New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults

Meet the 2026 winners of the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults!

The Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award — the highest accolade in Aotearoa’s children’s literature

• A Guide to Rocks - Sacha Cotter, illustrated by Josh Morgan (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata) (Huia Publishers)

NZSA Best First Book Award winner

• Te Onehaumako - Zeb Tamihana Nicklin (Pāhauwera, Ruapani, Tūhoe, Tāmanuhiri) (Huia Publishers)

Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for a Book Translated into Te Reo Māori

• He Taonga te Toka - Sacha Cotter, illustrated by Josh Morgan (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata), translated by Kawata Teepa (Tūhoe, Te Whakatōhea ) (Huia Publishers)

Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for a Book Originally Written in Te Reo Māori

• Kupe me te Wheke nui a Muturangi - Mat Tait (Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne o Wairau) (Allen and Unwin Aotearoa)

Russell Clark Award for Illustration

• Kupe me te Wheke nui a Muturangi - Mat Tait (Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne o Wairau) (Allen and Unwin Aotearoa)

Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction

• Whenua: Māori Pūrākau of Aotearoa - Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu) (Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand)

Wheelers Books Award for Young Adult Fiction

• The Lost Saint - Rachael Craw (Allen & Unwin Aotearoa)

Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Junior Fiction Award

• Dreamslinger - Graci Kim (Penguin Random House New Zealand)

BookHub Picture Book Award

• A Guide to Rocks - Sacha Cotter, illustrated by Josh Morgan (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata) (Huia Publishers)

A huge pākipaki to the talented authors, illustrators and translators whose outstanding books have been recognised by this year’s judges.