World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 7-12: Europe

 

Feather.

Written and translated from the Welsh by Manon Steffan Ros.

Firefly Press, 2024.

Originally published in Welsh as Pluen.

Huw always pops in to see his nan on the way home from school – she bakes him cakes and never fusses about his homework. So it's a great shock when, one day, Nan forgets his name, and calls him Johnny – the long-unmentionable name of her late brother. As Nan slowly slips into the grip of dementia, Huw and his friends go on a quest to learn more about Johnny and what happened to him. Exploring themes of friendship, family bonds and the history of conscientious objection in WW2, Feather is both modern and historical, as well as being relatable, particularly for children who may have grandparents with a similar dementia struggle to Nan.

Sympathetic and gentle, with moments of strength and sadness. Huw standing up to his father and asking for some attention is so brave.

World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 7-12: A Language with a Non-Latin Script

 

The village beyond the mist.

Written by Sachiko Kashiwaba.

Illustrated by Miho Satake.

Translated from Japanese by Avery Fischer Udagawa.

Restless Books, 2025.

A mountain town that's not on any map, a messy bookstore with infinite doors, and a spoiled prince under a forgetful wizard's curse... this summer might hold more than Lina bargained for! When a gust of wind carries off her umbrella, it leads Lina down a secret path between the trees to a strange and incredible world. In the hidden village of Misty Valley, centaurs roam the cobblestone streets and gnomes visit shops stuffed with spellbooks and enchanted desserts. All magic has a dark side, though, and sometimes even sorcerers need a human's helping hand.

For the younger age group – more 12 to 14 years.

Ethereal and mystical.

World Kid Lit Month 2026: Explorer Challenger: 7-12: Asia

The line they drew through us.

Written by Hiba Noor Khan.

Andersen Press, 2025.

Fiction.

Three best friends are born on the same day under miraculous circumstances. But by their twelfth birthday, Jahan, Ravi and Lakshmi's lives are about to change forever. The British announce Indian independence and draw lines of Partition that tear apart the country, and the friends. One of them flees, one of them disappears, and the other is left wondering, could a miracle bring them back together?

Heart-breaking. Touches of the mystical.

Stories of British genocide / cruelty / horrific behaviour are embedded into the story.

My caveat is the introduction, which makes it seem as though Bangladesh was created at the same time as the Partition in 1947. Which, to me, feels like a negation of the trauma and horror of the Liberation War of 1971 – and all that led up to it. 

October Kiwi Kids Books: Day 17

Share a New Zealand book for children or teens: 
Picked by a young reader in your life. 
Duffy and the Bullies 
Written by Jeff Szusterman. 
Illustrated by Ant Sang. 
Created from an original play by Lauren Jackson.
Oratia Media, 2024. 
ISBN 9781990042560. 

 

This was highly recommended by a couple of great-niblings*, who attend a Duffy school and have their own copies. 

*a gender-neutral term for siblings' children. 

October Kiwi Kids Books: Day 13

Share a New Zealand book for children or teenagers: written for ages 8 to 12 years old. 
Stellar Star
Written by Bridget Feehan. 
Scholastic NZ, 2005. 
ISBN 1869436741. 

Gosh, has it really been 20 years since this was published?! I'm really feeling my age! 

It must be time for a re-read. 

And, it would be interesting to see how it stands up. It felt pretty timeless when I read it the first time. 

October Kiwi Kids Books: Day Six

Share a New Zealand book for children or teens: that is part of a series. 

The May series 
Author: Phyllis Johnston. 

1. No one went to town. Illustrated by Christine Brown, with maps by Ernest Papps. Price Milburn, 1980. 
2. Black boots and buttonhooks. Illustrated by Erneset Papps. Price Milburn, 1982. 
3. A comet in the sky. Illustrated by Adriana Tuscia. The Tauranga Moana Press, 1985. 
4. No lily-livered girl. Waiatarua Publishing, 1993. 
5. The fortunate ones. The Phyllis Webby Trust, 2018. 

Old classics. The sort of books we grew up reading, but are not in fashion now.

However, there's something to be said for reading about our history, through the tales passed on.

If I was sharing these with young readers today, I would try to balance with books from a te ao Māori perspective. Or, at least start a discussion. 

Tales of our pioneering forebears, tends to gloss over / romanticise the dispossession and subjugation that comes with colonisation. 

World Kid Lit Month 2023: Bonus Middle Grade Book

Bonus: A Middle Grade Book: 

Glitter boy
By Ian Eagleton.

