Prizewinning Books for Children and Teens
Read about the books we discussed that evening, and also check out below a selection of other books that have won major book awards over the years. And read about the finalists shortlisted for the New Zealand Children and Young Adults books awards for 2023 here and in our article in this issue of NB.
Prizewinning Books
Books discussed at Continued Sense of Wonder June 19, 2019
Goodnight Mister Tom Michelle Magorian
Winner of the 1982 Guardian Children's Fiction Award, the 1982 International Reading Association Award and was commended for the Carnegie Medal.
The House of Sixty Fathers Meindert De Jong
Winner of the 1956 Josette Frank Award.
The House on the Hill Kyle Mewburn
Winner of the 2016 Hell Children's Choice Picture Book Award at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults.
Winner of the 2013 GoodReads Best Memoir and Autobiography. Malala won the 2014 Nobel Prize for Peace.
Julian is a Mermaid Jessica Love
Winner of the 2018 Opera Prima Bologna Children's Book Fair, the Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award at the 2019 Stonewall Book Awards and the 2019 Klaus Flugge Prize. In 2018, Love was awarded the Silver Medal from the Society of Illustrators.
Kiss! Kiss! Yuck! Yuck! Kyle Mewburn
Winner of the 2007 Best Picture Book & Children's Choice Awards at the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards.
The Little House Virginia Lee Burton
Winner of the 1943 Randolph Caldecott Medal.
The Little Kiwi's Matariki Nikki Slade-Robinson
Winner of the 2016 Picture Book Award at New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults.
Over Sea, Under Stone Susan Cooper
In 2012, Cooper won the lifetime Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association, recognising her contribution to writing for teens. The sequels, The Dark Is Rising won a 1974 Newbery Honor and The Grey King won the 1976 Newbery Medal.
Winner of the 2008 Young Adult Fiction Award at the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards.
This is Not My Hat Jon Klassen
Winner the 2013 Caldecott Medal.
Prizewinning Picture Books: New Zealand
Below is a selection of some prizewinning New Zealand picture books.
Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature books are marked with an asterix ( * ).
The Bantam and the Soldier Jennifer Beck, illustrated by Robyn Belton*
Winner of the 1997 Book of the Year and Best Picture Book at the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.
It is wartime in Europe. A young soldier rescues and brings back to health a little bantam, and in the midst of the fighting and devastation an unusual friendship is formed.
Winner of the 2014 Margaret Mahy Book of the Year and Picture Book Award at the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.
When the words in a tedious tome decide that life is just too dull, they escape. The world will never be the same again. The words jump into street signs, they leap onto shop signs, they decorate pathways and roadways and ponds. But one day they go too far.
Winner of the 2018 Picture Book Award at the New Zealand Book Awards For Children and Young Adults.
Jellyfish is a thoroughly original hero, a fragile but tenacious aquatic creature, who wafts and swirls through the ocean currents, encountering a diverse cast of characters, from the steely swordfish and unusual luminous fish to a splendidly pink giant squid.
The Moon and Farmer McPhee Margaret Mahy, illustrated by David Elliot*
Winner of the 2011 Book of the Year and Best Picture Book at the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.
The cows and sheep think Farmer McPhee should stop frowning and start frisking. But Farmer McPhee just wants to get some sleep.
Old Huhu Kyle Mewburn, illustrated by Rachel Driscoll
Winner of the 2010 Book of the Year and the Picture Book Award at the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.
Little Hu-Hu-Tu loved Old Hu-Hu very much. But now all that's left is an empty shell. Where did Old Hu-Hu get to? Little Hu-Hu-Tu's search for answers leads to a surprising discovery. A moving and beautifully illustrated story about losing someone dear.
Pigtails the Pirate David Elliot*
Winner of the 2003 Best Picture Book at the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.
Jess's father was lost at sea. She sets sail in her little boat to find him. Drawn to the sound of her father's favourite tune, she and her boat are snatched from the sea by the scavenging giant Pigtails the Pirate.
Prizewinning Novels for Children and Young Adults: New Zealand
Below is a selection of some prizewinning New Zealand children's and young adult fiction.
Bastion Point: 507 Days on Takaparawha: Auckland, 1977-78 Tania Roxborogh*
Winner of the 2017 Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
The fictional diary of Erica Tito, Auckland, 1977-78, covering the events of the occupation at Bastion Point/Takaparawha. Look for others in the My New Zealand Story series. Written by former Dunedinite Tania Roxborogh.
Winner of the 1984 Carnegie Medal.
When her baby brother seems to become possessed by an evil spirit, fourteen-year-old Laura seeks the help of the strangely compelling older boy at school who she is convinced has supernatural powers. Mahy also won the 1982 Carnegie Medal for The Haunting.
A Necklace of Souls R. L. Stedman*
Winner of the 2014 Best First Book at the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.
In a hidden kingdom a mysterious Guardian protects her people with the help of a magical necklace. But evil forces are also seeking the power of the necklace, and as the Guardian grows weaker these forces threaten to destroy the kingdom.
Winner of the 2015 Children’s Choice Young Adult Fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
In the dark of night, when most teenagers are tucked up in bed, Viola has the run of her parents' farm and the surrounding forest. She is used to seeing hidden things through her night-vision goggles, but one night she sees something that could get her into a whole lot of trouble.
Winner of 2002 Junior Fiction Award at the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.
Colin wants to save the world. And the rubbish bin seems a good place to start.
