New Zealand Book Awards Trust - Great News!!

 GREAT NEWS FROM

The kids are in charge! Exciting new development makes the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults even more significant.

The highly coveted Children’s Choice prize in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults is today given an extra boost with the announcement of a bold new judging process. It will engage children, their teachers, librarians and their schools because the children are now in charge of their own prize.

Previously, New Zealand children have voted, online or via posted cards, to decide which books are their favourites among the finalists selected by the awards judges. From the 2015 awards on, they will be free to pick their favourites from all 130-plus books submitted into the awards. “The result may throw up completely different titles, books the judges didn’t pick, but that’s the beauty of it,” says children’s author Kyle Mewburn, who is a trustee of the

Kyle Mewburn Acknowledgments to the Otago Daily Times

awards’ organiser, the New Zealand Book Awards Trust.

From 2015 a Children’s Choice Award will be given for each of the four awards’ categories – Picture Book, Junior Fiction, Young Adult and Non-fiction.

Under the new system, schools, or children’s books groups run by libraries will indicate that they wish to select five finalists in one or more of the awards’ four categories. Once all votes are in, the five books in each category with the highest combined scores nationwide will be listed on a website where children from all around New Zealand can  vote for their favourites. In the past there has been only one Children’s Choice winner; now there will be four.

“We are very excited about this new development,” says Book Awards Trust chair Nicola Legat. “These iconic book awards have great heritage and this change to the Children’s Choice Award will add to their importance. We believe children will be excited about being so integral to the process. We have had great support for this initiative from the School Librarians Association of New Zealand and we are sure that schools will grasp the opportunity to become involved.”

The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults will be presented in Wellington on 13 August at a ceremony at Government House hosted by the Governor-General, Lieutenant-General the Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae.

They are supported by funding from Creative New Zealand, Book Tokens Ltd, Copyright Licensing Ltd and Nielsen.

For a registrtion form for your students go to:

http://www.booksellers.co.nz/person/sarah-forster


Not such good news:

Things in the worlds of books have been a bit dire the last month or so with the devastating announcements from National Library of the cuts, no actually slashes to their services to schools. More of that tomorrow when I will feel stronger after having missed the SLANZA meeting to discuss the cuts at National Library on Wednesday because a macrocarpa tree fell on the railway tracks of the train ahead of me and then becoming stuck in a grid lock traffic jam after the (very successful) protest

Acknowledgements to Radio New Zealand News

rally outside National Library on Thursday (banners are heavy to hold aloft after the first hour!) This afternoon was taken up with a talkative and positive meeting in Waikanae chaired by Wellington Regional SLANZA president, Karen Clarke and held in a sunny garden sitting at a table under a spreading (oak?) tree. 

Fiction 5 years and up

UK Writer and Norwegian Illustrator
Pip Jones illustrated by Ella Okstad

Squishy McFluff the Invisible Cat Meets Mad Nana Dot

Faber and Faber 2015  $17.99pb 76pp

ISBN 978 0 5713 0254 3

Themes: Cats/ Family life/ Grandmothers/ Imaginary friends/ New babies/ Series/ Stories in rhyme

Squishy McFluff, a lightly sketched cat and Ava are inseparable best friends and do everything together. No one can see Squishy except Ava – not surprising, as he only exists inside her head. A good humoured, fast paced story centering on Ava’s eccentric grandmother who has her hair tinted green and who is happy to include Squishy in all her activities.

We need more books at this level  - totally accessible; funny and easy to read. 

Year 1/ Age 5 up

Don't forget next Thursday March 5th is WORLD BOOK DAY.

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Picture Books - Whale Strandings

NZ Writer and Illustrator Linda Roberts, illustrated by Bruce Potter The Whale Savers – Returning Wera to the Ocean New Holland Publishers 2015  $19.99pb 32pp

ISBN 978 1 8696 6431 2  Themes: Team work/ Whale stranding

Tama and his Nan find a young pygmy sperm whale stranded on the beach and soon the whole village (plus the Department of Conservation) is there with buckets, sheets and a great deal of energy and stamina. Bruce Potter’s illustrations bring the whole incident vibrantly to life and there is no real sadness as so often happens with multiple strandings. At the end the whale swims confidently over the waves and with a spout and flick of his tail is out and away back to the deep ocean and hopefully the rest of his pod. The writing is a tad forced in places but that can be forgiven because of the great use this book will have as a valuable resource and its 2 and ¼ pages of information at the end. The story includes the waiata Tohora Nui  (Big Whale) familiar to many primary and preschoolers round the country which Nana and Tama sing to comfort the whale as he lies in the sun.

