Margaret Mahy could be posthumously honoured this year with an award now named after her.
New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards today announced the top prize would be renamed ‘New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award’.
Mahy was a previous finalist and winner of the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards and was listed a finalist in this year’s picture book category for her book Mister Whistler.
The famed Kiwi children’s author who died last year, age 76, would be “very happy” about being acknowledged, said her daughter Bridget.
“I don’t think she ever stopped really enjoying the acknowledgements that were made for her writing efforts,” she said.
“To win an award, and then of course, to have her name attached is an acknowledgement of her work and her longevity.”
Bridget Mahy said her mother always supported other authors, and turned up to Kiwi writers’ book launches, bought their work, and asked them to sign it.
“It was that collective thing of ‘we’re all in this together’, what can we produce as a nation in terms of literature and the writing world,” she said.
“That’s her world – the imaginative writing world.”
The characteristics Mahy would hunt for in a children’s book were a “spirited quality” to the writing, a sense of humour, and either a challenge for older children, or excellent images for younger children, said her daughter.
Sam Elworthy, Chair of the Book Awards Governance Group, said renaming the award was a way of commemorating the huge impact Margaret Mahy had as one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed literary figures.
“For over five decades, Margaret Mahy has captured children’s imaginations at home and around the world,” he said.
“We felt there could be no more appropriate name for the Book of the Year award than one that honours such an influential and well-loved New Zealand writer.”
The awards this year will be held on June 24 in Mahy’s hometown Christchurch, where members of her family would be present.
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