Quiz: NZ Booklovers Awards 2026
The finalists for the NZ Booklovers Awards were announced yesterday, which gives us the perfect excuse for the first quiz of the year! Read on to test your knowledge of the finalists … Questions Answers
Gavin Bishop
The Sampling: Taniwha
We’re sharing a glimpse at Gavin Bishop’s newest epic work, ‘a monster-sized book about the mythical monsters of Aotearoa’! Taniwha was launched last week, and explores pūrākau and stories of taniwha from all around Aotearoa. TaniwhaGavin BishopPenguin$40.00Buy now
NZCYA 2025: And the Winners Are …
All the winners from the New Zealand Books Awards for Children and Young Adults, as they’re announced. After thoughts Some thoughts the following morning …1) That was the fastest Award ceremony I’ve ever attended or watched! Where I thought I’d…
NZCYA 2025: Librarians assess the Bookhub Picture Book Award finalists
Librarians Claire Guest, Merritt Barnett and Stephen Clothier took the five finalists in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults’ picture book category to library storytimes, and share the tamariki’s reactions here. At Te Matapihi ki te…
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…
Imagination and connection: Family itineraries for the Auckland Writers Festival
Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki runs 13–18 May and every year the programme includes events for young readers. We asked Families and Schools Programmer Gabrielle Vincent to tell us about this year’s sessions and give you some itineraries to…
Review: books for little ones
Nida Fiazi reviews four board books, with advice from her son. Good Night Belly Button by Lucie Brunellière Gecko Press has slowly been taking over my baby’s library and for good reason. Good Night Belly Button by Lucie Brunellière is…
The Sampling: The Gavin Bishop Treasury
By Gavin Bishop This month we bring you a Sampling of pages from a new hardback collection of ten classic Gavin Bishop stories. This new collection was released this week, and features four of his original stories and six of…
2024 NZCYA Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction Finalists
The Non-Fiction shortlist is absolutely top class. We asked the finalists to pose a couple of questions to each other about their books. Read our comments about the books in all the categories here. Selina Tusitala Marsh asks Gavin Bishop……
2024 NZCYA Russell Clark Illustration Finalists
The Sapling is excited to continue its tradition of sharing drafts, sketches and process work from the NZCYA illustration award finalists. Thanks to the Book Awards Trust for the book descriptions, the publishers for organising the images and the artists for generously…