New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults

Buy your tickets now to celebrate the best books for young New Zealand readers, and applaud the winners, at an exuberant awards ceremony in the atmospheric Te Marae at Te Papa on Wednesday 7 August.

The 41 finalists include many of the country’s finest children’s writers, illustrators and translators, whose talent will be acknowledged on the night by publishers, politicians, booksellers and supporters of the children’s literature community. Members of the public are welcome to purchase tickets too.

Winners in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults will be announced in six categories: Picture Book, Junior Fiction (the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen award), Young Adult Fiction, Non-Fiction, Illustration (the Russell Clark Award) and Te Reo Māori (the Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award).

All category winners will compete to be named the night’s supreme winner of the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year. The judges will also present a Best First Book award to a previously unpublished author or illustrator from the shortlist of five titles.

All guests with tickets are also invited to join the post-ceremony reception in the adjoining Signs of a Nation, with refreshments from 8.15pm to 9.30pm. Prizes will be awarded there for outfits that best represent the awards’ 2019 neon candy theme.

Buy your ticket today, and come dressed in your brightest to join in this unique celebration of the very best of children’s literature