It’s been a big year! I’m proud to say that The Grimmelings has won both the New Zealand Booklovers’ Award for Junior Fiction (jointly with the fabulous Raven’s Eye Runaways by Claire Mabey), and the Hayden + Rollett Booksellers’ Choice Children’s Book Award 2025.
The Booksellers’ Choice Awards were decided in a vote by “the booksellers of Aotearoa as the books they’ll always keep on the shelf, that are considered modern classics, and are loved by customers and booksellers.”
Our booksellers are such champions, and as authors we really need them! And as middlegrade and YA writers, we are in stiff competition for the attention of book-buying parents, with international authors who churn out seemingly infinite series. So hurrah for booksellers who alert them to books by NZ authors so kids can have our stories in their hands and hearts.
