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A diverse range of themes and styles - but where are the heroines?
An impressive variety of books make up the finalists of this year’s New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards. And Chief Judge Bernard Beckett says it suggests we have a group of New Zealand writers who are confident enough to pursue their own interests.
In all, 19 books have been selected as finalists across four categories: best picture book, junior fiction, young adult and non-fiction.. The winners from each category will be announced in June.
See list of finalists at the Booksellers NZ website...
War was a dominant theme among this year’s entries - a year before the centenary of the start of the First World War.
Bernard said: “As judges, we were pleased to see coverage given to conflicts less likely to be known to young readers such as The Boer War or the conflict in Malaysia. Prominence was also given to the bravery of those who resisted armed conflict, both in World War One and at Parihaka – that strikes us as tremendously important.”
The finalists were chosen from hundreds of entries read by the panel of three judges - children’s literature expert and author Eirlys Hunter, presenter of Radio New Zealand’s Arts on Sunday programme, Lynn Freeman and author Bernard Beckett.
The judges said it was a privilege to read and assess New Zealand’s best books for children and young adults in 2012.
However, the judges raised concerns over the many entries that had great potential but didn’t meet the standard required to become a finalist.
“A large number of books were crying out for a more considered editing or design process: books with clear potential that needed only another careful draft; delightful children’s stories let down by the illustrations or design layout. To see such possibilities unrealised was a clear frustration for us.”
“We were also surprised to see how few strong female characters there were in these pages. Young girls are in danger of seeing themselves once again as serving only decorative roles in stories, and we hope this is more a blip than the beginning of a retrograde trend.”
School-aged children and young adults can now vote for their favourite books from among the finalists for the coveted Children’s Choice Award - this option will be available later today.
[Image & news release via Booksellers NZ]
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