Kate De Goldi confesses the pleasures of reading ‘off-task and off-curriculum’, and describes how necessary public libraries are to the development of a love of reading. In my late teens and early twenties I worked as a library assistant in…
First-time authors Chaz Harris and Adam Reynolds have been all over the international media lately, thanks to the success of their self-published, crowdfunded picture book, Promised Land. It’s a fairy tale about ‘friendship, responsibility, adventure and love’ which just happens…
David Hill reviews Torty and the Soldier, a picture book about the true story of a very old tortoise, by Jennifer Beck and illustrated by Fifi Colston. Children’s writers are accustomed to getting judged both on literary grounds and for…
Johanna Knox and her friend, 10-year-old Noah, review Dinosaur Trouble by Kyle Mewburn, Helper and Helper by Joy Cowley, and Tui Street Tales by Anne Kayes. Ten-year-old Noah, from down the road, loves books, so I thought he’d make a…
Chief Librarian at the Alexander Turnbull Library and award-winning children’s book writer, Chris Szekely on how he became a writer. As a youngster who came of reading age in the 1970’s, my literary fare was predictable: Enid Blyton, Dr Seuss,…