The Sapling co-editor Nida Fiazi reviews the first picture book retelling of her favourite childhood folktale Buz-e-Chini. She recalls the nightmare that revived Afghan oral storytelling traditions within her family, and shares how this helped improve her oral literacy as a bilingual child. Nida's mum and her younger brother reading The Legend of Buz-e-Chini by Kids Own Publishing. The Hazaragi folktale Buz-e-Chini is the story of my childhood. Set in rural Afghanistan, the t

Australian author and editor Davina Bell is an exceptional storyteller for kids aged 2 to 12. Her broad range of books include picture books like Under the Love Umbrella (Scribble) and her most recent All of the Factors of Why I Love Tractors (Hardie Grant), early reader series Lemonade Jones (Allen & Unwin), historical junior fiction ballet series The Alice Stories (Penguin), and absolutely wonderful middle grade fiction in the guise of the Corner Park Clubhouse series (Hard

Morris Gleitzman, acclaimed author of Toad Rage and many other books, is the 2018–19 Australian Children’s Laureate – the nation’s ambassador for children’s literature. The role is keeping him intensely busy, but Johanna Knox managed to speak with him by phone while he was caught in traffic between engagements. Their conversation connects dots between the climate crisis, plot structure, public speaking, and the value of the Laureateship. Plus it definitively (we think!) answe

We were fascinated to discover recently that the Australian Association of Family Therapy announces its own Family Book Awards. Thalia Kehoe Rowden finds out more from Margaret Hodge, one of the therapists who chose this year's winners. It's probably not news to you that books can be great medicine. Last year, child psychologist Amy Wilson-Hughes wrote this excellent guide to books that can be helpful for children struggling with anxiety and it remains one of our most popular

Our editor Jane Arthur comes out from behind the curtain to interview the multi-accoladed Australian children’s writer Ursula Dubosarsky, whose latest novel The Blue Cat is out now. Ursula Dubosarsky made me an evangelist at first read. It was The Red Shoe, and it was like nothing else I’d read in children’s literature. It’s ‘about’ a lot of things, including life in mid-century Australia and the threat/romance of Communist spies, hydrogen bombs and polio, but it’s also hypno