An author who visited Wanganui last week has scooped the top award at a prestigious national competition.
Ted Dawe's book Into The River won the young adult fiction section of the 2013 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, as well as the NZ Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year, at an awards ceremony in Christchurch last night.
A winner at the awards in 2004 and finalist in 2007, Dawe was in Wanganui on Thursday as part of a national "whirlwind tour" by finalists in this year's competition.
He held a question and answer session at the Wanganui District Library about his work, followed by a book signing.
The book is a coming of age novel which follows its protagonist from childhood in small town rural New Zealand to an elite Auckland boarding school.
Children's librarian Sam Biggs said he was a fan of the writer's work having previously read Thunder Road, Dawe's first book published in 2004. He said he was already halfway through Into The River which is a prequel to the older book.
"It's really interesting and quite easy to get invested in - they're just so effortless to read."
He said he got to show Dawe around Wanganui before the signing, taking him up Durie Hill Tower, out to Castlecliff Beach and to meet students at Wanganui City College.
"He's a really nice guy and it was great to meet him," Mr Biggs said.
Bernard Beckett, chief judge for the competition, said Into the River was the book that stood out for the judging panel.
He said traditionally books aimed at the top end of the young adult market (ages 15+) had not been a strength in New Zealand, with most books aimed nearer the junior fiction boundary.
"We were delighted to see a book that both engaged and respected older readers, with material as subtle as it is honest and provocative."