Author's imagination ranges far and wide

By MARGIE THOMSON

Waimate author and previous winner of the Children's Book of the Year award, Ken Catran has an astonishing three books in this year's list of finalists for the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, announced on Friday.

His Something Weird About Mr Foster is vying in the junior fiction category, while Tomorrow the Dark and Letters From the Coffin-Trenches are up against each other in senior fiction.

What makes his achievement even more extraordinary is that the books are so different from each other: Mr Foster is an oddball tale about a teacher who is not what he seems; in Tomorrow the Dark, Catran imagines a terrifying future in which the human race wages what seem hopeless, ceaseless battles against ghostly aliens; while in Coffin-Trenches he conjures up the world of Gallipoli and the Somme in a story told by a young New Zealand soldier coming of age in those hellish places, through letters exchanged with his fiancee back home in New Zealand.

Beyond Catran, finalists include names from the children's book world that we all recognise: Margaret Mahy, David Hill, David Elliot, Diana Noonan, Joy Cowley, Gavin Bishop, Andrew Crowe, Jennifer Beck, Robyn Belton.

But in case you should imagine these things are done deals, always won by the in-crowd, we must note that there are many newcomers to these awards, some of them first-time authors: V. M. (Vicky) Jones, Des Hunt, Linda McNabb, Kingi McKinnon, Dawn McMillan, Ross Kinnaird and others.

Charged with the invidious task of judging are broadcaster Kim Hill, children's bookshop owner Sheila Sinclair and graphic designer Philip Webb. The award ceremony is on April 8, when the New Zealand Post Book of the Year and the Children's Choice Award will also be announced.

That event, presided over by the Minister of Culture and Heritage, Judith Tizard, is the culmination of the weeklong New Zealand Post Children's Book Festival, beginning March 31, during which authors and illustrators will tour the country.

The finalists for the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards are:

Junior Fiction
(books suitable for upper-primary or intermediate school-age children):

Buddy by V. M. Jones (HarperCollins)

A Friend in Paradise by Des Hunt (HarperCollins)

The Dragon's Apprentice by Linda McNabb (HarperCollins)

Something Weird About Mr Foster by Ken Catran (Scholastic)

When the Kehua Calls by Kingi McKinnon (Scholastic)

Non-Fiction
(for children of various ages):

Which New Zealand Insect? by Andrew Crowe (Penguin Books)

Weaving Earth And Sky: Myths & Legends of Aotearoa by Robert Sullivan, illustrated by Gavin Bishop (Random House)

New Zealand Wild: The Shaping of New Zealand by Brian O'Flaherty (Reed)

New Zealand Trees: The Kauri by Alina Arkins, photography by Len Doel (Reed)

Weta: A Knight in Shining Armour by Joy Cowley, photography by Rod Morris (Scholastic)

Picture Book

The Immigrants by Alan Bagnall, illustrated by Sarah Wilkins (Mallinson Rendel)

Pigtails the Pirate, written and illustrated by David Elliot (Random House)

Why Do Dogs Sniff Bottoms? by Dawn McMillan and Bert Signal, illustrated by Ross Kinnaird (Reed)

Auntie Rosie and the Rabbit by Diana Noonan, illustrated by Christine Ross (Scholastic)

The Christmas Caravan by Jennifer Beck, illustrated by Robyn Belton (Scholastic)

Senior Fiction
(suitable for secondary-school readers):

Alchemy by Margaret Mahy (HarperCollins)

Tomorrow the Dark by Ken Catran (Lothian Books)

Right Where it Hurts by David Hill (Mallinson Rendel)

The Thin Line by V. R. Joseph (Mallinson Rendel)

Letters From the Coffin-Trenches by Ken Catran (Random House)