Quiz: the Who’s Who of the Kids’ Book Awards
You know their words, you know their pictures … but do you know their faces? We were very privileged to be at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults last week, and here are a few of…
Features
School Librarians of Aotearoa: Clare Forrest
New Zealand’s school librarians are passionate, engaged professionals who know how to get students of all ages and reading levels into reading. Clare Forrest works at Raroa Normal Intermediate, and is the sixth librarian featured in this segment. I have…
And the winners of the Book Awards are …
Freshly announced at the Awards Ceremony in Wellington, the winners of the 2017 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults are … The Margaret Mahy Book of the Year and the Russell Clark Award for Illustration SNARK Illustrated and…
This book changed my life: Once Were Warriors
Jo Cribb, the recently appointed new Chief Executive of the New Zealand Book Council, chooses one – possibly unexpected – book she wishes every person in this country could read by the age of 18. Jumping on my red Raleigh…
The Reckoning: Cross-cultural reading
In the current Anglo-Saxon book market, there is much that is the same. If one book is successful, there’s a flurry to find another one just like it. Sameness can make us all feel safe, but Julia Marshall from Gecko…
Book Awards: the picture book finalists
For the final part of our finalist coverage of this year’s NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, we have quite the treat for you: excerpts of the five Picture Book Award finalists! Here are the first few pages…
Craig Sisterson and the books his kid is reading
Founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and writer at Crime Watch, Craig Sisterson, shares what he and his two-year-old daughter Madi have been reading lately. Story time is one of my favourite times with Madi, our two-and-a-half year old. ‘Again,…
How to be a warrior princess: Chinese heroines
Nina Powles remembers how it felt to discover Mulan, a Chinese ‘warrior princess’, as a child, and looks into other stories of woman warriors in China and how their stories still resonate today. 1. Learn how to cut your own…
The Sampling: The Traitor and the Thief
An excerpt from Gareth Ward’s debut steampunk adventure novel and winner of the 2016 Storylines Tessa Duder Award, The Traitor and the Thief. Orphan, urchin and thief, Sin, has just been chased through the streets of Coxford by a sinister old man, Eldritch … Secrets, spies and steampunk gadgets abound in this fantastic adventure story!
Publish your own way: Independent publishing
‘Self-published’ is not a word I use proudly when referring to my work. Independently produced books are – still – frequently seen as inferior to those that are traditionally published. But the number of my self-published colleagues who are creating…