Snark: Being a True History of the Expedition That Discovered the Snark and the Jabberwock... and its Tragic Aftermath David Elliot*
Winner of the 2017 Margaret Mahy Book of the Year and the Russell Clark Award for Illustration at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
What exactly did happen to the Snark expedition? What befell the Boots in the Tulgey Wood? Who fell foul of the Jabberwock? And, finally, the big question: what precisely is a Snark?
Prizewinning Picture Books: International
Awards for illustration in children's books:
In the United Kingdom the Kate Greenaway Medal has been awarded since 1955. In the United States the Randolph Caldecott Medal has been awarded since 1938.
The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend Dan Santat
Winner of the 2015 Caldecott Medal.
An imaginary friend waits a long time to be imagined by a child and given a special name, and finally does the unimaginable; he sets out on a quest to find his perfect match in the real world.
Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear? Martin Waddell, illustrated by Barbara Firth
Winner of the 1988 Kate Greenaway Medal.
Little Bear can't sleep. He is frightened of the dark, even with the biggest lantern of them all at his bedside. But Big Bear finds an ingenious way to reassure him. So Big Bear takes him out and shows him the moon and the stars.
Winner of the 1977 Kate Greenaway Medal.
Dogger shows the distress the loss of a toy causes a child, as well as the reality of family life. Filled with humour this is a book for young readers to tackle by themselves, as well as a delight to read aloud.
Hello Lighthouse Sophie Blackall
Winner of the 2019 Caldecott Medal.
Explores the life of one lighthouse as it beams its message out to sea through shifting seasons, changeable weather, and the tenure of its final keeper.
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat Simms Taback
Winner of the 2000 Caldecott Medal.
A very old overcoat is recycled numerous times into a variety of garments. Includes music for the song: I had a little overcoat.
There is a Tribe of Kids Lane Smith
Winner of the 2017 CILIP Greenaway Medal.
A subtle story of a lonely child searching for a place in the world. The reader accompanies the child on a journey through different habitats, meeting different groups of animals. A measured change is signalled by moving from past to present tense and from loneliness to togetherness.
Prizewinning Novels: International
The Carnegie Medal literary award has been awarded for a work of fiction in Britain since 1936 and the John Newbery Medal has been awarded in the United States since 1922, celebrating its 100th birthday last year.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon Kelly Barnhill
Winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal.
Every year the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch Xan. One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the child with extraordinary magic. So she decides to raise this girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. As Luna's thirteenth birthday approaches, her magic begins to emerge, with dangerous and thrilling consequences.
The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell
Winner of the 2010 Cilip Carnegie Medal, the 2009 Newbery Medal, the 2009 Booktrust Teenage Book Prize, the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and shortlisted for the 2010 Kate Greenaway Award for its illustrations.
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.
Hello Universe Erin Entrada Kelly
Winner of the 2018 Newbery Medal.
The lives of four misfits are intertwined when a bully's prank lands shy Virgil at the bottom of a well and Valencia, Kaori, and Gen band together in an epic quest to find and rescue him.
A Monster Calls Patrick Ness and illustrated by Jim Kay
Winner of the 2012 Carnegie Medal and the 2012 Greenaway Medal for its illustration.
The monster shows up after midnight. It isn't the one Conor has been expecting; the one from his nightmare. This new monster is ancient, and wild, and it wants something just as dangerous from Conor: the truth. Breathtaking, a perfect marriage of text and picture, in which the illustrations capture meaning and emotion completely.
The Night Diary Veera Hiranandani
Shy twelve-year-old Nisha, forced to flee her home with her Hindu family during the 1947 partition of India, tries to find her voice and make sense of the world falling apart around her by writing to her deceased Muslim mother in the pages of her diary.
The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler Gene Kemp
Winner of the 1977 Carnegie Medal.
Tyke Tiler is very fond of jokes, that's why there are so many in this story. Tyke is also fond of Danny Price, who is not too bright and depends a lot on his friend. Together Tyke and Danny are double trouble.
Winner of the 1972 Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize.
Set in England's Downs, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of rabbits on their flight from the certain destruction of their home, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society.
Children’s Literature Research Collection
Books in this collection tell the stories behind many of these prizewinning books written and illustrated for young people as well as the stories of the people the awards are named after. Anyone can borrow from this collection; your "research" can be for pleasure.
Reading the Art in Caldecott Award Books: A Guide to the Illustrations Heidi K. Hammond and Gail D. Nordstrom
Use this book in conjunction with Caldecott Medal award-winning books. It includes ready-to-use information to share with children, while helping to build confidence in your ability to talk about art in all picture books.
Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing Leonard Marcus
Written for the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal. An utterly unique biography of the remarkable artist that the award honours: Randolph Caldecott, the father of the modern picture book. Includes never-before-published drawings by Caldecott himself.
A Caldecott Celebration: Six Artists and Their Paths to the Caldecott Medal Leonard Marcus
Profiles six Caldecott award-winning books and their authors, including Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey, Cinderella, or, The Little Glass Slipper illustrated by Marcia Brown, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig, Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg, and Tuesday by David Wiesner.
In the Realms of Gold: The Story of the Carnegie Medal Keith Barker
Published to honour the anniversary of the Carnegie Medal, which was introduced in 1936. Traces the history of the medal, and includes a complete list of Carnegie Medal-winning books.
The Newbery and Caldecott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Honor books Association for Library Service to Children. 2003 edition
A helpful annotated guide to the winning books. For more recent prizewinning books check out the websites of each award, or the Wikipedia page for each book.
John Newbery and His Books: Trade and Plumb-cake for Ever, Huzza! John Rowe Townsend
This book covers Newbery's work and achievements as a publisher and bookseller.