Features

Ka pai! Cool stuff from around the internet

Every two weeks we compile, for your browsing pleasure, cool children’s book happenings (and peripherally related news) from around Aotearoa, the world and the internet. Tips and trends from around the world: Readings Books in Australia has a great blog…

Crafts with Fifi: NZ’s Great White Sharks

Never be stuck for something to do! Keep your hands and brain busy with glue, tape and scissors – and have crafty fun with Fifi! Would you put your finger in the mouth of a shark? No? Well, here’s a…

Victor Rodger & the dark humour of Struwwelpeter

Playwright and Victoria University Writer-in-Residence Victor Rodger describes the twisted humour and terrifying morality of his favourite childhood book, Struwwelpeter. If you ask me about the children’s book I most treasured during my childhood, there can and will only ever…

Dear John: Gender identity and stopping boredom

John McIntyre from The Children’s Bookshop in Wellington is a top children’s bookseller. He’s here once a month to answer your child-related reading questions. Dear John, My 11-year-old has just come out as a trans girl. I’d love to buy…

A short history of Storylines and its awards

Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust continues to play a significant part in boosting the children’s literature culture here in New Zealand. We asked Tessa Duder, beloved author and Storylines Trustee, to tell us how the Storylines Awards came about. When…

The reckoning: an argument for inclusiveness

There’s a book for every reader, and a time for every book. Mandy Hager explains why sometimes Great Literature isn’t what we need. In 1992 I went to the public library in hope that I might find some picture books…

Taking our Children’s Books to Bologna

UNESCO City of Literature Dunedin were offered an opportunity they couldn’t ignore: to bid to have a stand atthe Bologna Children’s Book Fair earlier this month. Ella West reports. Hall 26, stand B/76 bis – that was Dunedin UNESCO City…

War! What is it read for? War books for kids

Author Melinda Szymanik considers war books for children, how they create deeper empathy, and tells us what writers balance as they write these books. Every year, amongst the latest batch of published stories for children about superheroes, horses, dogs and…

Ka pai! Cool stuff from around the internet

Every two weeks we compile, for your browsing pleasure, cool children’s book happenings (and peripherally related news) from around Aotearoa, the world and the internet. We were really pleased to learn that Duck, Death and the Tulip creator Wolf Erlbruch…

The Sampling: Flight Path

An excerpt from David Hill’s Flight Path, a YA novel about 18-year-old Jack who wanted to escape boring little New Zealand – but soon finds that flying in a Lancaster bomber to attack Hitler’s forces brings terror as well as excitement.