This month, the children’s book community of Aotearoa New Zealand – and anyone who’s every interacted with her, probably – was collectively delighted to learn that illustrator Giselle Clarkson is one of the 2023 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureates….
Writing is hard. Writing and editing, designing, publishing, marketing and distributing your manuscript is even more difficult. Annelies Judson looks at self-published books in Aotearoa and offers some pearls of wisdom to authors looking to take on all those roles…
This year, children’s book illustrator and author Ruth Paul was awarded the University of Otago College of Education Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence Fellowship—a mouthful of a title for a genre of few words. Ruth tells us about…
Thanks to a partnership between the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) and the School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (SLANZA), tertiary grants are available for anyone who wants to complete a tertiary library qualification. School…
A poem about falling asleep listening to the rain has won a new competition set up to promote poetry for children. ‘Night Rain’ by Annelies Judson from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland won the Drop by Drop Poetry for Children Competition being…
Introducing Oscar Sweetman: He runs a Youtube channel called HeHatesNovels, which he considers an ironic username because reading is his passion. Leading up to the NZCYA Book Awards, he reviewed the finalists in the YA category on his channel. After…
It’s our final installment of the NZCYA finalists before the winners are announced next week. Briar Lawry gets the downlow from her high school students on what they think of the finalists, with some insightful if not judgemental reckons. The…
Linda Tuhiwai Smith is renowned in her field – indigenous education – and now has authored a series of picture books dealing with social issues, the Whatumanawa collection, available in both te reo Māori and reo Pākehā. They are serious,…
Design is a huge part of what makes good books even better. Design is not just about looking pretty; it’s about guiding the reader’s eye, drawing attention to key features, making text readable, digestible, and accessible. Good design is almost…
It’s the penultimate instalment in our coverage of each category in the NZCYA Awards, and today we’re focusing on the finalists in the Best First Book Award category! Hear from the authors below as they tell us about their writing…