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THE SAMPLING: A Trio of Sophies by Eileen Merriman

THE SAMPLING: A Trio of Sophies by Eileen Merriman

Eileen Merriman has been a constant fixture in the Aotearoa YA scene since the 2017 release of her debut, Pieces of You. Each of her books has taken an unflinching approach towards teenage lives and their associated challenges and issues. This week, her latest book, A Trio of Sophies, has hit shelves, and here are the first few chapters to get you hooked. Day 64 Today is the first of September, the first day of spring, and it’s been sixty-four days since I last saw Sophie Abe

The Reckoning: The death of YA fiction

The Reckoning: The death of YA fiction

“The death of YA – it’s a thing believe me. Google it.” It was a fleeting comment at a writer’s festival as we moved between venues and it filled me with dread. It was nothing I didn’t already know from my own experiences as a YA writer. Publishers are reluctant to look at YA, with some completely closing their doors to the genre and others reducing titles on what were already lists that barely covered the calendar year. In past years the industry blame game has put writers f

Across the Ditch: Allison Rushby & The Mulberry Tree

Across the Ditch: Allison Rushby & The Mulberry Tree

Australian author Allison Rushby is a prolific children’s and YA writer with many well-known books to her name, including The Turnkey (2017). Publishing with Walker Books, Rushby's The Mulberry Tree (July 2018) is a spooky tale aimed at intermediate readers. Drawing inspiration from her year spent in the tiny mystical village of Buckden in Cambridgeshire, The Mulberry Tree tells the tale of a haunted mulberry tree which is said to steal girls on the eve of their eleventh birt

Book Awards: the Young Adult finalists

Book Awards: the Young Adult finalists

As part of our coverage of this year's NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, we asked the five finalists of the Copyright Licensing NZ Award for Young Adult Fiction to interview each other. Here's Erin Donohue, Eileen Merriman, Cally Black, Mary-anne Scott and Gareth Ward on titles, inspiration and why they write YA. Erin Donohue: Why have you chosen to write Young Adult rather than another genre? Eileen Merriman: I find adolescence such a fascinating transition perio

Author interview: The Hager-Hill Histories

Author interview: The Hager-Hill Histories

In this fascinating insight into the minds of two of our best children's literature writers, Mandy Hager and David Hill talk to each other about their new books, Ash Arising and Finding, and about writing for teens. David Hill: Mandy, you've written this sequel. I've never written a sequel. I feel it involves skills of planning and vision I just don't have. Did you envisage Ash Arising while you were writing The Nature of Ash? Why did you write this new one, anyway? Mandy Hag

Book Quiz: Sunny, Rainy, Windy, Snowy Weather

Book Quiz: Sunny, Rainy, Windy, Snowy Weather

Weather. We can't avoid it. And right now, after six weeks of glorious warm weather that we never complained about, no siree Bob no complaining here, Tāwhirimātea has woken and is wreaking havoc. Let's see what we all know about children's books featuring weather! 1. Ella West has a new YA title out, set on the West Coast. What is it called? A. Rain Fall B. Hard Rain C. West Rain D. Raining Hard 2. YA fiction title The Wind City (Steam Press) is by somebody with a seasonal na

Book Quiz: The change of the seasons

Book Quiz: The change of the seasons

We may not yet have reached the Season of the Age of Aquarius, but it certainly appears to be Spring right now, and we figure sooner or later Summer will reach our fair shores. Lets do a quiz to celebrate! 1. Tessa Duder's Alex Quartet has a season in one of the titles: which one? A. Summer B. Spring C. Winter D. Autumn 2. Who was born Cassia Summers? A. Margaret Mahy B. Joy Cowley C. Fleur Beale D. Gaelyn Gordon 3. Who wrote Winter of Fire? A. Sherryl Jordan B. Bernard Becke

