Young Adult

2017 Christmas Shopping List: Best YA Books

Do you want to be sure you’re getting top-shelf books for your favourite people this Christmas – or on any gift-giving occasion? We are making it easy for you! Here is our selection of the very best New Zealand books…

Book Reviews: YA Fiction – Dark Spaces

Every now and then I’m determined to broaden my teeteringly-high reading pile by adding in new genres. Build it out sideways for stronger integrity, perhaps. The YA I love tends to tell convincingly real stories of convincingly real teenagers, which…

His Dark Materials: A Bold Imagination

Ruby McDonald-Bridge and her daemon share their love of Philip Pullman’s new release La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust I, which is taking the world by storm. The Book of Dust Vol. 1: La Belle Sauvage – my hands,…

Book List: Comic Books for Kids and Teens

Children’s comics embrace all the possibilities inherent in good fiction. They are original, compelling and relevant, but also of increased importance for reluctant readers, and those who value the written word and illustration. Here, Monty Masseurs and Nicola Crombie from…

Book List: Queer & Trans Books for Schools

Young adults who are part of gender or sexual minorities may be in need of extra support in school environments. We asked School Library Assistant Cathy-Ellen Paul to help equip school staff to be their champions, including in the reading…

Book Quiz: The change of the seasons

We may not yet have reached the Season of the Age of Aquarius, but it certainly appears to be Spring right now, and we figure sooner or later Summer will reach our fair shores. Lets do a quiz to celebrate!…

Book Reviews: Beautiful Mess & Broken Silence

If there is a trend right now in YA publishing, it has to be toward gritty teen drama, usually including the death of somebody close and plenty of angst. Beautiful Mess, by Claire Christian won the 2016 Text Prize, and…

Dare Truth or Promise, Twenty Years On

Today we say ‘Happy Birthday!’ to Paula Boock’s ground-breaking novel for young adults, Dare Truth or Promise, published on this day, twenty years ago. Today Gem Wilder remembers how important it was for her to read as a teenager, and…

Te Atea: ko tenei te wa: Kristin Smith

Ko tēnei Te Wiki o te Reo Māori! Today we have a love letter to Te Ātea, a futuristic Young Adult story about a nuclear holocaust and space travel, all in te reo Māori, by the acclaimed author Dame Katerina…

Hooked on NZ Books: Eirlys Hunter on YA

New Zealand Young Adult fiction is as good as any in the world. So why doesn’t it have a higher profile with young readers in Aotearoa, and what can be done about that? Writer, reviewer and teacher Eirlys Hunter tells…