When reading our Junior Fiction finalists, Sarah Forster was blown away as always by the brilliance of Aotearoa’s authors that write for this audience. She asked each of the five authors to answer five probing questions, including a well-disguised version…
Author Cassie Hart reviews two new and deeply personal middle grade reads: one about a shy kid who learns that they might not just be “the sole weirdo on the planet” and a coming-of-age historical fiction that dives into race…
Easter is just around the corner! Bee Trudgeon reviews the newest batch of picture books with chickens, fairies, and rabbits. Fun to read at Easter, or any time of year. I’m going to be straight up about this: my favourite…
Join Leila Austin on a magical journey through the New Zealand forest, farting your way through a running race, classic cat dramas, and a newly uncovered piece of Aotearoa’s literary history as she reviews four new picture books. Lost in…
From the whimsy and sparkle to grim reality, you don’t have to be a pony obsessive to still love a good pony book! Librarian Chelsea Heap has read up on four recent books in the pony genre and shares her…
This month’s instalment of the Margaret Mahy Questionnaire features your favourite author of pony fiction, Stacy Gregg!
As part of our coverage for the NZ Book Awards, we asked the publishers of the junior fiction finalists what it was about these particular stories that caught their imaginations, and why they seemed right for this format. These are…
Carly Thomas spent most of her childhood either reading about horses or riding them. Here, she takes a look at what’s on literary offer for kids that are horse mad. Finding New Zealand books for horse mad kids was not…
Children and young adults in Aotearoa are particularly attuned to natural disasters. In today’s book list, Miriam Hurst delves into disaster literature from here and other shaky, volatile places around our world. Then Snufkin said slowly: “It would be awful…
Rachel Moore has read and reviewed three new books for the middle grade space – two excellent chapter books and a fabulous new non-fiction title full of answers to all manner of curly body-related questions. Avis and the Promise of…