Kate De Goldi has won the 2009 New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award for children and young adults.

The winning novel, The 10PM Question, is a delightful tale of Frankie Parsons and his somewhat eccentric family and friends enchanted the judging panel, just as it captured the hearts of readers throughout the country, who have kept it on the bestseller lists for months.

Kate De Goldi has won the 2009 New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award for children and young adults.

The winning novel, The 10PM Question, is a delightful tale of Frankie Parsons and his somewhat eccentric family and friends enchanted the judging panel, just as it captured the hearts of readers throughout the country, who have kept it on the bestseller lists for months.

New Zealand Post Book Awards judges’ convenor, Bill Nagelkerke says The 10PM Question has a rare quality.

“De Goldi’s winning book invites you to become part of another family, to spend some quality time with its members, become engrossed in the family dynamics to the point that, when it’s time to leave, we very reluctantly shut the door on these new friends because we don’t wish to part from them, because this family has now become our family, too.

“The judges predict, with reasonable confidence, that The 10PM Question will become an enduring classic. One could say in fact there was little to question about our choice of the 2009 New Zealand Post Book of the Year winner.”

The 10PM Question also took the Young Adult Fiction category prize at a gala ceremony held in the Auckland Museum on Wednesday May 20.

The judging panel which also included career-bookseller, Jenni Keestra and children’s writer and reviewer, Rosemary Tisdall, said they thoroughly relished the opportunity to read nearly everything that was published for New Zealand children and young adults in 2008.

‘We applaud the authors, illustrators and their publishers for continuing to strive for stories that stimulate, excite, take risks, inspire and, ultimately, become part of the fabric of a reader’s memory. The importance of an early engagement with books, stories and reading, cannot be underestimated.

‘We recognise stalwart veterans of the art and craft of writing and illustrating and celebrate the emergence of new voices whose words and images will ensure that writing for children and young adults in this country remains in fine shape for the foreseeable future.’

The category winners and the honour award recipient in the 2009 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and
Young Adults are:

Picture Book
Roadworks written by Sally Sutton and illustrated by Brian Lovelock. (Walker Books).

Honour Award
Piggity-Wiggity Jiggity Jig written by Diana Neild and illustrated by Philip Webb. (Scholastic New Zealand).

Non-fiction
Back & Beyond: New Zealand Painting for the Young & Curious by Gregory O’Brien (Auckland University Press).

Junior Fiction
Old Drumble by Jack Lasenby. (HarperCollins Publishers).

Best First Book Award
Violence 101 by Denis Wright.  (Penguin Group New Zealand).

Young Adult Fiction and New Zealand Post Book of the Year
The 10PM Question by Kate De Goldi. (Longacre Press).

Children’s Choice Award
The Were-Nana written by Melinda Szymanik and illustrated by Sarah Nelisiwe Anderson (Scholastic New Zealand).

The Awards

The winner of each category was awarded with $7,500.  The winner of the New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award took home an extra $7,500.  The winner of the Best First Book and the Children’s Choice Award received prize money of $2,000 each.

An honour award was presented in the picture book category this year.  This award is discretionary and is awarded in recognition of particular features in a book.  The honour award recipient received a monetary award of $500.

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