The finalists in the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards gathered in Christchurch last night for the awards ceremony. The awards night is always themed and this year the organisers went for a ‘Witch in the Cherry Tree’ theme in honour of Margaret Mahy. The book of the year was also renamed the ‘New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year’ this year. I was nervous myself, hoping that my favourites would take out the award, so I’m sure the authors and illustrators themselves were incredibly nervous. Overall, I was pleased to see a couple of my favourites win awards, but I was disappointed that others missed out. I think that Red Rocks and The Nature of Ash are amazing books and if I could give Rachael and Mandy an award I would.
Read below to find out who won each category, as well as the Honour Book and Children’s Choice Award.
Best Young Adult Fiction and New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year
Into the River by Ted Dawe
Best Non-Fiction
100 Amazing Tales from Aotearoa by Simon Morton & Riria Hotere
Best Junior Fiction
My Brother’s War by David Hill
Honour award, Junior Fiction
The Queen and the Nobody Boy: A Tale of Fontania series by Barbara Else
Best Picture Book
Mister Whistler by Margaret Mahy & Gavin Bishop
Best First Book
Reach by Hugh Brown
Children’s Choice
Melu by Kyle Mewburn, Ali Teo & John O’Reilly, Scholastic NZ
My Best Friends Are Books 
Zac
I so agree you with you so let’s hope Rachael and Mandy make it when the LIANZA awards are announced
Colleen Shipley
Marlborough Girls’ College
I know how you feel, Zac. Sad to see some favourites missing out. But I was glad to see Reach by Hugh Brown getting the Best First Book Award – it was the winner of the inaugural Tessa Duder Award for an unpublished YA novel. (Such a pity the TD Award wasn’t given this year…)
Another thought, Zac – how about you try to get a blog interview with Ted Dawe? I’d love to know the background to Into the River, particularly the indie publishing aspect…