OPINION: As ever, there’s a crazy mixed bag of titles in this year’s finalists for the 2023 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, which says something about the breadth of this country’s publishing for young people. But this year’s awards are unlikely to produce the tsunami effect of last year, when Atua, the finale to Gavin Bishop’s trilogy of large-format picture books for all ages, took the trifecta of the Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction, the Russell Clark Award for Illustration and the Margaret Mahy award for Book of the Year.
Hard on the heels of the amazing Mr Bishop comes Mat Tait’s black-on-black Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, also shortlisted in both non-fiction and illustration categories. He won the Russell Clark award for illustration in 2020 for The Adventures of Tupaia, and no doubt the judges will have something to say about the challenges of portraying Te Pō, the underworld, in all its darkness, which makes the handsome production a challenging read.
Donovan Bixley’s masterpiece, A Portrait of Leonardo – his third pictorial biography for a general audience – is also up for the Clark medal, but is not in the non-fiction. Too Eurocentric, perhaps?
Illustrated omissions? I still think Kimberly Andrews’ Goose the Artist is her best since Puffin the Architect, and I’m surprised neither of Kyle Mewburn’s picture books – one sweet, the other sassy – are not here.
It’s delightful to see Johanna Emeney and Sarah Laing’s Sylvia and the Birds, with its balanced blend of graphic doco, text and historic photographs, and its message of diversity, in the Elsie Locke non-fiction category.
I reckon Kate De Goldi’s Eddy, Eddy, still on the publisher’s adult list, will probably take the Young Adult award, but she’s up against two seasoned YA writers. Cracking storyteller Brian Falkner, shortlisted last year with the third of his Katipo Joe spy stories, Wolf’s Lair, has the memorably titled Andromeda Bond in Trouble Deep, sequel to his much earlier Brainjack. And the phenomenal Eileen Merriman (consultant haematologist by day, mother and prolific writer by night), whose Violet Black made last year’s list, is in with Indigo Moon, already with a sequel, Time’s Raven. Will Philippa Werry’s Iris and Me or Wellington-based Aus-Kiwi Jennifer Lane’s Miracle stand a chance?
For younger readers, Junior Fiction offers a mixed bag style-wise, from Jason and Andrew Gunn’s hilarious Jason Mason and the World’s Most Powerful Itching Powder, superpowered kids in Tim Tipene’s Pipi and Pou and the Raging Mountain and the first in a new magic-assisted historical series from James Russell, Children of the Rush. But I’d say the Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction is a toss-up between David Hill’s underground adventure Below and Fifi Colston’s Masher, with its irresistible notion of a glove puppet whose head incorporates the ashes of a neighbour’s pit bull. What else might this World of Wearable Art runner-up come up with?
In the Picture Book category, friendship takes centre-stage in stories from quirky to traditional with a twist, along with two uplifting explorations of grieving. With impeccable lineage as the recipient of the Storylines Gavin Bishop Award for new illustrators, The Lighthouse Princess, by Susan Wardell, Rose Northey, may just beat How My Koro Became a Star, by Brianne Te Paa, Story Hemi-Morehouse, a moving Matariki story, already with an award for its Māori language edition, Kua Whetūrangitia a Koro, and in that category here.
Best first book? It has to be between Arlo Kelly’s Echo and The Lighthouse Princess.
The winners will be announced in Wellington on Thursday, August 10.
Finalists
Picture book
Duck Goes Meow, Juliette MacIver, Carla Martell (Scholastic); Farewell, Anahera, Vanessa Hatley-Owen, Scott Irvine, trans Kanapu Rangitauira (David Ling); How My Koro Became a Star, Brianne Te Paa, Story Hemi-Morehouse (Huia); Roo and Vladimir: An Unlikely Friendship, Minky Stapleton (Scholastic); The Lighthouse Princess, Susan Wardell, Rose Northey (Penguin).
Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Junior Fiction
Below, David Hill (Penguin); Children of the Rush, James Russell (Dragon Brothers); Jason Mason and the World’s Most Powerful Itching Powder, Jason Gunn and Andrew Gunn (Bateman); Masher, Fifi Colston (Penguin); Pipi and Pou and the Raging Mountain, Tim Tipene, Isobel Te Aho-White (OneTree House).
Young Adult Fiction
Andromeda Bond in Trouble Deep, Brian Falkner (Red Button); Eddy, Eddy, Kate De Goldi (A&U); Indigo Moon, Eileen Merriman (Penguin); Iris and Me, Philippa Werry (The Cuba Press); Miracle, Jennifer Lane (Cloud Ink Press).
Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction
A New Dawn, Emeli Sione, Darcy Solia (Mila’s Books); Freestyle: The Israel Adesanya story, David Riley, Ant Sang (Reading Warrior); Sylvia and the Birds, Johanna Emeney, Sarah Laing (MUP); Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, Mat Tait (A&U); Weather and Climate NZ, Sandra Carrod (Oratia).
Russell Clark Award for Illustration
A Portrait of Leonardo, Donovan Bixley (Upstart); Four Yaks and a Yeti, Ant Sang, Peter Hillary (Bateman); Roar Squeak Purr, Jenny Cooper, ed Paula Green (Penguin); Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, Mat Tait (A&U); The Lighthouse Princess, Rose Northey, Susan Wardell (Penguin).
Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu
He Raru ki Tai, Jane Cooper, Story Hemi-Morehouse (Huia); Kua Whetūrangitia a Koro, Brianne Te Paa, Story Hemi-Morehouse (Huia); Te Kōkōrangi: Te Aranga o Matariki, Witi Ihimaera, Isobel Joy Te Aho-White, trans Hēni Jacob (Penguin).
NZSA Best First Book
Echo, Arlo Kelly (Sparrow Press); Holding the Horse, JL Williams (Ocean Echo); He Raru ki Tai, Jane Cooper, Story Hemi-Morehouse (Huia); Kidnap at Mystery Island, Carol Garden (Scholastic); The Lighthouse Princess, Susan Wardell, Rose Northey (Penguin).
