School-age kids from schools and communities around the country are voting now for their favourite New Zealand children's book in the celebrated Children's Choice Award organised in conjunction with the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children & Young Adults. Tens of thousands of voting cards have been distributed to schools, libraries, bookshops and selected PostShops nationwide and the votes are beginning to come in. School-age kids from schools and communities around the country are voting now for their favourite New Zealand children's book in the celebrated Children's Choice Award organised in conjunction with the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children & Young Adults. Tens of thousands of voting cards have been distributed to schools, libraries, bookshops and selected PostShops nationwide and the votes are beginning to come in.Children are encouraged to read and make their selection from the 20 finalist books in this year's awards. They will be weighing up some of this country's best contemporary writers along with some newcomers to the scene of children's book writing. Will last year's winners of the Children's Choice Award, writer Jennifer Beck and illustrator Lindy Fisher - finalists again this year with their picture book, A Present from the Past - take the votes again? Or will the votes go to debut writer Sharon Holt for her book It's True! You Can Make Your Own Jokes? Whoever the winner might be, we won't know until after the voting closes at 5pm on Tuesday 1 May 2007. The full list of finalists is available online at www.nzpostbookawards.co.nz and voting is also available online at the same website.

The Children's Choice Award was introduced in 1997 as a way of giving school-aged children nationwide the opportunity to have a say in this country's most prestigious children's book awards. Over the eleven years since its inception, the number of votes placed has grown to more than 30,000. Past winners have included Gaelyn Gordon, Bob Kerr and much-loved writer and illustrator, Lynley Dodd. This award is now considered by children's authors to be one of the highest accolades they can receive in New Zealand for their writing.

The winner of the Children's Choice Award will be announced at the New Zealand Post Book Awards ceremony at Parliament on Wednesday 16 May 2007. They will receive $1000, but they're not the only one to benefit. Once the votes are tallied, one voting card or online vote is randomly pulled 'from the hat'. The child whose name appears on this vote will instantly win $1000 worth of Booksellers Tokens for their school library.

While the votes are being counted many of the New Zealand Post Book Award finalists take to the road from Monday 7 May, participating in a nationwide festival of children's books and literature. They will be visiting schools and libraries around the country in the lead up to the awards ceremony on Wednesday 16 May. A full schedule of events will be available on www.nzpostbookawards.co.nz from mid-April.

New Zealand Post has been a steadfast sponsor of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults since 1997. Its partnership has seen the awards flourish, growing from strength to strength over the last decade. New Zealand Post's support of these awards reflects their deep commitment to promoting literacy and literature throughout the country. Working closely with Booksellers New Zealand, New Zealand Post and other dedicated segments of the community actively encourage New Zealand children to read and enjoy books. For those with limited access to new works, New Zealand Post also purchases and distributes books by the New Zealand Post Book Awards finalists by supporting the Books in Homes programme each year.

The New Zealand Post Book Awards are also supported by Creative New Zealand and Book Tokens (NZ) Ltd and are administered by Booksellers New Zealand.

Image: Previous winner of the Children's Choice Award, Lynley Dodd.