CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus

New Zealand! Having just noted the New Zealand Post winners and the LIANZA finalists, yet another awards short list has been announced in The Land of the Long White Cloud.

This time it’s the Montana Book Awards, which contain a Readers’ Choice component. There is no specific YA award but Kate De Goldi’s The 10PM Question has made the short list of the Fiction category; it’s a title you will have noticed once or twice before. Bernard Beckett also makes an appearance, this time with a politically themed novel.

Winners will be announced on 27 July.

The finalists in the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) have been announced. Fiction and illustration awards:

Esther Glen Award (Fiction)

• Juno of Taris by Fleur Beale
• Old Drumble by Jack Lasenby (Walker Books Australia)
• The Tomorrow Code by Brian Falkner
• The 10pm Question by Kate De Goldi
• Violence 101 by Denis Wright

Russell Clark Award (Illustration)

• Every Second Friday by Kiri Lightfoot, Illustrated by Ben Galbraith
• Herbert by Robyn Belton
• My Favourite Places by Martin Bailey
• Oliver Goes Exploring by Margaret Beames, Illustrated by Sue Hitchcock
• Roadworks by Sally Sutton, Illustrated by Brian Lovelock

All categories here.

The winners will be announced in Auckland on 10 August.

Kate De Goldi has taken out the New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award for The 10PM Question. The awards were announced in Auckland a few hours ago. Here are some Teacher’s Notes if you are interested in following up this novel, described by some as an instant classic. Love that cover!

Among the winners is Roadworks (Sally Sutton and Brian Lovelock). Check out the creative book promotion for this title that we blogged about earlier today on our sister site, Primary Focus.

The shortlisted titles for the 2009 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Award were announced this week.

In the Young Adult category, the following are in contention:

• Fleur Beale – Juno of Taris
• Kate de Goldi – The 10pm Question
• Brian Falkner – The Tomorrow Code
• Vincent Ford – Chronicles of Stone 1 : Scorched Bone
• Maurice Gee – Gool

The finalists in all categories can be found here.

Winners will be announced in Auckland on 20 May.

Library week in New Zealand was launched last night with the announcement of the winners of the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) Children’s Book Awards.

Winner of the Russell Clark Award for ‘a distinguished contribution to illustrated children’s books’ was Gavin Bishop for his quirky title Rats!

New Zealand’s longest running book prize is the Esther Glen Award, established in 1944. Mandy Hager has won it this year for her YA novel Smashed, which will be reviewed in Fiction Focus shortly. This award went to Bernard Beckett last year for his remarkable novel Genesis.

Having taken out the New Zealand Post YA Book Award in recent weeks with Salt, Maurice Gee is again in the running for a major New Zealand prize – the 2008 Esther Glen Award from LIANZA.

Other finalists for this award, won last year by Bernard Beckett’s Genesis, are:

• Losing It, by Sandy McKay
• Smashed, by Mandy Hager
• The Sea-Wreck Stranger, by Anna Mackenzie
• The Dumpster Saga, by Craig Harrison
• Time of the Eagle, by Sherryl Jordan

The winner will be announced in Wellington on August 18.

The finalists have been announced for New Zealand’s premier awards – The New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

Fiction Focus has reviewed all finalists in the Young Adult section:

• Salt, by Maurice Gee
• The sea-wreck stranger, by Anna Mackenzie
• Tomorrow, all will be beautiful, by Brigid Lowry (also a Notable Book in the CBCA Awards)
• The transformation of Minna Hargreaves, by Fleur Beale
• Zillah, by Penelope Todd (Issue 1, 2008)

The awards ceremony will be held in Wellington on 21 May.