In 2007, when I first encountered Brian Falkner, he was at the top of the national request list for the Writers in Schools programme, which I ran at the NZ Book Council. He wrote books about sports, about soft drink…
Eileen Merriman’s and Ella West’s latest books were on the bookshop shelves as we headed to the beach this summer. Catch Me When You Fall is for older teens, and is about 17-year-old Alex in Christchurch who is fighting leukaemia…
Margaret Mahy’s The Christmas Tree Tangle was originally published in 1994, and a newly illustrated edition was released by Puffin in November 2017. We asked illustrator Sarah Davis to talk about the process of re-illustrating an existing book, to which…
Today Kura Rutherford introduces Dr Darryn Joseph (Ngāti Maniapoto), a writer, dad, illustrator, comic collector and Māori language lecturer. The recently appointed board member for Storylines has an extensive literary CV. He has published 23 books in te reo, he…
New Zealand’s school librarians are passionate, engaged professionals who know how to get students of all ages and reading levels into reading. Greig Daniels is the Library Manager at Tokomairiro High School Library, in Otago. I’m currently the librarian at…
Poet, author and anthologist Jenny Bornholdt tells us about the books she read – and heard – as a child. My earliest memory of being read to: Kate Harcourt’s voice on the radio programme Listen with Mother as I sit…
The superb New Zealand writer and illustrator team, Gillian Candler and Ned Barraud, have recently released their sixth collaboration in the Explore and Discover series, Up the River. Today Ned gives us a peek behind the scenes and tells us…
Ridiculously prolific pony writers Kelly Wilson and Stacy Gregg each take a very different approach to their work but at the heart, their inspiration is always horses. This double interview sees them discuss their latest books, due out this month….
We get two legends together for this extraordinary interview about an extraordinary book, Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story. Donovan Bixley interviews Gavin Bishop. Rain is hammering the roof of my studio in Taupō, so my ears are squinting to hear…
The follow-up to the award-winning Annual is out this month, ready to be part of the formative childhood reading of a new generation of Kiwi kids. We reviewed it last week, but we have also asked a few of the…