Book Awards

On Monday night this week the LIANZA children’s book award winners were announced.

LIANZA stands for Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa, which basically means that these are the book awards where Librarians get to choose the winners.

And here are the winners…

Esther Glen Medal for best fiction: Red Rocks by Rachael King (A Wellington author!)

While holidaying at his father’s house, Jake explores Wellington’s wild south coast, with its high cliffs, biting winds, and its fierce seals. When he stumbles upon a perfectly preserved sealskin, hidden in a crevice at Red Rocks, he’s compelled to take it home and hide it under his bed, setting off a chain of events that threatens to destroy his family. Red Rocks takes the Celtic myth of the selkies, or seal people, and transplants it into the New Zealand landscape, throwing an ordinary boy into an adventure tinged with magic

Russel Clark Medal for best illustration: A Great Cake by Tina Matthews

Harvey wants to bake a great cake, but doesn’t have all the ingredients. That doesn’t stop him. Harvey can make cakes from the most amazing things!

This book also includes an awesome cake recipe.

Elsie Locke Medal for non-fiction: At the Beach: Explore & Discover the New Zealand Seashore by Ned Barraud and Gillian Candler

At the Beach is a delightful introduction to the natural history of the New Zealand seashore.

With beautiful, factually correct illustrations (including detailed cross-sections) of three habitats—sandy beach, rock pools and mudflats. Many of the plants and animals that play a part in these rich ecosystems are shown, with lots of detail about crabs, sea stars, kina and sea anemones, shellfish, seaweeds, sponges and sandhoppers, fish, jellyfish & shrimps, and birds

This book will appeal to anyone curious about New Zealand’s natural environment, At the Beach is a must for the home, bach, classroom and library. Comes with a removable, waterproof quick-reference guide to common seashore animals.

Te Kura Ponamu award for te Reo: Ko Meru by Kyle Mewburn, translated by Ngaere Roberts

 A young mule has always been different. While the other mules stubbornly clip-clop around the sun-baked hills, he dreams of swimming in the glittering green sea below. But it will take more than stubborness for him to reach the glittering green sea

And if you like to read teen books…

Young Adult Fiction Award: The Nature of Ash by Mandy Hagar (another Wellington author!)

Ash McCarthy thought he finally had it made: away from home and all its claustrophobic responsibilities, he’s revelling in the freedom of student hostel life. But life is about to take a devastating turn, when two police officers knock on his door. Their life-changing news forces him to return home to his Down Syndrome brother Mikey, and impels him into a shady world of political intrigue, corruption, terrorism and lies, so many lies. As if this isn’t bad enough, the whole country is imploding, as the world’s two greatest super-powers start a fight that leaves New Zealand ‘piggy-in-the-middle’ of their deadly games. While trying to protect Mikey, along with strangers Travis and Jiao, his fight to uncover the truth turns into a nightmare race to save their lives and stop the destruction of all the principles he holds dear