Every two weeks we compile, for your browsing pleasure, cool children’s book happenings (and peripherally related news) from around Aotearoa, the world and the internet.
Tips and trends from around the world: Readings Books in Australia has a great blog post recommending a bunch of kids’ books that teach empathy, and the US Children’s Institute 2017 has some tips for selling kids’ books (useful for librarians, too!) as well as a write-up about the latest statistics and trends for US children’s books (think: girl power, diversity and fantasy). And from Europe, a summary on how the Bologna International Children’s Book Fair went.
If you need a way to lose some hours, here’s an archive of historical children’s books digitized and free to read online!
Our friends The Pantograph Punch have a great article about plays in New Zealand schools. The stage adaptation of The 13 Storey Treehouse is coming to a stage near you: Auckland tickets available here and rest of the North Island here. And Matilda the Musical is coming to Auckland (swoon!); here’s a wonderful interview with the creator, Tim Minchin.
The Auckland bookshop, Paradox Books in Devonport, is running a short story competition just for kids. Details on their homepage. And in other competition news… the coolest thing: Text Publishing has announced its 2017 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing shortlist, which is so strong they’ve awarded publishing contracts to the lot of them!
Here are some cool interviews, starting with our pal David Hill, talking about why and how he writes what he writes. And a fascinating (and heartbreaking) interview with Meg Rosoff about how she finished writing Beck after Mal Peet died. And finally, Philip and Erin Stead on their adaptation of Mark Twain’s unfinished children’s story.