Debbie McCauley (pictured) and Susan Brocker have been named finalists in a national children's book awards.
Debbie McCauley (pictured) and Susan Brocker have been named finalists in a national children's book awards.
Tauranga authors Debbie McCauley and Susan Brocker are finalists in a national children's book competition.
The LIANZA (Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) Children's Book Awards will be held on June 15.
Two bilingual children's books by Ms McCauley, who is also a librarian, were announced as 2015 Elsie Locke Non-fiction Award Finalists. The award was established in 1986 and recognises a distinguished contribution to non-fiction for young people.
"It's incredibly exciting to have three stories from Tauranga Moana in the awards," Ms McCauley said.
Her book Motiti Blue and the Oil Spill: A Story from the Rena Disaster has been shortlisted. It tells the story a little blue penguin caught up in Rena's oil spill and has received overwhelmingly positive reviews. A review by John McIntyre featured on National Radio's Nine To Noon programme. and Central TV News also interviewed Ms McCauley about the book.
Her second book in the awards is Taratoa and the Code of Conduct: A Story from the Battle of Gate Pa which was produced for the battle's sesquicentennial in April 2014.
Susan Brocker
It was created under an "enormous amount of time pressure," said Ms McCauley, who was also helping to organise the Tauranga commemoration. Her 15-year-old daughter, Sophie, illustrated the book.
Also among the LIANZA Young Adult Finalists is 1914: Riding into War by Tauranga author Susan Brocker.
The story is the first in Scholastic's Kiwis at War series produced to commemorate World War One. There will be five books in the series, one released each year (2014-2018) while the 100th commemorations of The Great War take place.
"The idea for this book was inspired by my grandfather, Trooper Thomas McGee, who served as a mounted rifleman in World War One," Ms Brocker said.
"It's great to think that the new generation will have the chance to read about the sacrifices their own forefathers and mothers made and to treasure their future."
In Ms Brocker's story, 17-year-old Billy Bowman signs up with his best mate Jack and their horses. Leaving their horses behind in Egypt, they are sent to Gallipoli after the first landings. There they take park in the horrific battle of Chunuk Bair in August 1915. The horror of trench warfare is far removed from the adventure Jack and his mates thought it would be.
