Wednesday 7th August 2019 was a big day for children’s books in Aotearoa as the winners of the annual NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults were announced at a gala event in Wellington. Accordingly, lunchtime saw Unity Books’ and Gecko Press’ regular celebration of all of the nominated books with a panel of publishers from around the country coming together to talk about their favourite reading from their fellow publishers. Our panellists this year were Catherine O’Loughlin (Penguin Random House), Eboni Waitere (Huia Publishers), Mary McCallum (Mākaro Press), Julie Marshall (Gecko Press) and Robbie Burton (Potton & Burton). Our panel proved to have like minds with the award judges, picking out a number of the eventual winners. All were in agreement that all of this years nominees were excellent reads for children, young adults, grown-ups, and industry insiders alike.
Read more about all of the nominated and winning books at the NZ Book Awards website.
All of the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults nominees and winners are available to purchase in-store and online at unitybooksonline.