Let’s start with the end. The end of being one of six judges. The six judges of the Storylines Notable Book Awards. Discovering books worthy of the adjective notable amongst 17 submitted NZ non-fiction books for children.
And reading and re-reading we did! Shared reflections, comments and hesitations in a spreadsheet, articulated in, and may I stress, very amicable discussions online. One, for some two, cups-of-tea-long discussions spearheaded by convenor Rosemary who redirected when necessary, summarised where needed, suggested a show of hands to indicate notable and a thumbs down if the book did not quite reach that notable bar. Last but not least, she organised sending books to us panel members spread over New Zealand, not a logistical challenge to be sniffed at.
From our comfortable chairs in our homes Celeste, Helen, Penny, Rosemary, Emma and I meandered along this colourful river of te reo Māori and English, watercolour illustrations, funny insertions, breathtaking artwork, challenging puzzles (for the children that is!), QR-codes, cover design, lay-out, production quality, the richness of language, capturing content … Each author (and their teams) no doubt has worked incredibly hard and invested innumerable time agonising over all that what constitutes producing a book for children or young people. What a treasure cove we happened upon!
The Storylines Notable Book Awards honours not one but a list of several admirable and amazing literary products for children and young people in different categories – to flood bookstores and libraries now and later. We settled on an exciting list of non-fiction notable books.
Our temporary small yet tight-knitted, companiable club of book enthusiasts oozed so much passion and enjoyment while debating the task at hand in earnest. Ka kite.
I wish I could finish with a reference to my personal pick of the notablest notable book. You will have to wait until the awards are announced sometime in November.
the wonder of language 