Claire Mabey reports on this year’s winners at the children’s book awards. But first, a small rant.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that children’s books aren’t as well-covered or as well-supported as their adult equivalents. There are several reasons for this but the primary one is a matter of misconception: the persistent idea that somehow writing for children isn’t as hard, or as complex, or as worthy as writing for adults. Which is rubbish. All children’s authors know this, and publishers too.

It’s a hellishly competitive market: a lot of people think they can pick up a pen and compose an excellent children’s book (just about every celebrity you can think of). But that’s about as true as being able to magically summon a bestselling novel. The reality is that children’s books are wickedly hard to get right. They can often be saccharine, the rhymes can be off, the imagination stifled, the story merely a repeat of an average example. But to discover a great children’s book is to step into a portal that will be treasured for years to come, through childhood and into adulthood and then back into childhood again. 

So it’s always bittersweet to celebrate the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. The prize money, while a welcome windfall, is significantly less than the Ockhams is able to attract. Entertaining and educating kids, shaping the minds of the future, is a tall order and the books below are doing just that, supported by publishers who are constantly trying to balance budgets in a tough market.

The team and voluntary board behind the awards themselves are a group of cheerleaders who work year in and year out to wrangle entries and judges, raise the money, and arrange the associated events and marketing campaigns that shout about the books themselves, ensuring that as many people as possible can access them. The pinnacle of all of this work is the awards ceremony where the best of the best are given prize money and the honour of having their names etched onto trophies, adding to a long list of winners and a history of children’s literature in Aotearoa.

These awards are about the growth and development of literacy, imagination, and excellence in storytelling: something all civilisations require, no matter where we are on the spectrum of impending doom. The one thing we could all do to propel the situation into healthier ground is go out and buy, and borrow, and read our own children’s books. The below is a list of exceptional ones, so there’s no excuse not to.

The Awards

Tonight, in an event packed with some of Aotearoa’s best children’s writers and publishers at Pipitea Marae in Wellington, history was made when Mat Tait (Ngāti Apa ki te rātō) won the prestigious Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award ($7,500), as well as the Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction ($7,500), for his richly atmospheric book Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku. This is the first time in the award’s history that a bilingual book has won and the occasion is a marker of the evolving nature of our publishing landscape as more and more publishers recognise the growing use of, and interest in, te reo Māori.

From the moment you open Tait’s book you are immersed in the tense, roiling, moody atmosphere of Aotearoa’s original lovers. The innovation that won the judges over is the way in which Tait weaves te reo Māori and English throughout the story, integrated into the illustration itself, so that the worlds of image and text seamlessly tell our country’s creation story. If I had a criticism, it would only be that at times the aesthetic is too moody: the tone is so dark (literally) that it can be hard to read for some, or at least it might be useful to know that it might enhance your experience if you have very good reading light to hand. 

“The way that te reo Māori and te reo Pākehā are brought together closely feels like a metaphorical representation of the increasing bilingualism in Aotearoa,” said convenor of judges Nicola Daly, who spoke on behalf of a formidable group who spent hours making the final decisions. It’s worth noting that in an innovative move for this year’s awards, the judges (listed below) are assisted in their decision-making by feedback on the books from a savvy group of students from schools across the country, making the process comprehensive as well as inclusive of a core audience.

I’m delighted that the judges picked rhyme queen Juliette MacIver for the Picture Book Award ($7,500) for her ingenious Duck Goes Meow (illustrated by Carla Martell, published by Scholastic New Zealand). It’s extraordinary how many ill-fitting rhymes are published in this world and so it is only right and correct that the truly very good rhymers be rewarded. 

The fist-pump moment of the evening came when legendary writer David Hill won the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction ($7,500) for his novel Below, a stomach-clenching suspense story set in a catastrophic tunnel collapse. I zoomed through this novel, such was its flow, its drama and its deft handling of environmental issues. Hill has been a tireless advocate for children’s books, and children’s writers, and children as our most essential readers for decades now, so it was no surprise to hear a celebratory roar when his name was called out. 

Another long-time literary advocate, Philippa Werry, won the Young Adult Fiction Award for Iris and Me ($7,500), her idiosyncratic verse novel about Robin Hyde. The work of this book is to introduce the precarious, and often terribly sad, life of one of our most significant writers to a new generation of readers. Werry’s task was to try to reveal the hard truths of Hyde’s life while easing the harshest episodes for young readers. It’s a tricky task: one of accuracy balanced with age-appropriate content, but Werry pulls it off (at least for this non-Hyde expert). I wish I’d had such a book that opened a door to Robin Hyde when I was at school.

