Continuing with our coverage for Mental Health Awareness Week, Sapling editor Hannah has some hard truths to share about the representation of mental illness in YA literature—and the harm that is caused when these representations are done poorly. Content warning:…
By Dr Jo Prendergast This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week runs from 18-24 September. This week, our content is focused on mental health, and we’re kicking off with an extract from psychiatrist and comedian Dr Jo Prendergast’s new book, When…
This week, September 11-18, is Māori Language Week, which is all about celebrating one of the official languages of Aotearoa and the language of the tangata whenua of these mōtu. This year’s theme encourages people to “Kia kaha te reo…
You know it, you love it – it’s the Mahy Questionnaire! This month we are featuring award-winning author and internationally acclaimed writing coach Brian Falkner! His most recent title, Andromeda Bond in Trouble Deep (sequel to Brainjack) was a finalist…
Writing is hard. Writing and editing, designing, publishing, marketing and distributing your manuscript is even more difficult. Annelies Judson looks at self-published books in Aotearoa and offers some pearls of wisdom to authors looking to take on all those roles…
This year, children’s book illustrator and author Ruth Paul was awarded the University of Otago College of Education Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence Fellowship—a mouthful of a title for a genre of few words. Ruth tells us about…
Thanks to a partnership between the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) and the School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (SLANZA), tertiary grants are available for anyone who wants to complete a tertiary library qualification. School…
A poem about falling asleep listening to the rain has won a new competition set up to promote poetry for children. ‘Night Rain’ by Annelies Judson from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland won the Drop by Drop Poetry for Children Competition being…
Introducing Oscar Sweetman: He runs a Youtube channel called HeHatesNovels, which he considers an ironic username because reading is his passion. Leading up to the NZCYA Book Awards, he reviewed the finalists in the YA category on his channel. After…
Do descriptions of food in books have you drooling or recoiling in disgust? This edition of the Giselle Clarkson comic delves into the delights and despair of the culinary in children’s literature.