Tsunami wins at the 2024 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults!

Our latest publication, Tsunami by Ned Wenlock was nominated for two awards at this year’s New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults – and we were ecstatic to see Ned come away with a win for the NZSA Best First Book Award!

The award was presented by Mat Tait, last year’s Margaret Mahy Book of the Year winner for Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku. Here is his speech on the category:

The Best First Book category is a measure of the creative health of children's literature in Aotearoa. The quality of this year's 25 eligible books, and the diverse range of voices, subjects, and approaches coming through, point to not only robustness, but vigour and growth. While doing the difficult job of deciding the shortlist of five, judges looked for work of a high technical quality that used that facility to bring something new, exciting, and vital to the form. The title of the category might misleadingly suggest that this is an award for potential, for showcasing talent in its raw, early stages. But while the names may be new, every one of the works gifted to us by our finalists is the result of a lifetime spent finding their voice and honing the skills needed to express it.

And his brief thoughts on Tsunami:

Tsunami displays a sophisticated understanding of the comics form, telling an often-disturbing story of a troubled and bullied boy with skill and a complexity that trusts readers to meet the book's challenges.

Here is the citation for Tsunami’s win:

As a graphic novel Tsunami is exemplary, with the language of comics intrinsic to its understanding and impact. The toy-like characters with their clean simple lines invite readers to identify with them, even as their diagrammatic performance of the story's central tragedy distances readers from them – thus seamlessly reflecting the book's themes of alienation and the need for connection. Tsunami respects the ability of its audience to handle ambiguity, to rise to meet its challenges and to find its rewards, however unsettling the journey may be. This is a book that lingers after the reading, and seems destined to be studied and discussed for a long time to come.

Congratulations again to Ned for the win, and you can find it now at all good bookstores!

Event photographs by Vijay Paul via the NZ Book Awards Trust.