Categories: News

NZ book awards attract diverse entries

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-1558" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;SND16-wk3-NZ&lowbar;Book&lowbar;AwardsLittle&lowbar;Red&lowbar;Riding&lowbar;Hood&lowbar;Not&lowbar;Quite&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SND16-wk3-NZ Book AwardsLittle Red Riding Hood Not Quite" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265" &sol;>Twenty-two books have been picked as finalists in the 2015 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults&period; This is the 25th year of the awards&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One hundred and forty-nine books were submitted with a panel of three judges having spent months reading&comma; analysing and enjoying the entries&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The judges were&colon; convenor and children&&num;8217&semi;s book reviewer and literary consultant Bob Docherty&comma; author and children&&num;8217&semi;s bookshop owner Annemarie Florian&comma; and teacher-librarian Fiona Mackie&comma; with the assistance of Te Reo M&amacr;ori language adviser&comma; writer and editor Stephanie Pohe-Tibble&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The finalists are selected across four categories&colon; Picture Book&comma; Non-Fiction&comma; Junior Fiction and Young Adult Fiction&comma; and there is an additional award for books written in M&amacr;ori&comma; for which there are finalists for the first time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Docherty says the judges were very pleased with the high quality of this year&&num;8217&semi;s writing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We likened the process to a vintner looking forward to tasting this year&&num;8217&semi;s vintage&period; Having tasted&comma; we all were delighted with this year&&num;8217&semi;s production of titles – not only in terms of the actual writing&comma; but also the fantastic quality and style of the illustrations and the actual presentation of the books&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s heartening to see that book production in New Zealand is getting better and better&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re pleased that publishers continue to put as much emphasis on the look and feel – literally – of a book as well as its content&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He says all books submitted in the Non-Fiction category were particularly impressive – &&num;8220&semi;almost in defiance of the trend for some libraries to dispense with their non-fiction collections in favour of online sources&&num;8221&semi;&period; The judging panel believed all the Non-Fiction entries contained material that was far superior to any online source&comma; and all entries deserved to be finalists&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Seven books were submitted in the M&amacr;ori language award&comma; with two selected as finalists&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Stephanie Pohe-Tibble says all of this year&&num;8217&semi;s entries had something for every reader &&num;8211&semi; from beginning speakers of M&amacr;ori to children and wh&amacr;nau involved in k&omacr;hanga reo and kura kaupapa M&amacr;ori&period; The two finalists both stood out with their innovative approach to translation&comma; wonderful text and illustrations&comma; and creativity of storylines&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Children&&num;8217&semi;s choices rule in the newly revamped Children&&num;8217&semi;s Choice Awards in 2015&period; This year&comma; more than 6500 children and young adults from 106 schools from throughout the country have selected their own finalists from the 149 books submitted for the awards&period; In previous years&comma; the Children&&num;8217&semi;s Choice was made from the judges&&num;8217&semi; finalist list&comma; rather than from the full number of submitted books&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Of the 20 books chosen as Children&&num;8217&semi;s Choice finalists&comma; seven match those on the judges&&num;8217&semi; list&comma; so we&&num;8217&semi;re very much looking forward to seeing the results of round two of the children&&num;8217&semi;s vote over the next seven weeks&comma;&&num;8221&semi; chair of the New Zealand <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;2015&sol;11&sol;children-s-book-awards-merge-prize-money-increases&sol;" title&equals;"Book Awards" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Book Awards<&sol;a> Trust&comma; Nicola Leggat says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Voting for the Children&&num;8217&semi;s Choice opened on Tuesday&comma; June 9 and closes on Friday&comma; July 31&period; This year there will be a winner in each category&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For the second year&comma; the five Picture Book finalists&&num;8217&semi; books are being sent to Prince George of Cambridge and this time his new-born sister Princess Charlotte as well&period; Each of the five books has a personal message from its author to both