We grew up watching the world end – at least on-screen. Our children are growing up watching it happen in real time. How do we prepare them to inherit a world that’s (supposedly) about to end? Today Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod, an…
“The death of YA – it’s a thing believe me. Google it.” It was a fleeting comment at a writer’s festival as we moved between venues and it filled me with dread. I did Google it on my phone in…
Love it or hate it, social media is a part of our life. But does an author really need it? Elissa Weismann swore off Facebook and Twitter at the start of this year, and it has given her pause to…
TUIA250 is the government-funded programme to mark 250 years since Captain James Cook first visited Aotearoa. Tina Ngata asks how parents and teachers can help children engage in ‘ethical remembering’ of this event. The 2019 Cook commemorations are New Zealand’s…
Joanna Grochowicz’s second Antarctica-focused non-fiction book for young people has recently been released, and in this installment of The Reckoning, Joanna gives her take on hero-worship, using the protagonist of her new book – Roald Amundsen – to illustrate her…
Eileen Merriman has just published her third YA book, but it is the impending publication of her first adult novel that has her acquaintances impressed. She makes an argument against the false pedestal upon which adult writing sits. Most bookstores…
Angela Keoghan kicked off her international children’s book career by visiting Bologna Book Fair in 2015, and she has been going there every year since. She makes the argument for NZ illustrators to go to the other side of the…
Māori language academic Vini Olsen-Reeder wants Māori-speaking kids and adults to be able to read books – lots of them – in te reo Māori. Since I started learning te reo Māori in 2008, I think I’ve been subconsciously preparing…
Novelist and playwright Whiti Hereaka is wondering where our Māori heroes were, in the commemoration of WWI. Her upcoming YA novel Legacy, will be released this month, and is based on the Māori experience of WWI. I haven’t been to…
Children’s book author and designer Vasanti Unka reckons that we could do better with our use of the colours from our multicultural surrounds. We have the world at our fingertips – so why aren’t we using it? Vasanti’s new book…