We grew up watching the world end – at least on-screen. Our children are growing up watching it happen in real time. How do we prepare them to inherit a world that's (supposedly) about to end? Today Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod, an Auckland writer, unpacks climate change literature for children and the responsibilities of those who produce it. In the late 1990s the world was always about to end on screen. An asteroid is coming! Aliens are arriving! A volcano is erupting! But don’t

In response to a request The Sapling put out on Twitter, teacher and author Sarina Dickson has compiled this wonderful list of New Zealand titles for those young readers who have finished Harry Potter and are reading above their age level at primary school. Advanced readers, assemble! As a child I loved to read. By the age of eight, I was reading anything I could get my hands on and in desperation had moved onto the books my mother had read. I read all about what Katy did at

How to help our children manage their emotions around the climate crisis. It’s a hot topic. Helping our children manage those big feelings can be tricky. It’s hard enough for adults. Navigating these moments in parenting can feel a lot like stumbling in the dark. When I can’t find the words myself, I turn to books. Both for myself and my child. There are books galore on climate science, but hardly any on how to support our children’s emotional response around inheriting a cli

Australia-based New Zealander Bren MacDibble has been a published writer for many years, but only recently broke into the trade children's publishing market. Last year, she won both the Young Adult and the Junior Fiction Awards at the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, under her two writing names, for In the Dark Spaces and How to Bee. Gerri Judkins met her while she was in NZ, and here asks her more about her new junior fiction novel, The Dog Runner. Photographs s

The only thing these two books have in common is that they are absolutely stunning, and they are broadly for a junior fiction age range. The Dog Runner, by Bren MacDibble, is another well-told ecological story; while Jillion is a journal of writing by talented kids aged 5-13. Sarah Forster recommends them both. The Dog Runner, by Bren MacDibble ‘I saw on the news, before they stopped the TV stations, that there’s no grass anywhere in the whole world no more. No rice in Asia e

As part of our coverage of this year's NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, we asked the five Wright Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction finalists four questions about their book and characters. The finalists are: Lyla, by Fleur Beale (A & U); The Thunderbolt Pony, by Stacy Gregg (HarperCollins); How to Bee, by Bren McDibble (A & U); How NOT to stop a kidnap plot, by Suzanne Main (Scholastic); and Dawn Raid by Pauline (Vaeluaga) Smith (Scholastic). 1. Wha

A story about family, loyalty, kindness and bravery, set against an all-too-possible future where climate change has forever changed the way we live. Peony lives with her sister and grandfather on a fruit farm outside the city. In a world where real bees are extinct, the quickest, bravest kids climb the fruit trees and pollinate the flowers by hand. All Peony really wants is to be a bee. How To Bee is a beautiful and fierce novel for younger readers, and the voice of Peony wi

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 of 2017 for readers of junior and middle fiction. Junior Fiction Miniwings series by Sally Sutton Published by Scholastic New Zealand RRP $14.99 This new series from Scholastic hooks into an idea that we're sure most children have had at some point (we know we