New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards

Judges Diary: Highlights so far

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N.B. All views and opinions expressed in this post are my own.  They in no way reflect those of the 2014 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards judging committee.

It’s now three weeks since I got my first lot of books that were submitted for next year’s New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.  I’ve been mixing up my reading, switching between junior fiction and young adult fiction.  So far, I’ve been really impressed with the quality of the writing and the range of genres represented.  Deborah Burnside’s Rebecca and the Queen of Nations transported me back in time, Vince Ford’s Scrap: Tale of a Blond Puppy introduced me to the life of a sheep-dog, I spent a week in a hut with no power in Joy Cowley’s Dunger, and I met a young Odysseus in Catherine Mayo’s Murder at Mykenai.  One of my favourites so far has been Bugs by Whiti Hereaka, a Young Adult book about the unfolding lives of three young people in their last year of school in small-town New Zealand.

At the weekend I read my way through the 49 submitted picture books, labeling them and sorting them into 4 piles.  There are some truly brilliant picture books, some really bad ones, and quite a few in between.  It’s been interesting looking at what picture books have been included in ‘Best of 2013’ lists.  There have been a couple that others have highlighted at ‘bests’ which I consider fairly average, but I’m not going to name them.  It’s easy to identify the brilliant picture books, by their high-quality production and design, stunning illustrations, and text that flows and bounces.  Here are a couple of my picture book highlights:

I’m looking forward to meeting with my fellow judges and hearing their opinions of the books that they have read.  I’m curious to find out whether we have similar opinions on our top books.

Judges Diary: Oh the anticipation!

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Imagine my surprise when I came back from a couple of days away to find 3 big boxes of books waiting for me.  Ever since the announcement that I’m going to be a judge for the 2014 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards, I’ve been wondering which books will be chosen to be considered for the awards.  There have been so many wonderful New Zealand books published in the last year and I’ve had quite a few favourites.

NZ Post books 1

When I couldn’t wait any longer I opened the boxes to find 104 beauties (only the first lot of submissions) waiting for me to open their covers and discover the stories and information that await inside.  I was glad to find my favourites, those stories that have stuck in my mind, as well as some I had really wanted to read but hadn’t got around to, and some books that I hadn’t even heard of.  There are some whose covers and design jump right out at you and beg to be read, and others whose poor design and production will be barriers for some readers discovering the story within the pages.

NZ post books 2

I sorted the books into those that I have read and those that I haven’t, and as you can see by the photo there is quite a difference.  My first goal is to go back through those I have read so far this year and remind myself what it was that I liked/didn’t like about them, then start some serious reading of my ‘to-be-read pile.’

My mountain of books awaits me so I must get started.  I’ll report back soon on how the reading is going and what gems I have discovered.

New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards Judge Announcement

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I’m thrilled to finally be able to announce that I’ll be joining Barbara Else and Ant Sang as a judge for the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards next year.  I’m incredibly honoured to be a part of the awards and it’s very exciting.

I’ve been a part of the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Festival for the last 3 years, as the coordinator for the Canterbury Festival.  This is a role that I have loved as it has given me the chance to take the finalist books out to my region and share them with children of all ages.  The roadshow that our Canterbury committee did this year for the Festival was one of the best experiences I’ve had as a librarian, as we got to talk about the finalist books and read them to so many children in our region.  Having the opportunity to actually be one of the three people choosing which books are the best books in New Zealand over the past year feels absolutely incredible.  We have so many talented authors and illustrators in New Zealand who create some magical, captivating, adventure-filled and even heart-breaking books, so it is going to be a huge task to choose the best.

I’m going to have lots of reading ahead of me – approximately 120 books!  I’m certainly looking forward to receiving my first box of books and starting my reading.  There will be books that I’ve already read and loved, but there are sure to be some treasures that I’m yet to discover.  I hope to share some thoughts on my life as a judge here on the blog and talk about some of the books I’m reading.

How exciting is it to be a judge? Let Kermit show you:

To find out more about the 2014 judges check out the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards website.

The 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards winners

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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

On the road with the Canterbury NZ Post Children’s Book Festival Roadshow

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Last week I spent the week out on the road with two awesome librarians, Saskia Hill and Susan Dodd, as part of the Canterbury NZ Post Children’s Book Festival Roadshow.  We decided that this year, we wanted to talk about and read the finalist books to as many children as we possibly could over the course of the Festival week.  We battled heavy rain, flooding, horrible traffic and a flat tyre to deliver our Roadshow to the kids of Canterbury.  We visited 11 schools, 13 preschools, presented 2 Books Before Bedtime Pyjama Parties and read to over 6000 children over the course of the week.

Part of our programme was performing Margaret Mahy and Gavin Bishop’s wonderful picture book, Mister Whistler.  I danced around as Mister Whistler, while Saskia read the book and got the kids interacting with the story.  Here’s a couple of photos of my performance.

