Courtney Johnston
@auchmill.bsky.social
Tumu Whakarae | Chief Executive Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. She / her.
This was probably my favourite middle grade read last year. Stead is just so good at family dynamics and tender friendships and this story’s VERY quirky premise sets these off beautifully
#TheExperiment by @rebstead.bsky.social is a gripping #scifi novel for middle grade readers, published by @andersenpress.bsky.social
#UkKidLit
#MGLit
vsviewfromthebookshelves.home.blog/2026/01/07/m...
#UkKidLit
#MGLit
vsviewfromthebookshelves.home.blog/2026/01/07/m...
#MG Sci-Fi Review: The Experiment by Rebecca Stead
Cover image by Devin Elle Kurtz, published by Andersen Press 01 January 2026, ISBN: 978-1839137815 The Experiment is a page-turner of a sci-fi novel written for a middle grade readership but with t…
vsviewfromthebookshelves.home.blog
January 8, 2026 at 6:33 AM
This was probably my favourite middle grade read last year. Stead is just so good at family dynamics and tender friendships and this story’s VERY quirky premise sets these off beautifully
Little interlude with a novella by a writer I’ve never read before — a mash-up of Bluebeard and the Garden of Eden
January 8, 2026 at 1:21 AM
Little interlude with a novella by a writer I’ve never read before — a mash-up of Bluebeard and the Garden of Eden
My summer re-read of Margaret Mahy’s 1980s YA (the author was so prolific that this constitutes a reading project) reached The Catalogue of the Universe today
January 7, 2026 at 9:53 AM
My summer re-read of Margaret Mahy’s 1980s YA (the author was so prolific that this constitutes a reading project) reached The Catalogue of the Universe today
Weighing up watching A Room with a View
Pro: the way HB-C says “Cecil” and her fringe pouffe
Con: never revisit the things you loved at high school
Pro: the way HB-C says “Cecil” and her fringe pouffe
Con: never revisit the things you loved at high school
January 6, 2026 at 6:22 AM
Weighing up watching A Room with a View
Pro: the way HB-C says “Cecil” and her fringe pouffe
Con: never revisit the things you loved at high school
Pro: the way HB-C says “Cecil” and her fringe pouffe
Con: never revisit the things you loved at high school
I saved up @elizabethknoxnz.bsky.social’s latest book for the summer break and was DELIGHTED to re-enter her fictional world of Southland, the setting of Dreamhunter + Dreamquake, brought up to the current moment
January 5, 2026 at 9:20 PM
I saved up @elizabethknoxnz.bsky.social’s latest book for the summer break and was DELIGHTED to re-enter her fictional world of Southland, the setting of Dreamhunter + Dreamquake, brought up to the current moment
I reserved this thinking it was one of Strange’s longer novels, but it’s actually from a series she’s done for Barrington Stokes, an imprint of Collins that publishes short books by British children’s writers that are designed (writing, layout, typeface, paper stock) to be dyslexia-friendly
January 2, 2026 at 8:51 PM
I reserved this thinking it was one of Strange’s longer novels, but it’s actually from a series she’s done for Barrington Stokes, an imprint of Collins that publishes short books by British children’s writers that are designed (writing, layout, typeface, paper stock) to be dyslexia-friendly
Rediscovering how complex Melvin Burgess’s “Bloodtide” is. Based on the Völsung epic, set in a London abandoned to warring gang factions, fringed by human-animal-machine hybrids, told from multiple perspectives, & with a long passage I’ve just listened to that I suspect is based on Princess Diana
January 2, 2026 at 4:46 AM
Rediscovering how complex Melvin Burgess’s “Bloodtide” is. Based on the Völsung epic, set in a London abandoned to warring gang factions, fringed by human-animal-machine hybrids, told from multiple perspectives, & with a long passage I’ve just listened to that I suspect is based on Princess Diana
First day of the new year reading … something old …
January 1, 2026 at 1:02 AM
First day of the new year reading … something old …
Snapdragon seed cases look like tiny little screaming heads of doom
December 29, 2025 at 4:30 AM
Snapdragon seed cases look like tiny little screaming heads of doom
You really should read this
I went to the cottage and came back convinced that we need shows like Heated Rivalry more than ever. "Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is to have a good time on purpose."
newsletter.sachajudd.com/archive/a-tr...
Thanks @carlylane.bsky.social & @readingtheend.bsky.social for their posts.
newsletter.sachajudd.com/archive/a-tr...
Thanks @carlylane.bsky.social & @readingtheend.bsky.social for their posts.
a trip to the boy aquarium
I was going to take a week off but then Heated Rivalry finished and my brain was too full of thoughts. If you’re an extremely online person (and it’s hard to...
newsletter.sachajudd.com
December 28, 2025 at 10:50 PM
You really should read this
Today I managed to get three English batters out by walking into the lounge and saying “What’s happening in the cricket?”
December 27, 2025 at 6:21 AM
Today I managed to get three English batters out by walking into the lounge and saying “What’s happening in the cricket?”
Thank the lord for secondhand bookshops that serve up tween classics at just that moment when you realise all the books you brought on holiday are just a touch too earnest
December 24, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Thank the lord for secondhand bookshops that serve up tween classics at just that moment when you realise all the books you brought on holiday are just a touch too earnest
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
‘Elizabeth Knox navigates, with impressive skill and sensitivity, some of the very real anxieties confronting the young adults who will, I feel certain, be her many avid readers.’
December 18, 2025 at 6:37 AM
‘Elizabeth Knox navigates, with impressive skill and sensitivity, some of the very real anxieties confronting the young adults who will, I feel certain, be her many avid readers.’
