It’s that time of year! The NZ Post book awards have posted their shortlist. Here the ones in our collection.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsThe traitor and the thief, Gareth Ward

Discovered picking pockets at Coxford’s Corn Market, fourteen year old Sin is hunted across the city. Caught by the enigmatic Eldritch Moons, Sin is offered a way out of his life of crime: join the Covert Operations Group (COG) and train to become a spy. At Lenheim Palace, Sin learns spy craft while trying not to break the school’s Cast-Iron Rules. Befriended by eccentric Zonda Chubb, together they endeavour to unmask a traitor causing havoc within the palace. After an assassination attempt on the founder of COG, Sin realises that someone closest to him could be the traitor. With no other option, Sin is forced into an uneasy alliance with the school bully, Velvet Von Darque. But can he trust her? And will COG try to bury him with the secrets he discovers? (Publisher summary)

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsPieces of you, Eileen Merriman

Fifteen-year-old Rebecca McQuilten moves with her parents to a new city. Lonely but trying to fit in, she goes to a party, but that’s when things really fall apart. Things look up when she meets gregarious sixteen-year-old Cory Marshall. Cory helps Rebecca believe in herself and piece her life back together; but that’s before he shatters it all over again…(Publisher summary)

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsSticking with pigs, Mary-Anne Scott

Uncle Jeremy has been helping the family out for a while now, by dropping off meat he’s shot. The offer to go hunting sounds great to fourteen-year-old Wolf…a chance to get away from the family stress. But this hunting trip proves to be more than he bargained for. (Publisher summary)

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsIn the dark spaces, Cally Black

A hostage drama about 14-year-old Tamara, who’s faced with an impossible choice when she falls for her kidnappers. Yet this is no ordinary kidnapping. Tamara has been living on a star freighter in deep space, and her kidnappers are terrifying Crowpeople – the only aliens humanity has ever encountered. No-one has ever survived a Crowpeople attack, until now – and Tamara must use everything she has just to stay alive. But survival always comes at a price, and there’s no handbook for this hostage crisis. As Tamara comes to know the Crowpeople’s way of life, and the threats they face from humanity’s exploration into deep space, she realises she has an impossible choice to make. (Publisher summary)

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsCatch me when you fall, Eileen Merriman

A moving novel about learning to find happiness in the face of uncertainty and discovering a love that transcends the boundary between life and death. Seventeen-year-old Alex Byrd is about to have the worst day of her life, and the best. A routine blood test that will reveal her leukaemia has returned, but she also meets Jamie Orange. (Publisher summary)

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsBecause everything is right but everything is wrong, Erin Donohue

Can you be lost and not know it? Can other people stop you from being lost? Seventeen-year-old Caleb¿s world is disintegrating, his walls are closing in, his sky is threatening to fall. He¿s barely holding on. To deadlines. To friends. To family. To mum. To Pat. But he has Casey. (Publisher summary)

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsDawn Raid, Pauline (Vaeluaga) Smith

Like many 13-year-old girls, Sofias main worries are how to get some groovy go-go boots, and how not to die of embarrassment giving a speech at school! But when her older brother Lenny starts talking about marches and protests and overstayers, and how Pacific Islanders are being bullied by the police for their passports and papers, a shadow is cast over Sofias sunny teenage days. Through her heartfelt diary entries, we witness the terror of being dawn-raided and gain an insight into the courageous and tireless work of the Polynesian Panthers in the 1970s as they encourage immigrant families across New Zealand to stand up for their rights. (Publisher summary)