The knack is to captivate both the harried adult reader and the distractible child at the same time, which entails excavating an emotional depth with linguistic precision, while at the same time opening an intellectual portal and ideally striking the funnybone, too. Like Atua by Gavin Bishop (last year’s big winner) and The Changeover by Margaret Mahy and Hairy MacLary by Lynley Dodd. The kind that will be reprinted and re-gifted and re-read for years and years. It’s hard to write a great children’s book. Books editor Claire Mabey offers her thoughts, alongside comments from student readers. Welcome to the authors, illustrators and publishers on the shortlist for this year’s New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
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