A story about the bond between a teenage boy and a young orca whose mother has been killed by whalers won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year in last night's New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
Singing Home the Whale, by Wellington writer Mandy Hager, also won the Best Young Adult Fiction Award, netting Hager, sister of journalist Nicky Hager, a prize total of $15,000.
"This novel would have won in any year it was entered," said panel convener Bob Docherty. "Mandy Hager is writing out of her skin at present."
Other winners at last night's Wellington ceremony were Jim's Letters by Glyn Harper, illustrated by Jenny Cooper. The tale of two brothers writing to each other during World War I took the Best Picture Book Award ($7500), while Monkey Boy by Donovan Bixley won the Best Junior Fiction Award ($7500).