New Zealand Book Awards for Children and YA 2017 finalists announced

The finalists for the 2017 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults have been announced.

The shortlisted books in each category are:

Picture Book Award

• Fuzzy Doodle (Melinda Szymanik, illus by Donovan Bixley, Scholastic)
• Gwendolyn! (Juliette MacIver, illus by Terri Rose Baynton, ABC Books)
• My Grandpa is a Dinosaur (Richard Fairgray & Terry Jones, illus by Richard Fairgray, Puffin)
• That’s Not a Hippopotamus! (Juliette MacIver, illus by Sarah Davis, Gecko Press)
• The Singing Dolphin/Te Aihe i Waiata (Mere Whaanga, Scholastic)

Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction

• Helper and Helper (Joy Cowley, illus by Gavin Bishop, Gecko Press)
• My New Zealand Story: Bastion Point (Tania Roxborogh, Scholastic)
• Sunken Forest (Des Hunt, Scholastic)
• The Discombobulated Life of Summer Rain (Julie Lamb, Submarine)
• The Impossible Boy (Leonie Agnew, Puffin)

Young Adult Fiction

• Coming Home to Roost (Mary-anne Scott, Longacre)
• Kiwis at War 1916: Dig for victory (David Hair, Scholastic)
• Like Nobody’s Watching (L J Ritchie, Escalator Press)
• Shooting Stars (Brian Falkner, Scholastic)
• The Severed Land (Maurice Gee, Penguin)

Elsie Locke Award for Nonfiction

• From Moa to Dinosaurs: Explore and Discover Ancient New Zealand (Gillian Candler, illus by Ned Barraud, Potton & Burton)
• Jack and Charlie: Boys of the Bush (Josh James Marcotte & Jack Marcotte, Puffin)
• The Cuckoo and the Warbler (Kennedy Warne, illus by Heather Hunt, Potton & Burton)
• The Genius of Bugs (Simon Pollard, Te Papa Press)
• Torty and the Soldier (Jennifer Beck, illus by Fifi Colston, Scholastic)

Russell Clark Award for Illustration

• Donovan Bixley for Fuzzy Doodle (Melinda Szymanik, Scholastic)
• Jenny Cooper for Gladys Goes to War (Glyn Harper, Puffin)
• Kieran Rynhart for If I Was a Banana (Alexandra Tylee, Gecko Press)
• David Elliot for Snark: Being a True History of the Expedition that Discovered the Snark and the Jabberwock … and its Tragic Aftermath (Otago University Press)
• Toby Morris for The Day the Costumes Stuck (Beatnik Publishing)

Te Kura Pounamu Award for books written completely in te reo Māori

• Ngā Manu Tukutuku e Whitu o Matariki (Calico McClintock, illus by Dominique Ford, trans by Ngaere Roberts, Scholastic)
• Ngārara Huarau (Maxine Hemi, illus by Andrew Burdan, Huia Publishers)
• Te Haerenga Māia a Riripata i Te Araroa (Maris O’Rourke, illus by Claudia Pond Eyley, trans by Āni Wainui, Duck Creek Press)
• Te Kaihanga Māpere (Sacha Cotter, illus by Josh Morgan, trans by Kawata Teepa, Huia Publishers)
• Tuna rāua ko Hiriwa (Ripeka Takotowai Goddard, illus by Kimberly Andrews, Huia Publishers)

Best First Book Award

• Awatea’s Treasure (Fraser Smith, Huia Publishers)
• Like Nobody’s Watching (L J Ritchie, Escalator Press)
• The Discombobulation of Summer Rain (Julie Lamb, Submarine)
• The Mouse and the Octopus (Lisala Halapua, Talanoa Books)
• Wars in the Whitecloud: Wairau, 1843 (Matthew H McKinley, Kin Publishing).

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Wellington on 14 August.

The winners in each category will receive NZ$7500 (A$7170), with an additional NZ$7500 awarded for the overall prize, the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year. For more information, click here.

Category: Junior Local news