Fleur Beale and other winners

So the New Zealand Post Children's book awards have come and gone for another year. I hope you all had a go at voting for the children's choice award as there was a great prize to be won.

We were lucky enough to have Fleur Beale down as our visiting author during the awards period. She visited local schools and held a writing workshop for teenagers while here. I hope she enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed having her.

On top of that Fleur's book, Fierce September, won the young adult's section of the awards so I'm claiming the Southland influence helped her win (I'm not really sure how I can justify that but I'm saying it anyway). Fierce September is the follow up to Juno of Taris which won Fleur the Esther Glen award in 2009. Juno of Taris was reviewed here as part of our Pursue 100 reading competition last summer (thanks Aliesha).

Fierce September picks up the story where Juno left off a ship arrives at Taris saving the occupants from their crumbling world and taking them to New Zealand as refugees. The New Zealand they find is not the New Zealand we know however. The calamities of climate change and pandemics has given rise to right wing extremists. Extremists who are eager to use the people of Taris for their own political ends.

Now I've got to admit I liked this book better than Juno of Taris. While they both hive some great themes and characters Fierce September to me digs further into the future world Fleur Beale was trying to create. This makes it in a way more real. I loved the interactive side of the book as well. Fleur set up two Warningtheworld.blogspot.com and bobbingontheocean.blogspot.com. Each one gives the reader a different perspective on the action of the story again making things more real.

Check out the blogs and see if they peak your interest.

Anyway I'd best let you know about the other New Zealand Post Children's book award winners too. The Moon & Farmer McPhee by Margaret Mahy & David Elliot for best picture book. This wonderful gentle story about stopping and taking time to smell the roses also won book of the year. The non-fiction prize was taken out by Leon Davidson for Zero Hour: The ANZACs on the Western Front. From the junior fiction category Hollie Chips by Anna Gowan won best new book while Finnigan & the Pirates by Sherryl Jordan won the category. Lastly and not surprisingly Baa Baa Smart Sheep by Mark & Rowan Sommerset won the children's choice award.

Awards on the horizon

The New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards festival week kicks off on 9 May, culminating in the Awards dinner and winners’ announcements on 18 May.

Ever-popular NZ author and Young Adult Fiction Finalist Fleur Beale will be in town during awards week (9-17 May). Fleur will be holding a workshop for school students on Friday 13 May (9am to midday in the Library Meeting Room). Places are strictly limited for this free workshop and registration is essential; please contact Kirsty Graham at the Library for further information (211 1444 or kirsty.graham@ilibrary.co.nz ).

Fleur will then be off to Southland Boys’ High School for a lecture for school children at 2pm. Again, this free event has limited spaces, so any teachers interested in taking a class along should contact Kirsty Graham at the Library ASAP (211 1444 or kirsty.graham@ilibrary.co.nz ).

Children are being invited to create and decorate their own fossil to enter in our “Make a Fossil” competition. Instructions on how to make a fossil are available from Children’s Services and entries close Friday 6 May. Prizes for the best and most creative fossils are up for grabs. This activity is inspired by the award-nominated book The Kiwi fossil hunter’s handbook by J S Crampton.

We will be having giveaways and spot prizes for children throughout NZ Post Children's Book Awards festival week, so make sure you bring your kids in to be in to win.

$500 dollars worth of books

In addition to New zealand book month which I mentioned a wee while ago the finalists for this years New Zealand Post Children's book awards have been announced. You can go to http://www.booksellers.co.nz/awards/new-zealand-post-childrens-book-awards if you're interested in learning more about the awards but I'm more interested in the finalists themselves;

Picture books

Baa Baa Smart Sheep Mark & Rowan Sommerset

A Dog Like That! Janene Cooper & Evie Kemp

Hill & Hole Kyle Mewburn & Vasanti Unka

Marmaduke Duck and the Marmalade Jam Juliette MacIver & Sarah Davis

The Moon & Farmer McPhee Margaret Mahy & David Elliot

Non-fiction

The Kiwi Fossil Hunter's Handbook James Crampton & Marianna Terezow

The life cycle of the Pukeko Betty Brownlie

Sensational Survivors Sandra Morris

Who's Cooking Tonight? Claire Gourley & Glenda Gourley

Zero Hour: The Anzacs on the Western Front Leon Davidson

Junior fiction

Finnigan & the Pirates Sherryl Jordan

The Haystack Jack Lasenby

Hollie Chips Anna Gowan

Shadow of the Boyd Diana Menefy

Tussock Elizabeth Pulford

Young Adult

Ebony Hill Anna Mackenzie

Fierce September Fleur Beale

Guardian of the Dead Karen Healey

The Limping Man Maurice Gee

Smiling Jack Ken Catran

Some of the ones that catch my attention are Baa Baa Smart Sheep, a wonderfully irreverent story in the style of The Mole who knew it wasn't any of his business and The Moon & Farmer McPhee for those of a more contemplative mind. I can't let the opportunity go by to recommend Maurice Gee's The Limping Man. It's the last book in a great trilogy and Gee has got to be my favourite NZ author. Feel free to let me know who you think would win and when winners are drawn I'll let you all know if the majority of people in our library agree with the judges.

If you want to make a more formal vote there is a children's choice award where you can get in on the action. If you vote for the children's choice award you go into the draw to win $500 dollars of book tokens for yourself and another $500 for your school (voters must be of school age). So come into the library and grab a voting form. They're free post so it will cost you nothing and could win you $500 dollars worth of books. Voting closes 5pm on the 29^th of April.