BUGS finalist in 2014 NZ Post CYA Book Awards

BUGS finalist in 2014 NZ Post CYA Book Awards

Bugs, the second novel by Whiti Hereaka, has been nominated as a finalist in the Young Adult Fiction category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2014.

Judges have been impressed by the extraordinarily high standard of children&rsqu o;s literature for the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, with the finalists in each category announced yesterday.

“High school students will find fantasy, science fiction and gritty fiction which will resonate strongly with the world they live in,” says judging convenor Barbara Else. “As judges, we’ve acknowledged that young adult fiction, both in New Zealand and around the world, is following a number of trends and, indeed, young adult fiction has always addressed big life issues. Some young adult books have darker narratives which help readers explore what to them may be new scenarios and attitudes. Reading gives these young people a more controlled and structured framework in which to feel their own way through these themes.”

Says finalist Whiti Hereaka about Bugs, “I'm thrilled to be selected as a finalist for Bugs. Originally I had wanted to write a story based on the Brer Rabbit story The Tar Baby because I was interested in a character whose personality both gets them into trouble and gets them out of it, like Brer Rabbit. However, nothing seemed to work until I thought of calling the character “Bugs”, then something seemed to click. Bugs didn’t wanted to be talked about, Bugs wanted to do the talking so I wrote in first person.”

“And I wrote quickly. Once I had found Bugs, she wouldn’t let me go. She had her own life; friends, family and ambitions. And it seemed right to set Bugs in Taupo, where I was born and bred - a place that illustrates the tension between the expectation and the reality of a place. A place that is “picture perfect” on the surface but is still bubbling with destruction below.”

Whiti will be featuring on the upcoming New Zealand Post Book Awards Festival and Finalists Tour for Children and Young Adults on 17-25 May, whe re there will be more than 200 events in 24 regions nationwide.

The 2014 NZ Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults winners will be announced on Monday 23 June, in Auckland.

Bugs is available at all good bookstores and from www.huia.co.nz/bookstore.

ENDS

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