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Famous Faces Feature in 2025 Children’s Book Awards Shortlist
Well-known media personalities, bestselling-authors and previous awards winners are among the extremely strong shortlist of 32 titles up for the 2025 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults announced today.
Musician and presenter Anika Moa, respected journalist and broadcaster Miriama Kamo and bestselling author and child psychiatrist Hinemoa Elder join previous winners, including Gavin Bishop, Ruth Paul and Bren MacDibble, as well as numerous other highly regarded and emerging writers and illustrators.
The 2025 shortlist “explores some of the many ways to be a New Zealander: our people, our place and our preoccupations,” says the convenor of judges Feana Tu‘akoi.
“Among the finalist books, big ideas from our past, present and possible dystopian futures are considered in absorbing and thoughtful ways, providing springboards for deeper discussion. Themes include identity, connection, mental health, our histories, traditional wisdom, indigenous languages, and the importance of being exactly who we are.”
This year’s two expert judging panels – a bilingual English and Māori panel and a separate Te Kura Pounamu panel to judge titles written in te reo Māori – were impressed by the calibre of the 156 entries.
Whether a deceptively simple board book aimed at our youngest tamariki, or a sophisticated novel for rangatahi, this year’s shortlist deftly connects our best writers and illustrators with the most discerning of readers – children and teenagers, the judges say.
These young readers were again involved in the judging process. Kura kaupapa Māori, primary, intermediate and secondary schools across the motu all put their hands up to receive entries in relevant categories, and were given judging guidelines and review templates to encourage considered feedback for the judging panel. In total 51 schools participated, and 450 reviews were supplied for consideration.
The winners of each of the six main categories – Picture Book, Junior Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Non-Fiction, Illustration and Te Reo Māori – take home $8500 and are then in the running to be named recipient of the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year, an award with a further $8500 prize money. In addition, the judges will award a Best First Book prize of $2500 to a previously unpublished author or illustrator.
The ceremony to announce the winners will take place at Pipitea Marae in Wellington on the evening of Wednesday 13 August.
