Wellington Children’s Book Association
Chair’s report 2013-2014
AGM held on 27 July 2014 at Mediterranean Food Warehouse, Newtown.
Last year’s
AGM was on 31 July 2013 at the Children’s Bookshop, followed by Fleur Beale sharing
her Margaret Mahy Medal speech with us.
Events
later in the year unfortunately did not include the Storylines Family Day scheduled for Saturday 17 August 2013, but cancelled because of concerns about the venue
and possible aftershocks following the earthquake the day before.
On 21
August 2013, we held a panel discussion at the Southern Cross with the title: SEX: How
far do you go in young adult fiction? We felt this would be a hot topic, given
the controversy over
Ted Dawe’s book Into the river winning
the NZ Post Young Adult Fiction Award and Margaret Mahy Book of the Year. YA writers Mandy Hager and Bernard
Beckett and romance writer Daphne de Jong made for an entertaining and well
informed panel, ably chaired by Fifi Colston, but we were disappointed with the
low turnout and decided not to hold any more such events until we have a better
venue, or can work out why it was so poorly attended .
It was a
wonderful evening in November when Mandy Hager was awarded the prestigious Katherine
Mansfield Fellowship for 2014, allowing
her to live in Menton, France and carry out research for her novel on the French nun,
scholar and writer Heloise d'Argenteuil, and her love affair with Pierre
Abelard.
In November 2013, we also ran the Jack Lasenby Junior Award and received a good number of entries.
Some schools always encourage their students to go in for this, and we are
grateful for their support. The winning entry, chosen by judge Eirlys Hunter,
was “A choice to make” by Ben Espiner of HIBS, with four other highly commended
entries.
In January 2014, the WCBA was asked by Lift Education (who now
have the contract for some ex-Learning Media publications) to see if any of our
members would be interested in a meeting planned for 3 March at Te Papa. This
was a Ministry of
Education information evening for current and potential writers, illustrators
and photographers for Lift Education resources such as the School Journal and
Junior Journal. We sent in names of those interested and a number of WCBA
members attended.
We were
delighted to see that Kathryn Carmody had put together such a brilliant
programme for Wellington Writers Week (part of the International Festival of
the Arts) which included fabulous children’s writers and illustrators such as
Leo Timmers from Belgium, Ulf Stark from Sweden and our own Jack Lasenby in
conversation with Kate de Goldi. As part of Writers Week, Gavin Bishop
delivered the Janet Frame Memorial Lecture as NZSA President of Honour to a
full house at the City Gallery on Monday 10 March 2014. We organised several social
events around these, including coffee before Jack Lasenby’s talk and a very
convivial dinner on Monday night at Felix café, attended by Gavin and other
NZSA and WCBA members. There were also a number of impromptu get-togethers
before and after sessions.
On a sadder note, we were very sorry
to hear of the sudden and unexpected death on Tuesday 25 March 2014 of Margaret
Boon, wife of
Wellington children's writer Kevin Boon. Margaret shared Kevin's enthusiasm for
all things Katherine Mansfield-related; she volunteered at KM house, and helped
with the KM walks around Thorndon that she and Kevin organised. Margaret's
Requiem Mass was held at St Benedict's Parish Church, Khandallah, on Monday 31
March.
Awards and prizes
It’s great
to see WCBA members and other local writers and illustrators shortlisted for a
number of awards and prizes this year.
The Storylines
Notable Books Lists for 2014 featured books by Jenny Bornholdt and Sarah
Wilkins (A book is a book), Ruth Paul
(Bad dog Flash), Chris Szekely
and Andrew Burdan (Swim - the Story of
Hinemoa & Tutanekai and
its te reo re-telling Tahoe - He Pakiwaitara mo Hinemoa raua ko Tutanekai), Juliette MacIver & Sarah Davis (Toucan can), Joy Cowley (Dunger), Philippa Werry (Lighthouse family), Mandy Hager (Dear Vincent), Elizabeth Knox (Mortal
fire), Fleur Beale (Speed freak),
), Fifi Colston (Wearable wonders),
Philippa Werry (Anzac Day) and
Gillian Candler and Ned Barraud (In the
garden.) Suzanne Main won the 2014 Tom Fitzgibbon award with her manuscript (intriguingly)
titled How I Alienated my
Grandma.
