It's the final instalment of our NZCYA finalist coverage for 2019! Our final category is the Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for Te Reo Māori. When she's not busy being a Sapling editor or a bookseller at Little Unity, Briar Lawry is also an enthusiastic akonga i te reo Māori. So for this category, she took matters into her own hands and assessed Te Hīnga Ake A Māui I Te Ika Whenua, Te Haka A Tānerore and Ngā Whetū Matariki I Whānakotia – with some help from he

This year's NZCYA Awards coverage kicks off with the Best First Book finalists! We asked them to tell us, in their own words and with their own spin, about a book that was integral to their childhoods. Here's what they shared with us. James T. Guthrie, finalist for Bullseye Bella (Scholastic) The earliest book I can think of that made a deep and lasting impression on me, which changed the way I thought about books and reading and shaped the choices I would make in my reading

Kay Benseman and her niece and nephews have been our main reviewers of books in te reo Māori for 2018. Kay tells us her top te reo selections for this gift-giving season. Kiwi Tahi rāua ko Kiwi Rua, nā Stephanie Thatcher i tuhi, nā Ngaere Roberts ngā kōrero i whakamāori This tale of two kiwi who wake up their forest friends to play with them all night long, is bright and cheerful and has an easy appeal to young readers. The illustrations are really likeable and we can recogni

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 picture books of 2018. The Bomb, by Sacha Cotter and Josh Morgan What do you do when you’re no good at everyone’s favourite summer activity? In Sacha Cotter’s story of learning to do the perfect bomb, our young hero has to face failure and fear, and find his own path t

Three books are finalists for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults Te Kura Pounamu category, celebrating the best books in te reo Māori. Reviewing each of them for us is former teacher, gallery educator, librarian and student, Kay Benseman, along with her irāmutu. Joining me again, my irāmutu share their salient opinions on these te reo Māori publications which are finalists in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. These three books a

He mātanga, he atamai a Ngaere Roberts (Ngāti Porou) ki te whakamāori i ngā pukapuka mō te nohinohi, kua oti i a ia ngā pukapuka a te momo i a Joy Cowley mā, i a Gavin Bishop mā, i a Ruth Paul mā te whakamāori. Inā a Vini Olsen-Reeder e kōrero ana ki a Ngaere mō tāna huarahi taki i te pūrākau mō te tamaiti. You can read this interview in English here. Ngaere Roberts Tēnā koe e Ngaere! Tuatahi, he uiui ā-tuhi tēnei, ehara i te uiui kanohi ki te kanohi. Ka nui taku māharahara k

Reviewing three new picture books in te reo Māori today is former teacher, gallery educator, librarian and student, Kay Benseman, along with her irāmutu. To balance my perspective as an adult second language learner, my clever irāmutu (niece and nephews) have also shared their reflections of these newly published te reo Māori picture books. Hinengākau Cameron is 12 years old, her tungāne, Te Kaponga and Mangō-Ururoa are 9 and 6 years old respectively. Ko Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti

Matariki has been celebrated in several picture books in recent years, but broadcaster Miriama Kamo’s new book, The Stolen Stars of Matariki, is the first to feature nine, not seven stars. Kristin Smith caught up with Miriama to hear how the book came about. In 2016, Dr Rangi Mātāmua got everyone talking about the nine (not seven!) stars of Matariki. Many of us had grown up with the tale of the seven stars, but Mātāmua pushed back on this kōrero – showing that the idea of sev

Kua whakanuia a Matariki i ētahi pukapuka tamariki i ēnei tau tata kua hipa, engari ko te pukapuka hou a Miriama Kamo, ko Ngā Whetū Matariki i Whānakotia te mea tuatahi e pā ana ki ngā whetū e iwa, kaua ko ngā whetū e whitu. I kōrero tahi a Miriama rāua ko Kristin Smith mō te pukapuka nei. (You can read this interview in English here.) I te tau 2016, nā Tākuta Rangi Mātāmua i whakaora anō te kōrero mō ngā whetū e iwa (ehara i te whitu!) o Matariki. Kua tipu mai ētahi o tātou

Miriama Kamo is one of New Zealand's foremost broadcasters. She looks back on her book-loving childhood, and that time she tried to get Witi Ihimaera to adopt her. It was a watershed, Pounamu, Pounamu: the book that was the growing up of me as a reader. I’d have been 12 or 13. I read it and read it and read it. I loved 'The Makutu on Mrs Jones', though I was also terrified of it. What black magic did that crazy old koro use to get Mrs Jones to stay with him? At that age, I di