Firstly, to clarify, middle grade fiction in the US tends to be for 8-12 year olds, what we in NZ would say is upper primary grades, and/or lower intermediate. It’s more wide-ranging than we think from that age span. Check out the books that win the Newbery Award as a starting point.  A couple of years ago (2024), it seemed like the big news in the US was the downturn in middle grade fiction. It came up again in 2025, and I’ve heard similar things for 2026. So what might be going on here? Firstly, I went back to articles from 2024, such as this one - https://fromthemixedupfiles.com/the-middle-grade-slump/ - that talked about the big slump in sales. MG was down by 10%, and that was after slowing sales in previous years. However, some ‘experts’ said it was just sales returning to pre-pandemic levels. Was that actually true? Because along with the slump in sales came more book challenges in schools, MG books that were longer and therefore either less appealing to poorer readers or th...

  October is always an exciting time of the year with lots of artistic initiatives taking place around us, awards submissions opening here and there and Halloween looming up on the horizon. So, coming mid-September, I was genuinely hopeful and since I had just delivered the full storyboard for Miles and Jones #4 , I felt like I had plenty of time ahead to work on personal projects before starting the final pages.  I looked at the SCBWI Artober Prompts and started to draft a story based on those. This quickly morphed into a storyboard and soon I had a ten to twelve pages of a short comic story based on these prompts. I was really excited and then I realized that there was a 2 weeks school holiday in October and that we booked a bach at the beach for a week. I had also promised family that we would visit them, time suddenly shrank. I also discovered that a US literary agent specialising in comic books, was launching a 6 week-long marketing course on how to launch your graphic no...

  Ella Gordon is an illustrator based in Ōtautahi, New Zealand. She's been illustrating (and writing) stories since she could hold a pencil. Her first picture book was published in 2022 and since then she's illustrated more than 10 books! She's also had artworks displayed in Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, and other galleries overseas. You may have seen her books featured on  Suzy's Book Corner , or at your local bookstore.  What is your writing or illustrating day like? When and how do you create? I create all the time! I try to be disciplined and work "normal" hours so, Monday to Friday, you'll find me working on picture book illustrations and other commissions from my studio (or somewhere equally as comfy) with my cats, and probably an audiobook in the background. I work digitally, but in the evenings and weekends, I love to create with other mediums, I love to write, paint with watercolours, and I just started lace tatting - basically, I l...

Angie Belcher has been lurking around the writing fraternity for an eternity. In the late 1990’s, she had work accepted by Learning Media which set her on a path of educational writing. She’s watched other New Zealand writers strive and succeed while she sat back and watched. Finally, she got into gear and sent some work to traditional publishers. The Woven Flax Kete (illustrated by Denise Durkin) The Girls in the Kapa haka and The Boys in the Waka ama (both illustrated by Debbie Tipuna) were published, followed more recently by Pipi Dance (illustrated by Lily Uivel) and The Big Boil-Up (illustrated by Zak Ātea). Angie’s work is heavily in influenced by living in Maketū. Both Pipi Dance/ Te Pikari Pipi and The Big Boil-Up/ Te Kai kōhua Nui have been translated into te reo by Pānia Papa. What is your writing or illustrating day like? When and how do you create? Whoever said ‘ retirement was relaxing’ lied. I’ve never been so busy, so now I try to set aside one day per week as my ...

1. What is your writing day like? When and how do you create? I have a terrible lack of routine! I write whenever I can fit it in around my other responsibilities. Sometimes, this is four in the morning, but my best writing time is usually mid-morning, when my brain is at its least flabby and the coffee has hit! I’m not the sort of writer who can achieve a daily word count or a certain number of hours at my desk. I write very slowly and edit sentence by sentence as I go, as well as at the end. I don’t necessarily recommend this, but it seems to be how I do it. Also, this might shock you, but an afternoon spent staring out a window daydreaming can actually be far more productive for me than writing screeds of empty words which I’ll only delete later. Thinking is working too! I’ve learnt to be kinder to myself and trust the process. That said, there are also times when I just need to force myself to sit down and get on with it! The tricky part is knowing the difference between creative b...

  While there have been a few notable collections of poems in the past few years, overall the market for single poems is a bit dismal! These are a few resources for you to consider. There’s a tendency for writers/poets to try a picture book text instead (not that these are any easier to get published, but at least we know the readership is keen). However, rhyming texts are very hard to get ‘right’. The rhythm (meter) has to be perfect, and the rhymes need to work strongly (rather than be predictable). Combined with that, you still have to tell a really good story. The other tendency is for some to try and write verse novels, usually in free verse. These are rarely published in NZ for some reason (rarely written?). Again, it can’t just be chopped-up prose – there has to be a strong poetic element, as well as a good story.  The main thing, I think, is to keep writing poems – the more you write, the better your poems will be. You should also read a lot of children’s poetry to get...