NZCYA

NZCYA by number: some figures on this year’s shortlist

The children’s book industry in New Zealand may be collegial and friendly but publishers around the country were still sure to have done some furtive tallying of nominations when the Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards shortlists were announced last…

NZCYA 2025: The Finalists

The finalists for this year’s New Zealand Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards were announced at 6am this morning. Here are our reactions … The BookHub Picture Book Award Beddy Bye Time in the Kōwhai Tree, by Juliette MacIver, illustrated…

Book People: Joy Sellen, Ace Administrator

In the first of an occasional series on the people ‘behind the scenes’ of the Aotearoa children’s lit scene, Jane Arthur speaks with Joy Sellen. Joy is the administrator of the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and…

Interview: Steve Mushin on Ultrawild

Steve Mushin with his book, Ultrawild, was the winner of the best children’s non-fiction book at the NZCYA Awards in August. Ultrawild is an entertaining thought experiment around the concept of rewilding to save the planet. Linda Jane Keegan reviewed…

Interview: Stacy Gregg on Nine Girls

2024 judge of the NZCYA awards Belinda Whyte in conversation with Margaret Mahy Award winner Stacy Gregg. I’ll be honest with you, I had never read a Stacy Gregg novel before reading Nine Girls for the judging of the 2024…

Books Alive: a scene report from Books Alive 2024

Annelies Judson explores the Wellington edition of Books Alive, the schools programme that accompanies the NZCYA awards. It’s a beautiful morning in the capital and lines of children, like wriggling eels, are making their way into the National Library. Once…

Interview: Maia Bennett on judging the 2024 NZCYA awards

Convenor of the 2024 NZCYA Book Awards Maia Bennett takes The Sapling behind the scenes on selecting the cream of this year’s crop of books for children and young adults. On Wednesday evening the winners of the children’s and young…

The Winners of the 2024 NZCYA awards are…

Fresh off the ceremony at Pipitea Marae, Wellington, the winners of the 2024 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults are… The Margaret Mahy Book of the Year and the Junior Fiction Award: Nine Girls by Stacy Gregg (Ngāti…