News From Auckland

Never say it's a slow news day in the world of children's literature. Someone, somewhere, in some time zone far far away from your own is bound to prove you wrong. Consider, for example, this e-mail I received just today:

Hi

I noticed you were commenting on slow children's lit news... Joy Cowley's book Hunter - which you have in your room right now (at least according to the catalogue) won the New Zealand children's book of the year last night NZ time.

The website is: http://www.booksellers.co.nz/nzpb_main.htm - and the judges' comments are very cool. Hunter is so very New Zealand I, for one, was stunned it was published in the US first! I know Joy has a loyal American following, and she some very American-style books - but this isn't one of them.

It was signed by a YA librarian from Auckland City Libraries. Aside from my childish love of the word Auckland (say it soft and it's almost like praying), check out her library system's cool website. Love that color scheme. She was right too. There was indeed a single copy of Hunter at my library's branch, which I will now have to read. I am simultaneously impressed with her OPAC navigation skills and freaked out by yet another reminder of how small the Internet has made the world.