Pre-School up/ Age 3 up

SEAWEEK runs from this Saturday February 28^th to Sunday March 8^th.

The theme this year is Look beneath the surface – Papatai ō roto – Papatai ō raro

Go to: seaweek.org.nz/

**  I am off this afternoon to the first of three events being held in the Wellington Region to protest against the proposed National Library changes to services to schools throughout the country. I will try to get some images and hopefully less blurred than of late. 

 

Young Adult Fiction (Mature Readers)

NZ Writer  Anna Smaill The Chimes Sceptre 2015  $34.99pb 289pp

ISBN 978 1 4447 9453 3

Themes: Memory/ Music/ Post-apocalyptic, Dystopian stories/ Word building

Simon is standing in the rain on a road somewhere on the way to London.  He cannot remember the past; he has no way of planning for the future. He and everyone else are living in a world where the written word is forbidden.  Everything is controlled by The Chimes and music is everywhere.  But Simon is different and when he finally arrives in an unimaginable London he begins to experience some vague memories. This is certainly not an easy book to read (I nearly gave up several times) but if you are able to persuade older students to persevere with it for the first hundred or so pages (!) they will find themselves in a truly beautifully written book that can only (and I'm sorry about this clichéd word) enrich them. Perhaps you should read it yourself first…

      

Anna Smaill

Photo acknowledgments to Booksellers NZ

Adult (but will be appreciated by readers from around 14 up)

SOME HITS AND A MISS!

Julia Donaldson (a miss (for me!) )/ Paraparaumu School (a hit )/ Janet Slater Bottin (a hit)

Julia Donaldson signs a book at St Peters Church in Wellington

I was really excited at the thought of meeting Julia Donaldson (The Gruffalo) last Thursday. I had done a telephone interview with her the last time she was here but this would be face to face – well as close as I could get to the ‘stage’ as I knew it would be a highly popular event. I carefully left home at Waikanae to drive into Wellington at 4-30pm (it is just under an hours drive) and thought that would give me plenty of time to get to the event at the top of Willis Street – it was advertised to start at 6-30pm. Alas I struck two lots of grid locked traffic and then there was nowhere to park when I did arrive – at 7-45pm. I had had to walk from Te Papa and came through the door to the sound of enthusiastic applause – the show had just finished. I did manage to get some images (rather blurred - sorry) of Julia signing her books and to have a few words. 

So many books to choose from

On Tuesday I went round to Paraparaumu School where I have been helping sort through the mountains of books donated after the devastating fire late last year destroyed classrooms and the library (including the catalogue). It won’t be fully operational for some time yet and the new library won’t have risen from the ashes for around 18 months but thanks to the tenacity and purpose of Kenzie Benbrook who is in charge of organising the ‘rebuild’ it is almost to a stage where it can be used (with some creativity on the part of the teachers and students). While I was there the door burst open and in came a group of New Entrants clutching book bags and for some who had just begun school this year, experiencing their very first visit to the library. Their teacher had to laboriously write every child’s name and book taken down in a log but she is such an enthusiast she congratulated each child on their choice and said she hoped they would enjoy the book.  There was a great feast of wonderful picture books to enjoy – some brand new thanks to publishers and others donated by libraries and other schools.

Janet talks to a potential reader while her daughter Beth displays the new book

Then last night, Thursday, I had the pleasure of meeting Janet Slater Bottin (remember The Big Block of Chocolate and The Queue that Grew- -plus 90 other titles for children?) Janet has just written a book for adult readers Moments (for which there are no words) and last night at the Paraparaumu Public Library she read some of the stories from the book at an event organised by The Friends of the Kapiti Coast District Libraries. One of the stories was so sad I had to be handed a box of tissues. If you are interested in this new venture of Janet’s you could contact her at jan.tom@slingshot.co.nz

NZ Writer & Illustrator
Kat Patrick, illustrated by Lauren Marriott

I Am Doodle Cat

Beatnik Publishing  2015   $24.99hb  32pp

ISBN 978 0 9922 6482 6

Themes: Doodling/ Friendship/ Happiness/ Imagination

A wonderfully ‘silly’ story by a new writer abut a red squiggle and the things he (or is it she?) loves – noise; dancing; the ocean; farts; lentils (refer back to farts); fractals… A great book to stimulate imagination and the low key and zany illustrations match the concept. I did just wonder though why all the ‘explanations’ have been tucked away on the final end papers  - they might have been better earlier in the book.

  

Preschool up/ Age 4 

Computer problems

No I haven't fallen off the face of the planet!! I have just been having major computer problems which have taken 6 whole days to correct. Six days worth of emails to respond to....
 I will try to put some new material up on the blog within the next 24 hours. 








Barbara Murison