Bren MacDibble

Bren and Gerri: Grass Wants to be Grazed

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…

Book Reviews: The Dog Runner and Jillion

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…

And the winners of the Book Awards are …

Freshly announced at the Awards Ceremony in Wellington, the winners of the 2018 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults are … The Margaret Mahy Book of the Year and the Elsie Locke Award for Non-fiction Aotearoa: the new…

Book Awards: The Junior Fiction Finalists

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,…

THE SAMPLING: How to Bee

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.

2017 Christmas Shopping List: Junior Fiction

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…