‘ANZAC Heroes’ wins 2016 Margaret Mahy Book of the Year

Maria Gill’s ANZAC Heroes (illus by Marco Invancic, Scholastic) has won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award at the 2016 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, presented in Wellington on 8 August.

ANZAC Heroes was also the winner of the Elsie Locke Award for best nonfiction book. The winners in the other categories are:

Young adult fiction

• Battlesaurus: Rampage at Waterloo (Brian Falkner, Pan Macmillan)

Junior fiction (Esther Glen Award)

• From the Cutting Room of Barney Kettle (Kate De Goldi, Longacre)

Best first book

• Allis the Little Tractor (Sophie Siers, illus by Helen Kerridge, Millwood-Heritage Productions)

Picture Book

• The Little Kiwi’s Matariki (Nikki Slade Robinson, Duck Creek Press)

Illustration (Russell Clark Award)

• Much Ado about Shakespeare (Donovan Bixley, Upstart Press)

Te reo Māori (Te Kura Pounamu Award)

• Whiti te Rā! (Patricia Grace, illus by Andrew Burdan, trans by Kawata Teepa, Huia Publishers).

The winners of the Children’s Choice awards were also announced. They are:

Young adult fiction

• Stray (Rachel Craw, Walker Books)

Junior fiction

• The Girl Who Rode the Wind (Stacy Gregg, HarperCollins)

Nonfiction

• First to the Top (David Hill, illus by Phoebe Morris, Puffin)

Picture book

• The House on the Hill (Kyle Mewburn, illus by Sarah Davis, Scholastic)

Te reo Māori

• Te Hua Tuatahi a Kuwi (Kat Merewether, trans by Pānia Papa, Illustrated Publishing).

This year’s awards were expanded to include the Russell Clark Illustration Award and the Te Kura Pounamu Award after merging with the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) Awards. The awards are administered by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust, with a LIANZA representative taking a seat on the board of trustees. They carry a total prize pool of NZ$59,500 (A$55,510).

To see the finalists in each category, click here. For more information about the awards, click here.

Category: Junior Local news