You know it, you love it - it's the Mahy Questionnaire! This month's instalment features award-winning author Fleur Beale. She tell us all about holey floors, and getting bitten by a chair. 1. Describe yourself in three words Very very slippery. 2. During the height of adolescence, was it good changeover? I’ll let you know when/if it happens. 3. Are you haunted by a particular memory? All those characters who are still looking for a story. The Haunting by Margaret Mahy (J.M.

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

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 junior fiction books of 2018. The Mapmaker’s Race, by Eirlys Hunter and Kirsten Slade Eirlys Hunter and Kirsten Slade invite their readers to come on an adventure with the Santander family, across the hills and mountains of a land where the dots of towns have not yet b

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

New Zealand's answer to Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls is in bookshops now. It's called Go Girl: A Storybook of Epic NZ Women (Penguin Random House NZ), and it's written by the multi-award-winning Barbara Else. We asked Barbara to tell us why the book was so badly needed, and we learned why she was the right woman for the job. At primary school my favourite time was silent reading. I’d almost teleport to the class library shelf and grab a history book. They bristled with t

Fleur Beale has written over 50 books for children and teens. Her latest novel is Lyla. Here, she lets us in on the amount of time and work that goes into writing, and explains the importance of the editing process in turning a good manuscript into a great book. I’ve been writing for 40-plus years and I’ve had 50-plus books published, so obviously I know what I’m doing. Oh, sigh. If only. But maybe that’s a bit harsh because I have learnt a few editing essentials since I bega

Lyla has just started her second year of high school when a magnitude 6.3 earthquake shakes Christchurch to pieces. Devastation is everywhere. While her police officer mother and trauma nurse father respond to the disaster, Lyla puts on a brave face, opening their home to neighbours and leading the community clean-up. But soon she discovers that it's not only familiar buildings and landscapes that have vanished - it's friends and acquaintances too. As the earth keeps shaking