Can’t for the life of me keep my Books Thread threaded. So we start over again with a must-read: one of those ones all the American podcasts recommend and you’re like “do I really need a addiction-recovery-war-abandonment memoir” in my life? and then you read it and YES you do
July 27, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Can’t for the life of me keep my Books Thread threaded. So we start over again with a must-read: one of those ones all the American podcasts recommend and you’re like “do I really need a addiction-recovery-war-abandonment memoir” in my life? and then you read it and YES you do
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
Great news that Ralph Hotere’s monumental Black Phoenix is back on show at Te Papa: check it out for Matariki! In celebration of its return here’s a poem about it from Chris Price’s 2016 collection, Beside Herself
June 19, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Great news that Ralph Hotere’s monumental Black Phoenix is back on show at Te Papa: check it out for Matariki! In celebration of its return here’s a poem about it from Chris Price’s 2016 collection, Beside Herself
Bringing the last of summer home on the train
April 13, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Bringing the last of summer home on the train
Hard agree on this assessment. The point in L:AED where Peet zooms out from two lovestruck teens to the Cuban missile crisis is extraordinary. It’s got the intense teen boy emotion of Mitchell’s “Black Swan Green” & storytelling inventiveness of Marcus Sedgwick’s “Blood Red, Snow White”. Unmissable.
Reminding myself what a great writer Mal Peet was. If you’ve never read him, you’re in for a treat. Life: An Exploded Diagram is like no YA novel you’ve ever seen.
March 24, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Hard agree on this assessment. The point in L:AED where Peet zooms out from two lovestruck teens to the Cuban missile crisis is extraordinary. It’s got the intense teen boy emotion of Mitchell’s “Black Swan Green” & storytelling inventiveness of Marcus Sedgwick’s “Blood Red, Snow White”. Unmissable.
Just spotted a man walking fast up Mt Vic AND reading a hardback Elizabeth Strout. Respect.
March 21, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Just spotted a man walking fast up Mt Vic AND reading a hardback Elizabeth Strout. Respect.
👑🐠👑 We have a winner! Is it any surprise the blobfish took out Fish of the Year for 2025? 👑🐠👑 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
March 18, 2025 at 7:46 AM
👑🐠👑 We have a winner! Is it any surprise the blobfish took out Fish of the Year for 2025? 👑🐠👑 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
'Whenever I take up a new activity, I secretly believe I am going to be brilliant at it. I go in expecting that I will nail it on my first attempt and be, even in middle age, something of a prodigy.' The great Kate Camp on swimming and writing.
thespinoff.co.nz/books/15-03-...
thespinoff.co.nz/books/15-03-...
March 15, 2025 at 2:39 AM
'Whenever I take up a new activity, I secretly believe I am going to be brilliant at it. I go in expecting that I will nail it on my first attempt and be, even in middle age, something of a prodigy.' The great Kate Camp on swimming and writing.
thespinoff.co.nz/books/15-03-...
thespinoff.co.nz/books/15-03-...
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
The Spinoff Essay: Diary of a writers’ festival
The Spinoff Essay: Diary of a writers’ festival
Adelaide Writers' Week was vibrant, resourced and thriving. So why, returning home with a head full of plans, did Claire Mabey feel unexpectedly sad?...
thespinoff.co.nz
March 7, 2025 at 8:00 PM
The Spinoff Essay: Diary of a writers’ festival
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
On the cutting room floor is the bit where the host introduced their interview series, The Interview, and I asked how long it took to come up with the name. Anyway, here’s me talking about birds and science and burnout and moving through the world. The photo’s nice! www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/m...
‘The Interview’: Ed Yong Wants to Show You the Hidden Reality of the World
The Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer talks about burnout from covering the pandemic and how bird-watching gave him a new sense of hope.
www.nytimes.com
February 22, 2025 at 5:07 PM
On the cutting room floor is the bit where the host introduced their interview series, The Interview, and I asked how long it took to come up with the name. Anyway, here’s me talking about birds and science and burnout and moving through the world. The photo’s nice! www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/m...
Nearly 25,000 votes have been counted and Aotearoa has now crowned the Ngāokeoke | Velvet Work as Bug of the Year 👑
February 21, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Nearly 25,000 votes have been counted and Aotearoa has now crowned the Ngāokeoke | Velvet Work as Bug of the Year 👑
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
And all the #FACT2025 sessions are now up online with recordings and illustrated summaries. Enjoy - there's a lot to watch and they are jam packed with ideas and hope www.acmi.net.au/projects-par...
Future of Arts, Culture & Technology Symposium
Rewatch the 2025, 2024 and 2023 Future of Arts Culture & Technology symposia
www.acmi.net.au
February 21, 2025 at 10:49 AM
And all the #FACT2025 sessions are now up online with recordings and illustrated summaries. Enjoy - there's a lot to watch and they are jam packed with ideas and hope www.acmi.net.au/projects-par...
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
New #podcast episode just dropped, coming to you live from #Antarctica!
We talk to @notothentoma.bsky.social about the amazing adaptations of #Antarctic #fish: Clear blood, antifreeze and parental care.
www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/055-...
We talk to @notothentoma.bsky.social about the amazing adaptations of #Antarctic #fish: Clear blood, antifreeze and parental care.
www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/055-...
Fishes of Antarctica — Armatus Oceanic
We talk to Antarctic fishes expert Thomas Desvignes about the fishes that are only found there and their amazing adaptations.
www.armatusoceanic.com
February 21, 2025 at 3:48 PM
New #podcast episode just dropped, coming to you live from #Antarctica!
We talk to @notothentoma.bsky.social about the amazing adaptations of #Antarctic #fish: Clear blood, antifreeze and parental care.
www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/055-...
We talk to @notothentoma.bsky.social about the amazing adaptations of #Antarctic #fish: Clear blood, antifreeze and parental care.
www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/055-...