It was an awesome experience and something that we hope to repeat again next year.  These were my highlights of the week:

  • Dressing up as Mister Whistler and dancing around while taking my clothes on and off.
  • Giving away heaps of copies of Kyle Mewburn’s Melu and Rachael King’s Red Rocks to kids all around Canterbury and seeing their faces light up.
  • Seeing kids so eager to answer questions about the finalist books so they can win a bookmark.
  • Meeting lots of enthusiastic teachers and librarians who love books.
  • Reading and talking about books with kids of all ages and doing it all with one of the coolest people around, Saskia Hill.

Here is a small selection of our photos from the week:

Best of luck to all the authors and illustrators on the shortlist for the awards.  I’m really looking forward to going to the awards ceremony here in Christchurch tonight.  I’ll be live Tweeting from the event so if you want to know the winners first, follow me – @zackids.

Can you guess the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards finalists?

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nzpcba_new_logoThe New Zealand Post Children’s Book Festival starts on Monday 17 June (that’s next week) and our committee here in Christchurch can’t wait to bring the Festival to the children of Canterbury.  The main part of the Canterbury Festival this year is our Roadshow.  We’re taking the finalist books on the road and visiting schools and preschools throughout Canterbury, from Ashburton up to Rangiora.  We’ll be reading and talking about the finalists and I’ll be stepping in to Mister Whistler’s shoes each day.

We wanted to have a cool way to promote the books to the kids in each of our sessions so we came up with the idea of reading an extract from some of the books.  The kids will then have to guess which book the extract comes from.  It’s an easy idea that you could use in your classroom or library too.  See if you can figure out which 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards finalist book these extracts come from.

  • ‘Then came the long metal howl.  In the canyon mouth, Hodie saw a bright blur.  Next moment a wind-train shot out of the canyon and snaked above the valley floor towards the Depot. Lamps shone at the front.  Four large swivelling wings on the engine made it shift this way and that to catch the currents of wind.  Larger wings were spaced along three carriages, one of which looked like a dining car, and a van that must be for luggage.  Concertina metal cages linked the carriages.’
  • ‘All the time, the song raced round and round his head, and his feet tried to dance him round and round the platform.’
  • ‘Gorging grubber, larvae-lover, snail-scratcher, beetle-battler.’
  • ‘He looked out to sea.  He had never been down here at night and he took a moment to enjoy the strangeness of it.  In the patches of light, he thought he made out seaweed in the surging water, and something else, floating out there, waiting.  Seals!  He stood up and shivered in the wind.  He heard it again: ‘The skin. Jake.’ A row of seals, their wet heads dark against the sea, watched him, like a row of sentries guarding the sea.  Or the beach.’
  • ‘The creatures here have to watch out for other hungry animals looking for a meal.  Some dig into the sand to escape.  Some hide under rocks.  Others have clever ways of protecting themselves.’
  • ‘We’re safe where we are, but we don’t wait around to speculate, just run like hell until we’re through the gardens and back in town.  It’s chaos there.  People packing out of offices.  Shops boarding up their windows.  Lucinda takes her leave of us, promising she’ll keep in touch.  All the frantic activity underlines how stuffed I feel, not helped when Mikey whines about being hungry and tired the rest of the way home.’

I hope you all have a great festival week, whatever you may be doing.  I certainly can’t wait until the awards ceremony in Christchurch on Monday 24 June to find out who takes out the awards!

 

Activity Ideas for the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards Finalists

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There are heaps of great activity ideas out there to help you celebrate the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.  These ideas are aimed at teachers but you could try them out at home too.

There are some general Schools Resources on the Booksellers NZ New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards pages – http://booksellers.co.nz/awards/new-zealand-post-childrens-book-awards/2013resources.

Check out these books and their activity ideas:

Picture Books

Junior Fiction

Young Adult Fiction

Non-fiction

2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards Finalist: My Brother’s War by David Hill

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My Brother’s War by David Hill is a finalist in the Junior Fiction category of the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.  This was one of the books that I hadn’t read at the time it was released, but I read it recently as part of my challenge to read all of the 2013 finalists. 

I’ve been a huge fan of David Hill since I was a kid.  I remember See Ya Simon being read to me at school in Year 6, laughing out loud one minute then crying the next.  One of the things I love about David is that he hasn’t stuck to one type of story.  He’s written historical stories, hilarious school stories, thrilling adventure stories, and even some science fiction (Bodies and Soul is one of my favourites).  David is a finalist in the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards with his novel, My Brother’s War, which offers a different perspective on the Great War and the New Zealanders who went to fight.

My Dear Mother,

Well, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve joined the Army!

Don’t be angry at me, Mother dear. I know you were glad when I wasn’t chosen in the ballot. But some of my friends were, and since they will be fighting for King and Country, I want to do the same.

It’s New Zealand, 1914, and the biggest war the world has known has just broken out in Europe.

William eagerly enlists for the army but his younger brother, Edmund, is a conscientious objector and refuses to fight. While William trains to be a soldier, Edmund is arrested.

Both brothers will end up on the bloody battlefields of France, but their journeys there are very different. And what they experience at the front line will challenge the beliefs that led them there.

