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…
Like most writers, Rachael Craw needs to do something on the side. Occasionally the side job takes over. Rachael is releasing her fourth YA book, The Rift, on 1 November. Here, Rachael talks about her life and how writing fits…
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…
Fantasy and science fiction writer Karen Healey reckons that the national book awards, the NZ Book Awards, are erroneously named. Why not the the New Zealand Adult Literary Fiction, Non-Fiction and Poetry Awards? For that’s what they are, she argues….
How many children’s books have you read that tell stories of family violence and abuse? Today author, speaker and survivor of family violence, Tim Tipene, argues for more books that show the reality of life for far too many children…
Elizabeth Heritage investigates representations of gender in New Zealand children’s book publishing by looking at the 2017 bestsellers and talking to local publishers. Are we doing the best by all genders, and why does it matter? The Observer recently commissioned…