It wasn’t really a surprise when the ridiculously productive Donovan Bixley won the Russell Clark Award for Illustration ($7500) for A Portrait of Leonardo, an entertaining, energetic retelling of the life of the ridiculously clever Renaissance artist. I shelve this book alongside our grander, heftier art books because it’s such a fun way to conjure Leonardo: the person behind the art and the invention. As much as I admire Bixley, I was gunning for Ant Sang to win for 4 Yaks and Yeti, which is a thing of charm and beauty, totally transporting. You can read more about it over on The Sapling. 

As we predicted, Susan Wardell and Rose Northey’s The Lighthouse Princess won the NZSA Best First Book Award ($2,500) for the lovely story about the joys of solo adventures as well as the unexpected delights of strangers. I enjoyed this book because it’s quite strange: it’s not like anything else I’ve come across and Northey’s illustrations layer little surprises, with tangents and treasures on every page. It’s a first book full of promise. You can read an interview we did with Wardell on the making of the book here.

The heart-cradling Matariki story, Kua Whetūrangitia a Koro by Brianne Te Paa, illustrated by Story Hemi-Morehouse, won the Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for Te Reo Māori with the judges praising the way the author framed mātauranga Māori for a new world and a new audience. The book tackles the concept of death in a beautiful way: gently framing the deeply personal within the great stories written in the sky.

Congratulations one and all. Here’s to a healthy bout of local children’s book-buying for the rest of us. 

2023 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults: the full list of winners

Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award ($7,500)

Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, Mat Tait (Allen & Unwin)

Picture Book Award ($7,500)

Duck Goes Meow, Juliette MacIver, illustrated by Carla Martell (Scholastic New Zealand) 

Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction ($7,500)

Below, David Hill (Penguin Random House NZ)

Young Adult Fiction Award ($7,500)

Iris and Me, Philippa Werry (The Cuba Press)

Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction ($7,500)

Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, Mat Tait (Allen & Unwin)

Russell Clark Award for Illustration ($7,500)

A Portrait of Leonardo, Donovan Bixley (Upstart Press)

Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for te reo Māori ($7,500)

Kua Whetūrangitia a Koro, Brianne Te Paa, illustrated by Story Hemi-Morehouse (Huia Publishers)

NZSA Best First Book Award ($2,500)

The Lighthouse Princess, Susan Wardell, illustrated by Rose Northey (Penguin Random House NZ)

The judges: Nicola Daly (convenor, an Associate Professor at the University of Waikato, where she is co-director of the Waikato Picturebook Research Unit and teaches courses in children’s literature; Daniel Buchanan, who has worked in bookstores in Ōtepoti for 18 years; Feana Tu‘akoi, a Kirikiriroa-based writer; Maia Bennett (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Tūwharetoa), a Wānaka secondary school and public librarian; and Ruth Paul, an award-winning Wellington writer and illustrator of children’s picture books.

They were joined by a separate panel specially appointed to judge te reo Māori entries: Ruki Tobin (convenor) (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Whātua), Kaihautū / Director Ratonga Māori at Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, National Library of New Zealand; Mihi Te Rina Henare (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui), the Kaitiaki Pukapuka and Kairangahau Māori at Te Wānanga Takiura o ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori o Aotearoa; and Te Wairere Ngaia (Waikato-Maniapoto, Taranaki, Te Ātiawa, Ngāruahinerangi, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Rongomai, Ngāti Tarāwhai, Ngāti Whakaue), a Rotorua-based kaiako of te reo Māori, and a qualified translator.

The schools that took provided feedback to the 2023 judges were: Aotea College (Porirua), Arahoe School (Auckland), Ashburton Intermediate, Central School Te Kura Waenga o Ngāmotu (New Plymouth), Grey Lynn School (Auckland), Te Kura o Te Tauawa Halswell School (Christchurch), Hunterville School, Liston College (Auckland), Manchester Street School (Feilding), Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School, Remarkables Primary School (Queenstown), Te Kura o Tawatawa Ridgway School (Wellington), Rototuna High Schools (Hamilton), Seatoun School (Wellington), and South Wellington Intermediate.

All of the books mentioned can be purchased at Unity Books Wellington and Auckland.