Wellington
finalists for the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards for Children and Young Adults
included Juliette
MacIver & Sarah Davis (Toucan can),
Gay Hay & Margaret Tolland (Watch
out, snail!), Fifi
Colston (Wearable wonders), Philippa
Werry (Anzac Day), Joy Cowley (Dunger), Fleur Beale (Speed freak) and Elizabeth Knox (Mortal fire).
LIANZA Book
Awards local finalists include Mandy Hager (Dear
Vincent), Joy Cowley (Dunger),
Elizabeth Knox (Mortal fire), Fifi
Colston (Wearable wonders) and Anzac
Day (Philippa Werry).
New books and book launches
Some
wonderful new books have appeared this year (we know that more are on the
way!), and book launches have included:
September
·
(In
Featherston) Hero of the hill by Joy Cowley,
illustrated by Philip Webb (Scholastic)
·
Watch out,
snail! by Gay Hay, illustrated by Margaret Tolland (Page Break Ltd)
October
·
Baba Didi and
the Godwits fly by Nicola Muir, illustrated by Annie Hayward (New
Internationalist Publications Ltd)
November
·
Over the hill to Greytown by Tania Atkinson, ill by Viv
Walker (Wai Art Press)
·
A book is a
book by Jenny Bornholdt, illustrated by Sarah Wilkins (Gecko Press)
·
Lighthouse family by Philippa Werry (Scholastic)
March
·
Dappled Annie and the Tigrish by Mary McCallum (Gecko Press)
·
Mr Miniscule and the whale – a Polish children’s classic by
Julian Tuwim (Book Island)
·
Night of the Perigee Moon by Juliet Jacka (Scholastic; winner
of the Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award
2013)
April
·
Lucy Bee and the secret gene by Anne Ingram (White Gull Press)
·
Best mates by Philippa Werry, illustrated by
Bob Kerr (New Holland)
·
Mrs Mo’s monster by Paul Beavis (Gecko Press)
·
The red suitcase by Jill Harris (Mākaro Press)
·
Lost in the museum (Phoenix Writers)– a collection of
stories by 15 authors, including Eileen Mueller.
Other amazing stuff!
We are
impressed with all the amazing work (both paid and voluntary) being carried out
by WCBA members, from judging awards to running workshops, helping out with the
Kids Lit quiz and many other activities – as well as writing! These are some of
the ones we are aware of:
·
The
Blue Dragon fundraising book fairs run by Iona McNaughton and a team of helpers
·
Johanna
Knox is taking the Children’s Writing Workshop in Trimester 2 at VUW
·
Eileen
Mueller is this year’s coordinator of the Storylines Wellington Family Day on
24 August (which sounds as if it’s going to be amazing!!!)
Subscriptions
Our membership year usually runs from
1 July to 30 June, but this year we are going to experiment with a “sub-free
year” (given the amount of paperwork and time involved in administering and following
up requests for payments.) So – no need to pay any sub this year, but you will
continue to be on our mailing list.
The WCBA committee
Over the
last few years our committee has got smaller as committee members have moved
out of Wellington, or been busy with travel, family, work or other commitments and we
would welcome anyone who would like to join us. Please get in touch if you
want to find out more.
In March we
sent out a survey to gauge interest in a possible conference/hui to be held
next year. Thanks to all those who
responded. We would also welcome help from anyone who would like to be involved
with this.
As always,
we are very grateful for the support provided by the wonderful Children’s Bookshop of Kilbirnie, who sell (and recommend!) our books and are always ready
to host a book launch or other book-related events.
Our current
committee is:
Chair: Maureen
Crisp
Fleur Beale
Johanna
Knox
Sabrina
Malcolm
Ruth and
John McIntyre
Anita
Nalder
Philippa
Werry
