Stories

Help us build a map! We are mapping real places in New Zealand mentioned in books. Rivers, mountains, towns and cities, famous buildings and monum ...More

“Book Lovers” by Adrian Tomine (2008) By Tom Gauld (2014) By Tomine (2007) By Arthur Getz (1957) By Arthur Getz (1962) “The New York ...More

It is with great pleasure that we announce that The School for Young Writers and the WRITE ON Magazine are now part of our fantastic group of supp ...More

Upoko Tuatoru Ka māma te wairua a Ari i tana kitenga atu i a Māmā e whanga ana ki a Koro i te hōhipera. I hoatutia ki a Koro he rongoā hei kaupar ...More

Chapter Three Ari was really relieved to see his mum waiting in the emergency room when they got there. Koro had been given some medicine for the pain an ...More

Being the middle child of five girls and three boys in 1940’s and 50’s in my native Ireland, I never had the chance to actually own a bicycle in my ...More

Once I was riding on a weekend group ride. We were strung out along a straight, flat stretch of road. It occurred to me that the cyclists ahead of me woul ...More

The baby’s finally asleep.  The father is home from work. I haven’t been alone in days. This is it…. “She’s asleep”…”I’ ...More

I was two years old when I got my first bike It was better than your little trike We found it in the bushes My dad fixed it up for me He welded it ba ...More

Oh bicycle, Oh bicycle, I shall call you Amelia. Amelia, Amelia, I love you so. You carry me around. Amelia, Amelia, Riding you is divine. You are t ...More

Google maps you take me though the underpass fast on my bike in the night my lights flash on the shapes of down and outs the louts, layabouts who shout obsceni ...More

The winners of the 2018 Biketober writing competition are: Category +18 Freedom by Jennifer Rankin May The Road Rise Up To Greet You by Matt Melchert Googl ...More

At my father’s funeral an old man in a crumpled black suit gets up to speak. He rises slowly on old man’s legs from among the dark suits and neatly comb ...More

She chewed her biro, and read the evaluation form. “On a scale of one to five, five being highest, how much did you enjoy this activity?” One. “On a scal ...More

Eve is busy setting the long thin tables – fork knife fork knife fork knife – and doesn’t see him approach. “Do you want some help?” Sh ...More

They’d been walking for about an hour. They’d started in Madras Street, at the office. William was down for the week, the presentation had go ...More

Jerry and his friend, Ross, were playing in Jerry’s sandpit. Charlie appeared. “What are you playing?” Charlie asked Jerry. “Planes.” Jerry held up ...More

The time had come. In the warm darkness of his egg, the flamingo chick moved. Crack! His mother stood up. She fussed about, touching the egg gently ...More

It’s what I could do to help Fleur out. Family is family. The last Friday each month, we’d drive into the city from opposite directions, and in the motel c ...More

I ate my brother. I was always fond of him, looked up to him. He was older than me. I measured myself against him. We stood back to back. At first I only ...More

“And the prize for the bravest pirate goes to …” Greybeard, the oldest of all the pirates, held up a piece of paper and waved it around dramatic ...More

First, find a location. Find a shabby farm that keeps its neighbours at arm’s length. Find a house with a rusted roof, with guttering that dribbles down th ...More

Pull-my-Finger the Giant only had one joke, probably like your dad or grandad. But he was very fond of it and he told it as often as he could. This w ...More

John paused and turned away from his screen to glance at the steaming cup of coffee. Something felt a little off but he couldn’t place his finger on it. T ...More

Upoko Tuarua Parahutihuti ana tā Emmy oma ki te waha o te kura, ka waiho mai a Ari ki tana puehu, ā, ka hemo ki tua o ngā akomanga. Kātahi anō ...More

Chapter Two Emmy flew through the school gate ahead of Ari, disappearing in the direction of her classroom. She’d turned five during the holidays, and she ...More

The dragonfly’s eyes are made up of multiple hexagons. Inside each hexagon is a black and white picture of my face. I’ve printed the photos from my fi ...More

Another bullet hissed over the dump. Ricky missed the seagull by a mile. He reckoned he shot good, considering the gun was tall as him. Jem wasn’t allo ...More

The man finds the boy in a drainpipe and when he asks him what are you doing in there? the boy looks at him as if he should already know and says I’m looki ...More

TCB: It is always a cause for excitement when we received one of your books for our Read and Share project. Your unique storytelling has captivate ...More

My Granddad is a strange old man. He is cheeky, but yet, so serious, like a monkey, a very old monkey. A very old monkey who can’t climb, and who likes ...More

Trailing my clackity clack bumblebee Golly in the other hand, I follow the tall back of my Dad down the garden path. Full of questions, I shadow him into his ...More

Find the hidden sequence of words: the first letter of each makes the puzzle answer. e.g. he offers trust = HOT Sometimes fresh air feels like waking up a ...More

His hatred of cordyline australis was spawned in his ancestry. When the council planted them along the coastal path he couldn’t sleep, so strong was ...More

It’s been nearly 70 years since my children left home. That sounds ridiculous but I am 120 years old. When they left, my house felt empty. I began to notic ...More

Five travellers in a small Ford travelled across the Ardennes. The Hautes Fagnes. The High Fens. The fifth traveller, strapped in a car seat, crie ...More

I never touched the gorilla, I say. I got better things to do. Then the park ranger plonks his canvas bag on the table and pulls out a tranquiliser gun an ...More

It’s morning. I know this because the clock says 7.23 and a finger of light is trying to pull back the curtains. My room faces east. So that makes i ...More

The car drove up the highway, the inside temperature was like 1000 degrees. .             “Mum ….” came the nagging voice of my br ...More

Upoko Tuatahi Ka takoto a Ari ki tana moenga, ka whakataurite i tōna hū ki te pito o tōna matiwae-nui, me te kaute i te roa o te noho o tōna hū ki ...More

Chapter One Ari lay on his bed, balancing his sneaker on the tip of his big toe, counting how many seconds he could keep it balanced there for. . ...More

Hermione’s pockets may contain Pickled cockroaches, eel brain A collapsible telescope, brand new Flame in a jar, shines bright blue Socks for Dobby, sa ...More

It was spring and the valley would shine if the winds weren’t battering the place. From his armchair in the attic study, Philip Fetch could look out the win ...More

When Ronald McGourvey and his family of shape shifters caught the 47 to Scarborough, nobody noticed. Timothy McGourvey had perfected becoming nitrogen-fixin ...More

On Monday night I dream about Charlie Brown. He stands at the window watching Snoopy sleep on top of his kennel. Snoopy’s little tummy moves up and dow ...More

‘How’s Alex?’ Hope said. She and Molly were sitting in a café by the river in early spring drinking tea from the same pot. Molly sighed, looked out the w ...More

A woman and a child in a boat. Her child, and her other child, and her other. Her three children. And one life jacket. She puts it on her youngest but her ...More

I went to London, once. I’d never seen snow before and on the first night it came spinning through the light of the streetlamps. I’d fallen for ...More

because of their size they gather crystals and clouds sharp and sparse collections of sun-catchers until that first nasty week in June then they look soft � ...More

It was a glimpse into Paradise. The sun caught the old town first, its jumble of faded pastels glowing like the gilded ceilings of the Vatican – yellow ...More

Extract from Mazarine (Chapter Twelve) Twelve I hadn’t expected Sophie Greenaway to be at work in the middle of the summer break and so soon af ...More

Con walks down the streets of Newtown from Berhampore, past the damp, narrow houses, tipped into the wind, cold rain spitting into his face. There’s th ...More