Richard Fairgray is an award-winning creator who has published over 200 titles, ranging from children’s books like Gorillas in Our Midst and My Grandpa Is a Dinosaur to graphic novels like Black Sand Beach, Blastosaurus and Cardboardia. Here, Charlotte Fielding…
Mikaela Ellwood is the School Librarian at Henderson North School in Tāmaki Makaurau. The school library I am privileged to work in is tucked in a corner of Henderson, on the edge of Auckland. I was welcomed to this role…
Alan Dingley is a Librarian at Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School, former Youth Librarian at Palmerston North City Library’s Youth Space, a presenter of talks and workshops on children’s literature and readers advisory, an award-winning theatre sports extraordinaire, and a…
Saradha Koirala and Gareth Ward recently wrote sequels to YA books. While it was Gareth’s second time writing a sequel, it was Saradha’s first, so we thought we’d get them to have a talk about how you know your story…
Gavin Bishop is an acclaimed author and illustrator of many beloved children’s books. Amongst his numerous accolades are the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in 2019 and the 2018 Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award for AOTEAROA. Whiti…
Swapna Haddow has serious chops when it comes to comedic writing for children, and this time she’s moved from pigeons and bunnies, to pandas. Bad Panda hits the spot for Pearl DSilva and her two kids, as she prepared to…
Kate McIntyre interviewed Mandy Hager about her new title Protest! Shaping Aotearoa, delving into how she chose her themes, what protests can achieve, and how she is supporting the younger generation. It’s easy to take the rights we have for…
Our librarians of Aotearoa feature is hitting the road! Eliza Jackson is a Mobile Librarian with the Mobile and Access services for Auckland Libraries. As a fluent speaker in te reo Māori, Eliza spends her time bringing the library to…
One of our favourite bits of the lead up to the NZCYA Awards each year is getting the finalists in one of the categories to interview one another—and this year is no different. Each of the finalists in the Best…
Award winning writer Leonie Agnew is next up for our Mahy questionnaire. Her latest book The Memory Thief is out this month but it hasn’t stopped her finding the time to answer our questions! Read on, tricksters… 1. Describe yourself…