My Brother’s War is a compelling story about two brothers who have very different opinions and experiences of the First World War.  William feels very strongly that he needs to play his part in the war and so he enlists in the army.  The people in his town commend him for being brave and doing his part.  He believes he is doing what is right to protect his country and the people he loves.  He can’t understand his brother and thinks that his refusal to enlist is ‘wrong and stupid.’  His brother, Edmund, is a conscientious objector who believes it is wrong to go to war and kill other people.  The story switches between their two points-of-view so you see the huge differences in their experience of war.  The story is mainly told in the third person, but each of the characters write letters to their mother which gives more of an insight into their thoughts and feelings.

You experience the build up to the fighting and the horrible conditions of the battlefield through William’s story, but it was Edmund’s story that shocked me.  I knew a little about conscientious objectors before reading this book but Edmund’s story really opened my eyes to how horribly they were treated.  Conscientious objectors like Edmund were labeled cowards and treated like second-class citizens.  Edmund constantly refuses to obey army orders, but in the end really has no choice.  He’s put on a boat and taken to France where he is forced on to the battlefields.  In the training camps he is locked away with little food and water, and he also faces excruciating punishment for not following orders.  Edmund is incredibly strong-willed though and stands by his principles.

A quote from Edmund towards the end of the book sums up war perfectly , ‘I never knew some men could do such dreadful things to one another, and I never knew some men could be so kind and brave.’

My Brother’s War presents a view point of war that hasn’t been dealt with before and it’s a story that all older children should read.  It would be a great book to share as a class text in Year 7/8 as it would create a lot of discussion.

2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards Finalist: The ACB with Honora Lee by Kate De Goldi

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The ACB with Honora Lee is a finalist in the Junior Fiction category of the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.  I reviewed it in October last year,  so if you want to hear all about it and find out what makes it such a worthy finalist, read on.

Kate De Goldi’s last book, The 10PM Question, was a wonderful story and won many awards.  It’s a story that’s loved by adults and children alike, and Kate’s latest book, The ACB with Honora Lee, is bound to have the same crossover appeal.  I first heard about it when Kate talked about it at the Schools Programme for the Christchurch Writer’s Festival and I’ve been dying to read it ever since.  I immediately fell in love with Perry and the residents of Santa Lucia.

Perry’s mother and father are busy people … they’re impatient, they’re tired, they get cross easily. And they think that only children, like Perry, should be kept busy. On Saturday mornings Perry and her father visit her gran, Honora Lee, at the Santa Lucia rest home, but Gran never remembers them. ‘Who is that man?’ Honora Lee asks when Perry’s father leaves the room. After movement class is abruptly cancelled, Perry is allowed to go to Santa Lucia on Thursday afternoons. She discovers her Gran has an unconventional interest in the alphabet, so Perry decides to make an alphabet book with the help of Honora and the others. Soon everyone is interested in Perry’s book project.

The ACB with Honora Lee is a quirky story about an unusual girl who finds friendship in an unlikely place.  The story is brimming with humour, joy, wisdom, and a cast of colourful characters.  It’s set in the Beckenham loop in Christchurch (where I live) and I only wish that I could go and meet Perry, Honora Lee, Dorris and the rest of Kate De Goldi’s characters.  Perry is a unusual girl, who acts and sounds older than her 9 years.  She seems quite lonely when we first meet her.  Her parents are wrapped up in their own problems and don’t seem to have time for her.  They don’t take much notice of her and enroll her in after school activities that she doesn’t really enjoy.  Even when she really enjoys going to visit her gran and the others at the rest home, her parents don’t understand.  Perry makes lots of new friends at Santa Lucia, including her gran’s friend, Doris, and Stephen and Audrey who work there.  The fact that her gran doesn’t remember her doesn’t seem to worry Perry, she just reminds her who she is each time she visits.  The thing that I like the most about Perry is her love of words.  If she hears a word she doesn’t understand she has to find out what it means.

Perry’s gran, Honora Lee, is a real character.  She may not remember who the people around her are, but she remembers songs and lines of Shakespeare.  As one of the characters describes her, she’s ‘crabby as an old apple,’ but she comes out with some hilarious lines.  I especially like it when her and Perry are playing I Spy, because she always gets it around the wrong way.  Here’s a great example, ‘I spy with my little eye,’ said Gran,’something beginning with fat.’

It’s Kate De Goldi’s whole cast of wonderful characters that make The ACB with Honora Lee such an enjoyable read.  Their interactions provide some funny, embarrassing and touching moments.  It’s a story that will be enjoyed by the young and the young at heart and it will leave you with a smile on your face.

4 out of 5 stars

Win Red Rocks by Rachael King

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Rachael King’s fantastic children’s book, Red Rocks, was recently named as a finalist in the Junior Fiction category of the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.  Since then, it has also been named a Storylines Notable Book and been nominated in the Best Youth Novel category for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards (for science fiction, fantasy and horror writing).

Thanks to Random House New Zealand I have 3 copies of Red Rocks to give away.  All you have to do to get in the draw is enter your name and email address in the form below.  Competition closes Sunday 5 May (NZ only).

Thanks to everyone who entered.  The winners are Adrienne, Cushla and Lynley.