Book Quiz: World Famous Beyond NZ


Welcome back to another Sapling quiz! Today, we’re testing your knowledge of New Zealanders who have picked up international prizes for their work in the children’s publishing space. Give it a go!

Test yourself, share with a friend, and let us know on Facebook or Twitter how you do!

1. In 2006, Margaret Mahy won what is widely considered the highest international recognition given to a children’s book author or illustrator. But which famous fairy tale writer is it named for?

A. Charles Perrault

B. Wilhelm Grimm

C. Hans Christian Andersen

D. Andrew Lang

2. Which Bren MacDibble book won both the CBCA Book of the Year, Younger Readers and the NSW Premier’s Literary Award, Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature (as well as the NZCYA Awards Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction)?

A. Across the Risen Sea

B. How to Bee

C. The Dog Runner

D. Trick question, it’s In the Dark Spaces, which she wrote as Cally Black.

3. Which author had their dreamy YA novel chosen as a White Raven by the International Youth Library in 2006? (once you’ve finished the quiz, here are a bunch of other Aotearoa White Raven winners!)

A. Elizabeth Knox

B. Tessa Duder

C. Mandy Hager

D. Brian Faulkner

4. Which NZ illustrator was shortlisted for the prestigious AOI World Illustration Awards in 2019?

A. Toby Morris

B. Minky Stapleton

C. Lael Chisholm

D. Sarah Wilkins

5. Alongside names like Markus Zusak, Suzanne Collins and the Johns Green, Boyne and Marsden, a New Zealander has won the Buxtehude Bull, a prize for the best children’s or young adults’ book publishing in German (natively written or translated). Who do you reckon it was?

A. David Hill

B. Patricia Grace

C. Jack Lasenby

D. Sherryl Jordan

6. Margaret Mahy is (to-date) Aotearoa’s most internationally decorated children’s author. She won the UK’s Carnegie Medal twice – but what were the winning titles?

A. The Lion in the Meadow and The Witch in the Cherry Tree

B. A Villain’s Night Out and The Five Sisters

C. The Changeover and The Haunting

D. 24 Hours and The Boy With Two Shadows

7. Who wrote two water-y books in 1980s that both won Ethel Turner prizes in the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards?

A. Gaelyn Gordon

B. Pamela Allen

C. William Taylor

D. Joanna Orwin

8. Which New Zealand graphic novel artist won the 2018 Eisner Award for Best Publication for Kids (ages 9–12)?

A. Kay O’Neill

B. Michel Mulipola

C. Craig Phillips

D. Jonathan King


Answers

1. C. Hans Christian Andersen

2. B. How to Bee

3. A. Elizabeth Knox (for Dreamhunter)

4. D. Sarah Wilkins

5. D. Sherryl Jordan

6. C. The Changeover and The Haunting

7. B. Pamela Allen (for Who Sank the Boat? and Mr Archimedes’ Bath)

8. A. Kay O’Neill