The Year We Escaped
by Suzanne Leal (HarperCollines, $19.99)
Another war story, for slightly younger readers, from the Australian author of the highly acclaimed Running with Ivan. Jewish kids Lucien and Paul from Paris, and Klara and Rachel from Germany, are removed to a little-known French detention camp near the Spanish border. But there are good people here, too. In this region a cluster of communities sheltered children separated from their parents. One guesthouse, still in existence, hosted and protected 22 Jewish children throughout the war.
It’s A Bit More Complicated Than That
by Hannah Marshall (Allen & Unwin, $24.99)
Best unpublished authors don’t come much younger than this Wellington MA student, who at 21 already has a slew of writing awards to her name. The “more complicated than that” reason for the abrupt interruption to Giselle (Zelle) and Callum’s relationship three years previously is slowly revealed as the pair reconnect following Zelle’s return to her one-horse home town of (Mis)Takesville, somewhere near Wānaka, following a disastrous alcohol poisoning event in the capital’s Courtenay Place. Often very droll, with more than a passing nod to the popular TV series A Remarkable Place To Die, this, too, would make good television – though Zelle’s favourite phrase, “fuck me sideways”, might not make the cut.
Golden
by Jade Timms (Text, $26)
A tragic accident also lies at the core of this first novel by a new YA voice. Shortlisted for the now defunct Text Prize for unpublished authors, the NSW-resident Timms nails the whole summer coastal vibe, centring in this case around an annual Mud Run. Its occasionally golden web of relationships is fairly convoluted, with a wider cast of characters made more complex by putting twins at the heart of the story. Unusually, parents – both present and absent – are much more part of this story than most YA fiction.
Dreamslinger
by Graci Kim (Penguin, $24)
This highly enjoyable book from a new series by New York Times-bestselling Korean-New Zealand author Kim, a Kiwi diplomat for 10 years, features 14-year-old Aria, born with a genetic mutation that transports her to a magical realm while she sleeps. In Dreamslinger, which follows on from Kim’s Gifted Clans trilogy, Aria has learnt to control her powers by keeping her emotions on a tight rein. The Kingdom of Royal Hanguk, situated on an island in Seoul, announces that its slinger trials will be open to teens from all over the world. Aria, who is also on a secret assignment, discovers more about her abilities and past. She finds a communities of friends and must make choices about her loyalties.
Little Bones
by Sandy Bigna (UQP, $19.99)
So utterly charming and devastating is this verse novel for intermediate readers that I cried reading it. It is about a child who unintentionally resurrects the skeleton of a dead bird then can’t find a spell to reverse the magic. There’s a new friend called Tenny (pronoun they), and at the heart of the story the loss of a brother. There’s so much here about love, loss and the things adults need to do to survive, and how friendship can save us all.
The Lost Saint
by Rachael Craw (A&U, $29.99)
It’s a clever way to keep a New Zealand connection while digging deep into European history. Award-winning Nelson writer Rachael Craw’s international school teens, including Kiwi diplomats’ daughter Ana, are heading off on an end-of-school field trip to a region in Germany that’s seen centuries of change. The author of the Spark trilogy and The Rift has experience of Christchurch’s red zones that lends authenticity to this rite-of-passage time-slip story. The first book in a series, it sets up her 21st-century students in a scenario where they’re at their most uninhibited – and most vulnerable. School’s out, hormones are hot, it’s high summer and they’re in search of a 14th-century mystic and healer, Saint Ansel. A heady, sometimes brutal mix of fantasy, romance, history and religion.
Song of a Blackbird
by Maria van Lieshout (A&U, $29.99)
Another war, another foreign country and a convincing way of linking the past to the present. Dutch teen Annick’s oma is ill but tests reveal no biological link to the family that raised her during the war. Her story is told by a blackbird, which becomes a visual as well as poetic link between the grandmother’s past and Annick’s present in 2011. They’re also linked by a set of prints of key buildings in Amsterdam, made by a young resistance counterfeiter taking time out from subversive printing of banknotes and food coupons.
A mindboggling amount of research (documented in end notes) is packed into the deceptively simple text, which tells the story of an elaborate plot to rescue Jewish children from under the noses of the Gestapo. And there’s no message more relevant for our times than that of the politician who promises to restore a country’s pride and economy.
The NZ Book Awards for Children and YA shortlists
The Bookhub Picture Book
Beddy Bye Time in the Kōwhai Tree by Juliette MacIver, Lily Uivel (Scholastic)
Mataali’i by Dahlia Malaeulu, Darcy Solia, Liz Tui Morris (Mila’s Books)
Ten Nosey Weka by Kate Preece, Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Bateman)
Titiro: Look by Gavin Bishop (Gecko)
You Can’t Pat a Fish by Ruth Paul (Walker)
Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Junior Fiction
Brown Bird by Jane Arthur (Penguin)Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat by Li Chen (Penguin)
The Apprentice Witnesser by Bren MacDibble (Allen & Unwin)
The Raven’s Eye Runaways by Claire Mabey (A&U)
Violet and the Velvets: The Case of the Missing Stuff by Rachael King, Phoebe Morris (A&U)
Young Adult Fiction Award
Bear by Kiri Lightfoot, Pippa Keel Situ (A&U)
Gracehopper by Mandy Hager (One Tree House)
Migration by Steph Matuku (Huia)
The Mess of Our Lives by Mary-anne Scott (One Tree House)
The Paradise Generation by Sanna Thompson (umop apisdn press)
Elsie Locke Award
Black Magic by David Riley, Munro Te Whata (Reading Warrior)
Dear Moko: Māori Wisdom for our Young Ones by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin)
Ruru: Night Hunter by Katie Furze, Ned Barraud (Scholastic)
The Treaty of Waitangi by Ross Calman (Oratia)
Tui Pea Luva by Mele Tonga Grant, Luca Walton (Mila’s Books)
Russell Clark Award for Illustration
Alice and the Strange Bird by Isaac du Toit (Isaac du Toit)
Hineraukatauri me Te Ara Pūoro by Rehua Wilson, Elizabeth Gray (Huia)
Poem For Ataahua by Sarah Wilkins, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell (Reading Warrior)
Sad Sushi by Anna Aldridge (Anna Aldridge)
You Can’t Pat a Fish by Ruth Paul (Walker)
Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Awards
A Ariā me te Atua o te Kūmara by Witi Ihimaera, Isobel Joy Te Aho-White, (Penguin)
Hineraukatauri me Te Ara Pūoro by Elizabeth Gray, Rehua Wilson (Huia)
Ka mātoro a Whetū rāua ko Kohu i Rotorua by Hayley Elliott-Kernot (Round Door Design)
Ko ngā Whetū Kai o Matariki: Tupuānuku rāua ko Tupuārangi by Miriama Kamo, Zak Waipara (Scholastic)
Ngā Kupenga a Nanny Rina by Qiane Matata-Sipu,
Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Penguin)
NZSA Best First Book
Brave Kāhu and the Pōrangi Magpie by Shelley Burne-Field (A&U)
Play Wild: Nature Craft Projects for Tamariki by Rachel Clare (Bateman)
The Raven’s Eye Runaways by Claire Mabey (A&U)
The Witch of Maketu and the Bleating Lambs by Anika Moa, Rebecca ter Borg (Penguin)
The Writing Desk by Di Morris (Bateman)
