Festivals

The Tamariki Book Festival

The 5th annual Tamariki Book Festival will be held in Christchurch this weekend. We asked Festival Chair Robinne Weiss what it’s all about. The Tamariki Book Festival aims to connect children with creators. This year’s festival will be held at…

Scene report: The 2025 Auckland Writers Festival

Crissi Blair shares her highlights from the school days and kids’ events at AWF. The Auckland Writers Festival is a blast. Adult readers look forward to it and attend in their thousands (85,000+ this year), but the kids also have…

Takeaways from a Masterclass in Illustration

Drawing from the philosophical thoughts of children, letting illustration shape words and the life, hard work and love of an illustrator; Nelson-based illustrator Sabrina Malcolm reflects on meeting three international illustrators at their masterclass. This past September, the windows of…

Interview: Rachel Lawson on Picture Me 

Picture Me promises a vibrant cross-cultural celebration of illustration and identity for children and professional illustrators alike. The Sapling sat down with Gecko Press publisher, Rachel Lawson, to find out what the festival is all about. The Sapling (TS): During…

Festival Review: Pukapuka Adventures at AWF

Earlier this month the Auckland Writers Festival saw record-breaking attendance levels. Pukapuka Adventures—the children’s hub of the event—took over Level 5 of the Aotea centre and was brimming with activity. Attendee Annelies Judson describes her experience on the Saturday with…

A Book Lover’s Dream: A Review of Featherston Booktown

Sapling editor Hannah Marshall tapped into her inner journalist to attend the Featherston Booktown festival earlier this month. Her findings are reported here (spoiler: she loved every minute of it). On any ordinary day, the small southern Wairarapa town of…

From the Shop Floor: Chicken and Frog

We are pleased to present a regular series highlighting the work, expertise and enthusiasm of some of the greatest children’s booksellers of New Zealand. Here is Chicken and Frog children’s bookstore in Featherston, owned and curated by Joanna Ludbrook. Here…

How to Capture an Audience (Kiwi-style)

In April, Ruth Paul and Juliette MacIver took their Kiwi author-illustrator talents over to the United Arab Emirates – more specifically, to the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival. Ruth kindly shed some light on the experience for our readers. I couldn’t…

Jo Randerson: The Books My Kids Are Reading

Wellington-based writer and theatre-maker Jo Randerson is appearing in four events at the Wellington Writers & Readers Festival this month, including being a guest narrator in Peter and the Wolf. Here, she writes about the books her two children enjoy…