setbacks is a core part of parenting and teaching. Today education lecturer and writer Frank Wilson suggests some picture books that can help model these skills – while also being fantastic reads. If you…
Don McGlashan’s love of words and ideas is evident in all his music. Today he tells us about throwing a picture book at the wall, wagging school for novel-reading, and the other ways books have formed him as a reader…
Quiz yourself on eight New Zealand picture books that illustrate Aotearoa’s multiculturalism and diversity. Can you get them all right? Test yourself, share with a friend, and let us know on Facebook or Twitter how you do! 1. Kia Ora:…
From the author of the highly acclaimed Into the White, Amundsen’s Way: The Race to the South Pole (Allen & Unwin) is the gripping tale of the Norwegian explorer’s courage, determination and ruthlessness in the race to the South Pole.
Kristy Wilson has been the School Librarian for Decile 1 Porirua College, three days a week for the past four years. More recently, she has added work at the Decile 10 Adventure School, 10 hours a week. I work 18…
Many of the awards for children’s literature in New Zealand (bestowed by either Storylines or the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults) are named after important people. Illustrator Giselle Clarkson has researched these award namesakes, made short…
The Sapling had been thinking for some time about how best to honour the late, great Margaret Mahy. Suddenly it hit us: A Questionnaire, along the lines of the NZ Book Council’s Mansfield Questionnaire, and the Proust Questionnaire. So we…
Illustrating a picture book is not a simple A-to-B process. Minky Stapleton (the illustrator of Linda Jane Keegan’s Things in the Sea are Touching Me and June Pitman-Hayes’ Kia Ora! You Can Be a Kiwi Too, both published by Scholastic)…
Alexandra Saunders admires Linda Jane Keegan’s debut picture book Things in the Sea are Touching Me, for many many reasons. The bright, crisp, clean illustrations by Minky Stapleton, the two mums, the rhyme scheme – find out what else! Things…