The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults are administered by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust. In 2016, the Awards merged with the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) Awards.
All awards carry prize money of $7,500. In addition, the judges may decide to award a best first book prize of $2,000 to a previously unpublished author or illustrator. The overall prize, the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award, carries a prize of $7,500. The awards are judged by a panel of five. Te Kura Pounamu Award is judged by Te Ropu Whakahau. The 2018 shortlist will be announced on 6 June 2018, and the winners will be announced on 8 August.
2018 winners
Margaret Mahy Book of the Year
Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story written and illustrated by Gavin Bishop, published by Puffin, Penguin Random House
I am Jellyfish written and illustrated by Ruth Paul, published by Puffin, Penguin Random House
Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction
How to bee written by Bren MacDibble, published by A&U Children, Allen & Unwin
Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction
Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story written and illustrated by Gavin Bishop, published by Puffin, Penguin Random House
Copyright Licensing NZ Award for Young Adult Fiction
In the dark spaces written by Cally Black, published by Hardie Grant Egmont
Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for Te Reo Māori
Tu Meke Tūī! written by Malcolm Clarke, translated by Evelyn Tobin, and illustrated by Hayley King (FLOX), published by Little Love, Mary Egan Publishing
Russell Clark Award for Illustration
Giants, Trolls, Witches, Beasts illustrated and written by Craig Phillips, published by A&U Children, Allen & Unwin
My New Zealand Story: Dawn Raid written by Pauline (Vaeluaga) Smith, published by Scholastic New Zealand
- Read the judges' comments
- View the titles listed in the 2018 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults shortlist.
2017 winners
Margaret Mahy Book of the Year
Snark illustrated and written by David Elliot (after Lewis Carroll), published by Otago University Press (winner of the Russell Clark Award for Illustration)
Picture Book Award
That's Not a Hippopotamus!/ Juliette MacIver, illustrated by Sarah Davis, published by Gecko Press
Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction
My New Zealand Story: Bastion Point Tania Roxborogh, Scholastic NZ
Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction
Jack and Charlie: Boys of the Bush Josh James Marcotte and Jack Marcotte, Penguin Random House (Puffin)
Copyright Licensing NZ Award for Young Adult Fiction
The Severed Land Maurice Gee, Penguin Random House (Penguin)
Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for Te Reo Māori
Te Kaihanga Māpere Sacha Cotter, illustrated by Josh Morgan, translated by Kawata Teepa, published by Huia Publishers
Russell Clark Award for Illustration
Snark illustrated and written by David Elliot (after Lewis Carroll), published by Otago University Press
Best First Book Award
The Discombobulated Life of Summer Rain Julie Lamb, Makaro Press (Submarine)
2016 winners
- Margaret Mahy Book of the Year
- Picture Book
- Junior Fiction (Esther Glen Award)
- Non-Fiction (Elsie Locke Award)
- Young Adult Fiction
- Te Reo Māori (Te Kura Pounamu Award)
- Illustration (Russell Clark Award)
- Children’s Choice
2015 awards
- Margaret Mahy Book of the Year (2015)
- Best First Book (2015)
Until 2014 the awards were sponsored by NZ Post. Prior to 1997, the awards were known as the AIM Children’s Book Awards.
See more kids' literary prize winners.
Christchurch City Libraries lists literary prize winners and links to catalogue searches, but we may not hold copies of all titles mentioned.
