Bookcase

If you're interested in children's books, come along to the Children's Literature Foundation of New Zealand's annual Margaret Mahy Lecture to be held at the Auckland College of Education on Saturday.

It will be an opportunity to mix with children's literature aficionados; to see (and talk with) many of New Zealand's children's writers, illustrators and book people.

Pamela Allen, whose 21 picture books include Fancy That!, Who Sank the Boat? and the recently released Grandpa and Thomas, will present the 14th annual lecture.

As well, Maurice Gee's Under the Mountain will receive the Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-Loved Book, and the Foundation will be announcing the winners of their 2004 Tom Fitzgibbon Award (for a manuscript of a children's novel) and 2004 Joy Cowley Award (for a picture-book manuscript).

Jillian Sullivan's novel Shreve's Promise, which won the 2003 Tom Fitzgibbon Award, will be launched by Scholastic Publishers. There will also be the opportunity to win an original painting of The Little Yellow Digger by Alan Gilderdale.

Details of the programme are on the website www.storylines.org.nz and tickets are available from the secretary, CLFNZ childlitnz@internet.co.nz

Frances Plumpton