children&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"text-decoration&colon; underline&semi;"><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;000000&semi; text-decoration&colon; underline&semi;"><strong>Finalists<&sol;strong><&sol;span><&sol;span><br &sol;><strong><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Picture books<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Construction by Sally Sutton &amp&semi; Brian Lovelock<br &sol;>Walker Books Australia<br &sol;>I Am Not a Worm<br &sol;>By Scott Tulloch<br &sol;>Scholastic New Zealand<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Jim&&num;8217&semi;s Letters<br &sol;>By Glyn Harper and Jenny Cooper<br &sol;>Penguin Random House<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Keys<br &sol;>By Sacha Cotter and Joshua Morgan<br &sol;>Huia Publishers<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Little Red Riding Hood&&num;8230&semi;Not Quite<br &sol;>By Yvonne Morrison and Donovan Bixley<br &sol;>Scholastic New Zealand<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Non-Fiction<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ghoulish Get-Ups&colon; How to Create Your Own Freaky Costumes<br &sol;>by Fifi Colston<br &sol;>Scholastic New Zealand<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>M&amacr;ori Art for Kids<br &sol;>by Julie Noanoa and Norm Heke<br &sol;>Craig Potton Publishing<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>M&omacr;t&imacr;t&imacr; Blue and the Oil Spill<br &sol;>by Debbie McCauley<br &sol;>Mauao Publishing<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Book of Hat<br &sol;>by Harriet Rowland<br &sol;>Makaro Press&sol;Submarine<br &sol;>Under the Ocean&colon; explore &amp&semi; discover New Zealand&&num;8217&semi;s sea life<br &sol;>by Gillian Candler and Ned Barraud<br &sol;>Craig Potton Publishing<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Junior Fiction<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><&sol;strong><br &sol;>Conrad Cooper&&num;8217&semi;s Last Stand<br &sol;>by Leonie Agnew<br &sol;>Penguin Random House&sol;Puffin<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Dragon Knight&colon; Fire&excl;<br &sol;>by Kyle Mewburn and Donovan Bixley<br &sol;>Scholastic New Zealand<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Monkey Boy<br &sol;>by Donovan Bixley<br &sol;>Scholastic New Zealand<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Island of Lost Horses<br &sol;>by Stacy Gregg<br &sol;>HarperCollins<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Pirates and the Nightmaker<br &sol;>by James Norcliffe<br &sol;>Penguin Random House&sol;Longacre Child<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Young Adults<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I Am Rebecca<br &sol;>by Fleur Beale<br &sol;>Penguin Random House<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Night Vision<br &sol;>by Ella West<br &sol;>Allen &amp&semi; Unwin<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Recon Team Angel&colon; Vengeance<br &sol;>by Brian Falkner<br &sol;>Walker Books Australia<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Singing Home the Whale<br &sol;>by Mandy Hager<br &sol;>Penguin Random House<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While We Run<br &sol;>by Karen Healey<br &sol;>Allen &amp&semi; Unwin<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;000000&semi;">Maori Language Award<&sol;span><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Hoiho Paku<br &sol;>by Stephanie Thatcher<br &sol;>Translated by Ngaere Roberts<br &sol;>Scholastic New Zealand<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ng&amacr; Ki<br &sol;>by Sacha Cotter and Joshua Morgan<br &sol;>Translated by Kawata Teepa<br &sol;>Huia Publishers<br &sol;>&lpar;translation of Keys&comma; a finalist in the Picture Book category&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Explore our latest issue...
Rosie Clarke

Rosie is the managing editor here at Multimedia Pty Ltd, working across School News New Zealand and School News Australia. She has spent 10+ years in B2B journalism, and has spent some time over the last couple of years teaching as a sessional academic. Feel free to contact her at any time with editorial or magazine content enquiries.

Recent Posts

Teacher salaries have plummeted relative to minimum and median wages

EXCLUSIVE: Teachers used to be paid two to three times more than minimum wage workers,…

4 days ago

Rolling strikes this week for secondary teachers

After an “overwhelming” vote to reject the latest Government offer, secondary school teachers will begin…

4 days ago

Should second-language learning be compulsory?

Second-language learning should be compulsory, says a new report from a forum bringing together academics,…

4 days ago

New staffing entitlement for learning support coordinators

A new entitlement aimed to improve access to learning support coordinators for schools with students…

4 days ago

Updated secondary subjects raise questions

Educators have raised questions about the Ministry of Education’s new secondary school subjects, set to…

4 days ago

PLD for teachers in New Zealand needs strengthening, says ERO

Professional learning and development (PLD) for teachers needs to be higher impact for teachers and…

2 weeks ago