Quiz: first lines of classic Kiwi kids' novels

Quiz: first lines of classic Kiwi kids' novels

How well do you know classic New Zealand children's novels? Do you think you could recognise them from their first sentences? Have a go! Answers are at the bottom of the page. 1. 'When, suddenly, on an ordinary Wednesday, it seemed to Barney that the world tilted and ran down-hill in all directions, he knew he was about to be haunted again.' A. The World Around the Corner by Maurice Gee B. The Haunting by Margaret Mahy C. The Wednesday Wizard by Sherryl Jordan D. From the Cut

Book Awards: the Young Adult fiction finalists

Book Awards: the Young Adult fiction finalists

As part of our coverage of this year's NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, we've asked the publishers of the YA finalists to explain why, and how, they published the books. Their responses are compelling and passionate, and you may need to get your wallet ready ... Coming Home to Roost was one of those rare books that won me over in the first chapter. It was the very first scene, in which Elliot accuses his parents of punishing him for dropping out of school to be w

A review of Pieces of You by Eileen Merriman

A review of Pieces of You by Eileen Merriman

Earlier this month we published a short excerpt from Pieces of You, a major new YA novel from a debut Kiwi author. We asked Denis Wright, YA novelist and experienced high school English teacher to give us his verdict. Let me say from the outset that I am most definitely not the target audience for this YA novel, but any novel I can read in two sittings has to be doing something right – and this one does a lot right. I will retract a little on not being the target audience, be

A book club reviews the new Patrick Ness

A book club reviews the new Patrick Ness

Today, Release, a new YA novel by Patrick Ness, hits the shelves of New Zealand bookshops. We asked a Wellington-based book club – adults who read a lot of YA, and fans of Ness's previous work – to get together to discuss it. Here's Emma Rutherford, Ceridwyn Roberts and Sarah Newman. On a dark and stormy night, three women and one baby sat down to discuss the much-awaited latest novel from Patrick Ness, Release. This review is an overview of our discussion. Release is written

A review of the latest YA fantasy by Laini Taylor

A review of the latest YA fantasy by Laini Taylor

Elizabeth Knox finds a lot to praise about Laini Taylor's inventive, lyrical and compelling new novel, Strange the Dreamer. Laini Taylor, author of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, has another series. A duology, the first book of which is Strange the Dreamer. Taylor’s readers have come to expect that her worlds will be strongly realised, inventive, vivid, and full of verve. Strange the Dreamer is no exception. In fact, I think it is even more compelling than those earl

The Sampling: an excerpt from FLIGHT PATH

The Sampling: an excerpt from FLIGHT PATH

An excerpt from David Hill's Flight Path, a YA novel about 18-year-old Jack who wanted to escape boring little New Zealand – but soon finds that flying in a Lancaster bomber to attack Hitler's forces brings terror as well as excitement. In the Ops Room, men yawned, rubbed eyes bleary with tiredness and red where oxygen masks had chafed. There was laughing, hand-shaking, back-slapping. Julian patted his crew’s shoulders, saying ‘Wizard show, chaps, what-ho?’ Two aircraft were

Across the Ditch: Illuminating Amie Kaufman

Across the Ditch: Illuminating Amie Kaufman

Bestselling YA author Amie Kaufman will appear at the Auckland Writers Festival, performing both in the schools' programme and in a free public event on Friday, 19 May. This is the first interview in 'Across the Ditch', where we feature Australian authors and illustrators of children's book. Amie Kaufman hails from Melbourne, where she lives with her husband and their dog, Jack. She is a New York Times and internationally best-selling author. Her books have been published in

Three fantasy novels for teens and pre-teens

Three fantasy novels for teens and pre-teens

Briar Lawry reviews Maurice Gee's latest, The Severed Land, as well as The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles and Maybe a Fox by Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee. There are a great many high-calibre children’s authors in the world who manage to do new and exciting things with fantasy – pushing the genre’s limits, reconfiguring our expectations of what the supernatural can be, taking us to places we haven’t yet been when we thought we’d seen everything. Recent months have been esp

Pounamu Pounamu: Miriama Kamo's first crush

Pounamu Pounamu: Miriama Kamo's first crush

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

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