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The winners of the 2021 Book Awards are ...
Fresh off the ceremony at Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, the results are in and your New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young...


Book Awards: junior fiction finalists
Where do we usually get our recommendations for books to read? The bookshop, of course. We've asked people from five bookshelves to sell...


Get 'EM WHILE THEY'RE YOUNG
The brilliant David Hill takes a trip down memory lane in the latest instalment of our 'books I read to my grandchildren' series. Read on...

Book List: Fiction for Gamers
Why do we love games? The high-octane fun? The easy access to discovery, adventure, challenge, and endless other draws? Sure. Yes to all...

Book Awards: The Picture Book Award FInalists
We're always trying to keep things fresh and interesting in our awards coverage, whether that's remixing what we do with which category...

THE SAMPLING: The Memory Thief
Leoni Agnew is back with a magical new title, The Memory Thief, following the unexpectedly heartwarming friendship between Seth, lonely...

Book Awards: The Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for Te Reo Maaori
Every year, we pick one of the NZCYA Awards finalist categories to get a publisher perspective. This year, we came down ki te taha o...

The third place for children's book aficionados
Ruth McIntyre runs The Children's Bookshop in Kilbirnie, and is in the process of selling it to a new loving owner. Sarah Forster went to...

Book Awards: The Elsie Locke Non-Fiction Finalists
We at The Sapling always love a good behind-the-scenes look into our favourite books, and we know you do too! So, as part of our coverage...


The Giselle Clarkson Comic: Number 33
Don't look away, can't look away. Giselle Clarkson explores children's books that she is ghoulishly drawn to. Giselle Clarkson Giselle...


Waffle explores NZ – and Hayley explores publishing
Creating a picture book—whether it's story or illustration or both—is a massive undertaking in its own right. Doing all that and taking...

Book Awards: the illustration finalists
This year we're kicking off our NZCYA Awards coverage with the Russell Clark Award for Illustration finalists! We have some exclusive...

why does illustration cost so much?
Fifi Colston explains the costs involved in training as an illustrator, and how many books a year she has to illustrate to make ends...

The Reckoning: The Brown Brick Road
We all have that one book; the one that turned us on to reading, or reached out and grabbed us by the heart and squeezed. Writer and...


Securing the Mahy Legacy
Morrin Rout is a long time friend of the Mahy family, and a resident of Governor’s Bay, a town on the Banks Peninsula in Canterbury. Any...
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