This month, we have a list of fantastic fiction with a strong female lead for middle readers, curated by Ella Sharpe from the Younger Sun Bookshop in Yarraville, Australia.
Book list: Fantastic fiction with strong female leads
‘Nothing with pictures. No pictures!’
We all know that books for young people are important. Except that some people seem to think that picture books are just an optional extra. They’re for toddlers to chew on – sometimes literally – until they get down to real reading. I still remember a fellow teacher who brought his classes into the school library to borrow books, shouting his final instruction, ‘Nothing with pictures. No pictures.’
September competition winner: Toitoi–Gecko Press competition for young writers and artists
Our readers have been busy this month, creating entries for our September competition.
Book list: Interactive and lift-the-flaps
Just in time for Halloween, we have a new adventure from Clotilde Perrin, author of Inside the Villains. The House of Madame M is a thrilling, spooky work of paper-engineering and imagination. Anna Low from Potts Point Bookshop in Elizabeth Bay, Australia has sent us a round-up of her favourite interactive and lift-the-flap books. There… Read more »
The Gobbledegook Book: Q&A with Giselle Clarkson
Giselle Clarkson is a freelance illustrator and comic artist, and the illustrator of The Gobbledegook Book. She illustrated Secret World of Butterflies (2017) and is best known for her illustrations for conservation and environmental projects, and of biscuits—Common Household Biscuits & Slices of New Zealand was a viral hit. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.
Cornelia and the Jungle Machine: Q&A with Nora Brech
Nora Brech was born in 1988 and lives in Oslo, Norway. She works as an illustrator and has a degree in drawing. Cornelia and the Jungle Machine is her first book as both author and illustrator.
‘Reading is breathing in; writing is breathing out’
Reading a story is one of the most exciting things you can do. It requires a great deal of curiosity and a little bit of courage. As you open a book and turn the first page, you have to take a breath, open your heart and be willing to listen.
August competition winner: Extraordinary achievements
We can tell from the responses to our August competition that we have some extraordinary readers in our community!
Four days until our FREE Joy Cowley Gobbledegook event!
Featherston Booktown and Gecko Press are celebrating the joyous new anthology of much-loved poems and stories by Joy Cowley, The Gobbledegook Book, illustrated by Giselle Clarkson. Don’t miss this chance to hear Joy recite gobbledegook poems and stories. There will be books for sale with Mr Feathers Den, Joy and Giselle will be signing and a scrumptious… Read more »
Book list: Celebrating books published in te reo Māori
In honour of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, we want to celebrate the increasing number of books being published in te reo Māori. We asked Lucy Ira Bailey (Te Ati Awa, Ngāti Mutunga, Taranaki), the senior bookseller at The Children’s Bookshop in Wellington, to curate a list for us. Find these books at a… Read more »
