Paula Green is one of New Zealand’s most (probably the most) energetic and passionate ambassadors for poetry ever. She has published (as writer or editor) nearly 20 books and runs two fascinating blogs, NZ Poetry Shelf (for adults) and NZ…
The Sapling has asked two first-time middle-grade authors, Felicity Williams and Weng Wai Chan, to interview one another about their first novels and how they went about getting them published. F: The route to publication is enormously difficult. ‘Take a…
Another week, another category of NZCYA Award finalists to highlight! Today, it’s the Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction finalists, answering questions about the hows and the whys of their fabulous books. From backyards, burrows and biographies to legends and linework,…
As the next instalment in our coverage of this year’s NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, we asked the five finalists of the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction to interview each other. Here’s Philippa…
Morris Gleitzman, acclaimed author of Toad Rage and many other books, is the 2018–19 Australian Children’s Laureate – the nation’s ambassador for children’s literature. The role is keeping him intensely busy, but Johanna Knox managed to speak with him by…
Fossils, e-bikes, sci-fi movies, teenage hoons, an abandoned mine, step-grandparents, a big Lotto win in a small kiwi town and one of the craziest roadtrips in a giant campervan you’ll ever read about – it’s all here in Des Hunt’s…
We are pleased to present a regular series highlighting the work, expertise and enthusiasm of some of the greatest children’s booksellers of New Zealand. Here’s Books for Kids in Hamilton. This delightful little independent children’s boutique bookshop humbly began 48…
Home Child, based on child migrant Pat Brown’s early life, is such a major change of pace, a poignant, heart-wrenching story by a writer so well known for her hugely successful funny rhyming books like I Need a New Bum,…
What connects the mysterious hairy man of the Australian bush, the Japanese author Haruki Murakami, and a struggling donkey just trying to get by in the big city? I loved Tohby Riddle’s 2009 picture book Nobody Owns the Moon from…
We are pleased to present a regular series highlighting the work, expertise and enthusiasm of some of the greatest children’s booksellers of New Zealand. Here’s a shop that was born in the same year as The Sapling’s two founding editors:…