Features

Ka pai! Cool stuff from around the internet

Every two weeks we compile, for your browsing pleasure, cool children’s book happenings (and peripherally related news) from around Aotearoa, the world and the internet. A little US-centric but here are some great ideas to get your whole family thinking…

Quiz: test your Margaret Mahy knowledge

Hooray, it’s a quiz! Test your children’s book knowledge every month – first up is a quiz to celebrate Margaret Mahy’s birthday. Answers are at the bottom of the page. Good luck… 1. What’s the name of the 14-year-old protagonist…

DEAR JOHN: TRAINS, TOUGH GIRLS & KILLING JOY

John McIntyre from The Children’s Bookshop in Wellington is a top children’s bookseller. He’s here once a month to answer your child-related reading questions. Dear John, My four-year-old son is obsessed with trains, and if I have to read another…

Crafts with Fifi: Tiny Walnut Tortoises

Never be stuck for something to do! Keep your hands and brain busy with glue, tape and scissors – and have crafty fun with Fifi! An adult Greek tortoise, like Torty, is around 20cm long. But you can make a…

FUTURE WORLDS: GROWING UP IN A BOOKSHOP

Multi award-winning US slam poet Anis Mojgani writes about the things which captivate us as children, the magic and promise books hold, and how it is to grow up in a New Orleans children’s bookshop. The pages of my childhood…

Ka pai! Cool stuff from around the internet

Every two weeks we compile, for your browsing pleasure, cool children’s book happenings (and peripherally related news) from around Aotearoa, the world and the internet. Given we are all about adult conversations about children’s literature, it’s probably not too surprising…

TEENAGE WITCH: growing up with Hermione

For International Women’s Day, an essay by Nina Powles about Hermione Granger, feminism and searching for yourself in books. My room at the house near the beach was small and blue. It was empty except for a fold-out bed and…

The Reckoning: Better Laureate than Never

Kyle Mewburn tells us why our children’s writers are so special, and opens a discussion about why New Zealand should appoint a Children’s Laureate. If your orbit has intersected with the local children’s literature scene over the last few years,…