Editor and co-founder Sarah Forster shares her thoughts on another exciting batch of Kiwi picture books featuring some well-intentioned letters to Donald Trump, anthromorphised girl boss penguins, and a divisive depiction of anxiety. Dear Donald Trump, by Sophie Siers and…
Split consciousness features in very different ways in these two wonderful junior fiction titles for opposite ends of the audience age group. Sarah Forster tells us what she thinks. Between, by Adele Broadbent (OneTree House) Between had me under its…
The Sapling launched exactly one year ago today. Happy first birthday to us! From founding editors Jane Arthur and Sarah Forster, and editor Thalia Kehoe Rowden: thanks to Helena Loy for helping load many of the pieces, Tabitha of LightShade…
Australian author Zana Fraillon is an observer of the unseen: ‘As an author, I am drawn to the absences and the silences in our world.’ She is drawn in by those voices that aren’t being listened to, the stories that…
Sarah Forster reviews two recent books, both by debut authors, which are tied together by adventure and its aftermath. Both books go deep inside the emotional experience of dramatic, unpredictable death. Into the White is a retelling for children of…
The Sapling editor Sarah Forster writes about her childhood spent between New Zealand and Australia, the books she read as a result, and explains why we’re making room for the Aussies on this site. I lived, from the ages two…
Here Comes Mr Postmouse and Postmouse Goes on Holiday are charming creations from French-Canadian Marianne Dubuc, translated by Greet Pauwelijn. Book Island were based on the Kapiti Coast, but are now based in Brighton, UK. In Here Comes Mr Postmouse,…
Barbara Murison, MNZM, was one of the most dedicated supporters of children’s literature in New Zealand for over 60 years. Through her career as a librarian, and as a reviewer and manuscript assessor, she was a wonderful person to have…
The Storylines Gavin Bishop Award has been offered to a promising Kiwi illustrator since 2009. Set up by Gavin Bishop and Jenny Hellen, then Children’s Publisher at Random House NZ, they are administered now by Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust….