KEY POINTS:
Veteran children's author Maurice Gee has been chosen as a finalist for the top prize in the Library and Information Association awards.
Gee's book Salt and five others are contenders for New Zealand's longest-established book prize, the Esther Glen Award. The other finalists are: Losing It, by Sandy McKay; Smashed, by Mandy Hager; The Sea-wreck Stranger, by Anna Mackenzie; The Dumpster Saga, by Craig Harrison; and Time of the Eagle, by Sherryl Jordan.