Scholastic, 2023. 

I will admit to haunting our library catalogue in the hopes that this would eventually arrive! I was getting very close to making a purchasing suggestion.

Yet again, death features in one of my choices. 

Those books don't usually come with a whole heap of Mariah Carey love! 

The under-the-radar, low-level bullying of James is something that hits close to home.

Again, those middle years can be complete hell. They were the worst years of my bullying - and by those who were, ostensibly, my friends. 

Through it all, James keeps his glitter on. I quashed mine down. 

World Kid Lit Month 2023: A Middle Grade Book

A Middle Grade Book: 

The secrets of Cricket Karlsson. 
Written by Kristina Sigunsdotter; illustrated by Ester Eriksson; translated by Julia Marshall. 

Gecko Press, 2022. 

Me and books about death - again. 

This age is such a tough one to write about - and to live through. 

That balance between being a child, but sometimes stepping into adult waters. 

There's friendship issues.

The impact of adult mental health issues on those around them.

There's growing up. And growing away. And growing closer. 

World Kid Lit Month 2023: A Book from Africa

A book from Africa:

The kaya girl.
By Mamle Wolo. 

Little, Brown and Company, 2022. 

If you want to travel to another culture - to experience division and the effects of colonialism - then this middle grade book is what you're looking for. 

I live in a colonised land. I am the descendants of colonisers. I am working on seeing the impacts on Māori - the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa. 

I appreciate how 'different' this world is, to my Anglicised world view. 

World Kid Lit Month 2022: Day 24: A book from Southeast Asia

Bingo: A book from Southeast Asia:

The tiny boy and other tales from Indonesia 

Retold by Murti Bunanta; illustrated by Hardiyono.

World Kid Lit Month 2022: Day 21: Graphic novel translated from another language

Bingo: Graphic novel translated from another language:

I remember Beirut

By Zeina Abirached; art by Zeina Abirached; translation by Edward Gauvin

World Kid Lit Month 2022: Day 20: Middle grade fiction translated from another language

Bingo: Middle grade fiction translated from another language:

The raven's children By Yulia Yakoleva; translated from the Russian by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp.

World Kid Lit Month 2022: Day 18: A book from North or Central Asia

Bingo: A book from North or Central Asia:

Soul lanterns 

By Shaw Kuzki; translated from the Japanese by Emily Balistrieri

World Kid Lit Month 2022: Day 16: A book on the IBBY honour list

Bingo: A book on the IBBY honour list:

October, October 

Katya Balen; illus Angela Harding.

@katyabalen books have a place in my heart.

'October, October' is no different.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: UKRAINE

UKRAINE: 

The blackbird girls. 

By Anne Blankman. 

On a spring morning, neighbours Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work — Chernobyl — has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who've always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina's estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: SYRIA

SYRIA: 

Boy, everywhere. 

By A. M. Dassu; cover illustration by Zainab Daby Faidhi. 

Forced to sell all their belongings and leave their friends and beloved grandmother behind, Sami and his family travel across the Middle East to Turkey, where they end up in a smuggler's den. From there, they cross the treacherous waters of the Mediterranean and manage to fly to England, only to be separated and detained in an immigration prison for the crime of seeking asylum. Yet the transition from refugee to immigrant in a new life will be the greatest challenge Sami has ever faced.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: SRI LANKA

SRI LANKA: 

The boy who met a whale. 

By Nizrana Farook. 

A thrilling adventure set in fictional Sri Lanka, jam-packed with peril and kidnap and a huge blue whale! 

World Kid Lit Month 2021: SINGAPORE

SINGAPORE: 

Lizard's tale. 

By Weng Wai Chan (NZ author). 

It's Singapore in 1940, war is just around the corner, but 12-year-old Lizard doesn't know that. He lives in Chinatown above a tailor's shop, surviving on his wits and hustling for odd jobs. 

World Kid Lit Month 2021: SAUDI ARABIA

SAUDI ARABIA: 

The green bicycle. 

By Haifaa Al-Mansour. 

Since girls do not ride bikes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 11-year-old Wadjda has a scheme to get her own.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: POLAND

POLAND: 

A winter's day in 1939. 

By Melinda Szymanik (NZ author). 

Adam is 12 years old and lives with his family on a small farm in rural Poland. It is 1939 and the war has just broken out. Russians invade Poland and confiscate Adam's family's house and farm. They are sent to live with another family nearby, but are then moved on and put on a train for a Russian labour camp as refugees, prisoners of Russia.