Latest updates
How did Book Week 2026 go down?
Our mission? To go hard for reading, and encourage parents, teachers, caregivers and whānau to make reading a priority for the children in their lives.
In 2026 Read NZ Te Pou Muramura led the first NZ Children's Book Week in decades, working with other bookish groups and organisations, commercial sponsors and creatives on a suite of events and activity celebrating reading.
Over 30 in-person public events were promoted on the Read NZ Te Pou Muramura website.
These included 200+ schools, 15 bookstores, 1 Spotlight store, 11 libraries and 2 Festivals ... and 1 train.
Highlights:
Fifi Colston Creative Workshops: 2x hosted at Spotlight Ōtautahi.
Books on Board: Sacha Cotter and Josh Morgan, plus 25 preschoolers, and 1x Metlink train equals so much live reading.
School Book Parades: Schools all around the country held book day parades on Friday, parade day.
Special shout out to Waiheke Children's Book Festival!
Lead Artist: Izzy Te Aho-White
Pōneke based artist Isobel Joy Te Aho-White produced the art for NZ Children’s Book Week.
Izzy’s book week taniwha was everywhere! Train stations, bookstore windows, your social media ... we had to pinch ourselves everytime we saw this taniwha.
We're so grateful to Izzy for her mahi and proud to share art that promotes reading's inclusiveness, and the importance of diverse representation.
We loved seeing all your Children’s Book Week activities on social media
Over 304 tags in your content: this was our absolute highlight! The enthusiasm was infectious! It's not our Book Week, it's YOUR Book Week, and seeing everyone come together to promote reading was incredible.
The National Read Along
With Sacha Cotter, Josh Morgan and Kawata Teepa. This was done in conjunction with Huia Publishers.
228 schools joined us so we could all read Dazzlehands at the same time, creating a national reading movement. We had a total 45 hrs watch time, and some sites had groups of 100+. More here.
Colouring Competition
In collaboration with Booksellers and Izzy, we launched this cool colouring comp into the world. With 85 incredible entries, it was so hard to choose a winner! (Seriously, we were sweating about it).
Children's Book Week Reading Guide
This was the mahi of Booksellers. They created this epic reading guide which promoted a lot of great titles including those nominated for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. This was stocked in bookstores around the motu.
Guest Author Blogs
Kimberley Kearney: How do you do books?
Daniel Dean Allen: Learning to love reading
Shelley Burne-Field: Reading by eye, ear, mind, body and soul
Toby Morris: Reading Tin Tin and Asterix saved me: How I became a reader
1,000 Children's Book Week posters in situ at schools and bookstores. Viewed by approx. 81,000+ kids.
This was a team effort
Our mahi leading NZ Children's Book Week was possible thanks to the support of our friends and sponsors.
Our sponsors were Mātātuhi Foundation and Spotlight; and our collaborators were New Zealand Post, Transdev, Metlink and Greater Wellington Regional Council.
Our amazing sector partners include Booksellers Aotearoa NZ, The New Zealand Society of Authors, The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, The Māori Literature Trust, The National Library of New Zealand and The Coalition for Books. We also want to thank libraries, schools, school libraries and bookstores around Aotearoa.
You folks rock!
