In Aotearoa, New Zealand, Stacy Gregg (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Pūkeko, Ngāti Maru Hauraki) won the overall Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award for young adult fiction at the 2024 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults Nine girls (Penguin).
Gregg also won the Esther Glen Junior Fiction Award for the novel. Maia Bennett, chair of the 2024 jury, said the judges The jury voted unanimously to award the overall prize, choosing “a book that not only embodies the highest standards, but which we believe will make a lasting contribution to Aotearoa’s national children’s and young adult literature and as such deserves to be recognised as the main winner”.
The winners of each category of the 2024 awards, selected from the finalists announced in June, are:
Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award ($8,500)
- Nine girls (Stacy Gregg (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Pūkeko, Ngāti Maru Hauraki), Penguin)
Picture Book Prize ($8,500)
- Paku Manu Ariki Whakatakapōkai (Michaela Keeble, illustration by Tokerau Brown, Gecko)
Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction ($8,500)
- Nine girls (Stacy Gregg (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Pūkeko, Ngāti Maru Hauraki), Penguin)
Prize for Young Adult Literature ($8,500)
- Catch a shooting star (Eileen Merriman, Penguin)
Elsie Locke Award for Nonfiction ($8,500)
- Ultrawild: A bold plan to renaturalize all cities on earth (Steve Mushin, A&U)
Russell Clark Award for Illustration ($8,500)
- Patu: The New Zealand Wars (Illusion by Gavin Bishop (Tainui, Ngāti Awa), Puffin)
Te Kura Pounamu Award for Te Reo Māori ($8,500)
- Nani Jo me ngā Mokopuna Porohīanga (Moira Wairama, illustration by Margaret Tolland, Baggage Books)
Best First Book ($2,500)
- Tsunami (Ned Wenlock, Earth’s End Publishing).
The winners were announced in Wellington on 14 August. For more information visit the awards website.
Category: Awards Local News
