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…
Writer Gem Wilder took her daughter to the School Strike 4 Climate on Friday, which reminded her of the first book she read in which non-violent protest was encouraged: Big Daddy Protests!. This book was one of a series of…
This is a momentous occasion: it’s the second anniversary of Giselle Clarkson Comics on The Sapling (actually, the second anniversary of The Sapling, too). Where does the time go …?! To celebrate, here is the 20th Giselle Clarkson Comic, all…
Eileen Merriman has just published her third YA book, but it is the impending publication of her first adult novel that has her acquaintances impressed. She makes an argument against the false pedestal upon which adult writing sits. Most bookstores…
New Zealand schools have been back for a month now. How’s your knowledge of fictional schools, teachers and classrooms in Aotearoa literature? Test yourself, share with a friend, and let us know on Facebook or Twitter how you do! 1….
Colleen Shipley has been a librarian almost all her working life, but it wasn’t until she returned to work after having children that she discovered the special role of a school librarian. She tells us about her philosophy, her reading…
‘From where I sleep I can see the book on my bookshelf. I have read it so many times it has fallen apart, and now exists as an inelegant bundle of browning pages and brittle Sellotape.’ All her life, actor…
Hearing the wonderful news that six more towns are going to be Refugee Resettlement centres, we got thinking about what books might provide the best and friendliest introduction to a new life in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here’s our starting list…
Do you recognise the name Avis Acres? Giselle Clarkson fills us in on the importance of this early figure in New Zealand children’s literature – and slips in some rather surprising facts.