Today Emmett Roberts, a consent educator, library studies student, and intern with InsideOUT, reflects on what kinds of books young people in the LGBTIQ+ community - and beyond it - need, and gives us some recommendations to check out, from picture books to YA. Detail from the cover of Julián is a Mermaid, by Jessica Love Books play a huge role in the way we learn to understand the world around us, and the way we understand ourselves. When it comes to gender identity and sexu

At The Sapling, we believe that books grow humans. Rainbow Story Time is a recent phenomenon helping to grow humans who aren't too hung up on the gender binary, and who are comfortable with who they are. Here to tell us all about its evolution in Aotearoa is Queen Olivia St Redfern! Image credit: Upper Hutt Library I vividly remember falling in love with Dame Edna Everage on a 1980s telethon somewhere between the age of five and ten. It wasn’t until many years later, as a reb

Elizabeth Heritage investigates representations of gender in New Zealand children's book publishing by looking at the 2017 bestsellers and talking to local publishers. Are we doing the best by all genders, and why does it matter? The Observer recently commissioned a study about the lack of gender diversity in the bestselling children’s picture books in the UK in 2017. It found that male characters are twice as likely to be in the lead, and to have speaking parts. Female chara

Poet and teacher Rachel O’Neill interviews author and storyteller Ivan Coyote ahead of their appearance this May in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Coyote will be at the Schools Days at the Auckland Writers Festival. Their latest book, Tomboy Survival Guide, is suitable for teens, and they frequently tour North America speaking to schools. Ivan Coyote is the award-winning author of eleven books, and appears at storytelling, writers', film, poetry, and folk music festiv

First-time authors Chaz Harris and Adam Reynolds have been all over the international media lately, thanks to the success of their self-published, crowdfunded picture book, Promised Land. It’s a fairy tale about ‘friendship, responsibility, adventure and love’ which just happens to have a gay love story at its heart. The Sapling talked to the authors about how they made the book. The authors, Adam Reynolds (left) and Chaz Harris You both have backgrounds as playwrights and sc