New Zealand’s answer to Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls is in bookshops now. It’s called Go Girl: A Storybook of Epic NZ Women (Penguin Random House NZ), and it’s written by the multi-award-winning Barbara Else. We asked Barbara to tell…
Fleur Beale has written over 50 books for children and teens. Her latest novel is Lyla. Here, she lets us in on the amount of time and work that goes into writing, and explains the importance of the editing process…
Lyla has just started her second year of high school when a magnitude 6.3 earthquake shakes Christchurch to pieces. Devastation is everywhere. While her police officer mother and trauma nurse father respond to the disaster, Lyla puts on a brave face, opening their home to neighbours and leading the community clean-up.
I’ve long maintained that our Young Adult authors are world class. But I’ve frequently heard that teens have a touch of what our adults apparently have – cultural cringe; an assumption that NZ means boring, ordinary. We need to read…