And the winners are….

The awards ceremony for the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards was held in Auckland last night to announce the winners of our country’s top awards for children’s and young adult writers.  The winners are:

Picture Book  and Book of the Year – Old Huhu by Kyle Mewburn & Rachel Driscoll

Nonfiction – E3 Call Home by Janet Hunt

Junior Fiction – The Loblolly Boy by James Norcliffe

Young Adult – Blood of the Lamb: The Crossing by Mandy Hager

Children’s Choice Award – The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith and Katz Cowley

Children’s Choice Nonfiction – Dear Alison by Simon Pollard (editor)

Children’s Choice Junior Fiction – Friends: Snake and Lizard by Joy Cowley and Gavin Bishop

Children’s Choice Young Adult – Brainjack by Brian Falkner

Honour Award – The Word Witch by Margaret Mahy and David Elliot, edited by Tessa Duder

Best First Book Award – The Bone Tiki by David Hair

As usual, I can’t pick the winners (luckily I’m not a betting man) but I was glad to see my favourites (Brainjack and Wonky Donkey) getting the childrens’ vote.  I think we should leave the voting up to the children every time as they pick the books that appeal to them, not what appeals to adults.

Did you manage to pick the winners and what did you think of the judges choices?

Seven minutes with Bernadette Hall

Poet Bernadette Hall was one of three Cantabrians who flew the flag for Christchurch at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival. She kindly gave us some of her time for a bit of a chat. This seven-minute interview covers:

• The ‘crucial and essential’ role of writer’s festivals in building a community of writers;
• The Hagley Writers’ Institute  as a yeast in the mix of a healthy Christchurch poetry scene;
• How Hall is trying to change her poems and is writing short fiction.

I started the interview (which was just after a chat by Emily Perkins, Damien Wilkins and Fergus Barrowman, and before a late lunch) by asking what it was like to attend the festival as a writer.

Bernadette Hall read with Alison Wong, Ian Wedde, Jessica Le Bas, Ben Brown, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman and Alicia Sometimes at the festival.

With luck she will appear at the  Christchurch Writers Festival in October.

Bunking down – Image of the Week

Encampment of Canterbury Volunteer Rifles, Hillsborough. 18 Dec. 1865.

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