World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 13-18: Oceania

Liar's test.

Written by Ambelin Kwaymullina.

Text Publishing, 2024.

Seven will come. Two will die. Two will sleep. Two will serve. One will rule. I didn't want to rule the Risen. Wreak a little havoc upon them, though? That was something else entirely. Bell Silverleaf is a liar. It's how she's survived. It's how all Treesingers have survived since they were invaded by the Risen and their fickle gods. But now Bell is in the Queen's Test-she's one of seven girls competing in deadly challenges to determine who will rule for the next twenty-five years. If Bell wins, she'll have the power to help her people and take revenge on the Risen. But first she has to make it through the challenges alive. She doesn't know how much she's been lied to, or where she fits in a bigger story, a mystery stretching back generations. And she's facing much bigger dangers than the Queen's Test. She's up against the gods themselves. Liar's Test is a fast-paced, intricately woven fantasy novel with an unforgettable heroine inspired by the strength and power of Aboriginal women.

So, when’s the next one coming?!!!

Riveting, edge-of-your-seat material.

Slight romantic interest going on.

World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 13-18: Oceania

 

Migration.

Written by Steph Matuku.

Huia Publishers, 2024.

Farah can't wait to escape her mother's incessant demands and attend the legendary Western Wānanga, where the best military fighters are trained. Through daring battles against her classmates and encounters with cryptic temple masters, Farah sheds her life as a person from the upper ranks of society and becomes an intuitive. But when her world comes under attack, she learns who she really is.

Colonisation through a science-fiction lens.

Action, adventure – death and violence. A little touch of romance. 

And lots to think about. 

World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 0-6: A Language with a Non-Latin Script

 

I am here.

Written and illustrated by Kim Hyo-eun.

Scribe Publishing Company, 2026.

Translated from Korean.

Board book.

Beginning with 'below' concepts read vertically — sun, clouds, rainbow, Mum — the book matches how babies naturally look up at their world. It then transitions to 'beside' relationships read horizontally — grandfather, cat, ants, nature treasures — reflecting babies' growing engagement with their immediate environment. The journey ends with the profound moment of self-recognition: 'me'. The ingenious format mirrors how babies actually develop — looking up first, then engaging laterally with their environment.

A wee gem of a book. It opens both up and down; and then back to front.

World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 13-18: Graphic Novel or Comic

Folk remedy: the hidden world of the yōkai. (Book 1).

Written and illustrated by Jem Yoshioka.

Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2025.

After twelve-year-old Maple Morimura reads a book detailing her family's relationship to the spirits and supernatural beings called yōkai, she unexpectedly travels to a hidden spirit world with a mischievous Yōkai named Ember.

Shortlisted for the Russell Clark Award for Illustration, in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, 2026.Shortlisted for the NZSA Best First Book Award in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, 2026.

Ends on a cliffhanger!

Jem dedicated her first book to her grandmother, Taeko, who travelled from Japan to Aotearoa New Zealand.

Which led to an online conversation between myself and Jem as to where does she feel her book fits. And the answer is, both Oceania and Asia. So, for my own sanity – and because it was an incredibly unfair question for me to ask – I’ve put it in graphic novels.

World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 0-6: The Americas

  

Letters in charcoal.

Written by Irene Vasco. Illustrated by Juan Palomino.

Translated from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel. Lantana, 2023.

Original published in Spanish as Letras al carbón by Editorial Juventud S.A., Spain in 2015. Sophisticated picture book.

In the pueblo of Palenque in Colombia, hardly anybody knows how to read. Curious about the letters her older sister Gina receives from a young doctor each month — letters that she is sure contain promises of love — one young girl makes a decision that will change her life, and the lives of every child in the pueblo, forever. With the help of Senor Velandia, the owner of the village shop, she will slowly unlock the letters of the alphabet and discover the magic of reading. And soon she will make a discovery that is more miraculous still — that letters are literally all around her. 

The assumption by the literate and privileged that *every one* can read.

Also the power of reading. But, I have a deep sadness for the two worlds that struggle to meet.

The literate / online world that is dominate – and I am very much part of – and how difficult it makes navigating the world for those who are not part of it.