Poetry Box celebrates the NZCYA Book Awards 2023

Posted: Monday Aug 21, 2023

What a glorious occasion the New Zealand Children and Young Adult Book Awards were this year. They were held at Pipitea Marae, Wellington. Terrific host Jase Te Patu, astute judges' comments, sublime shortlist, superlative winners. I am so grateful the event was live streamed. As usual I felt for everyone who missed out, but good books have lives that endure - especially in the hearts of dedicated readers.

Despite my blogs going to sleep for a good part of 2022 during my bone marrow transplant, and my slow-as-a-snail-pace this year, I managed to review some of the books. Sadly I missed a truckload, including the Supreme Winner, Mat Tait's Te Wehenga:The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku. It is an extraordinary book, a deserved winner, and I am so delighted to share how I feel about the book today.

Children's books are vital in the lives of children, they can hook a child into reading and writing, to engage with the world in fresh ways, with ideas and feelings, things familiar and things not, with facts and fiction, who we are, who we were and who we might be.

I acknowledge the terrific work of our publishers, booksellers, librarians, reviewers, bloggers, festival organisers, award committees, authors .... and above all readers! We are thriving and engaged communities working together for the benefit of children. And some of us ... well some us, we will never stop reading and loving and maybe even writing children's books, no matter how old we grow!

A children's book toast to everyone!

NZCYA page

You can watch the award ceremony here

The winners: Poetry Box celebrates the NZCYA Book Awards 2023 | Poetry Box (wordpress.com)