Edify Award for
Best Educational Book 2015
Highly Commended 2015
Designer Jodi Wicksteed (Bolster Design)
Title School Journal Story Library, Level 3, In the End by Mal Peet, illustrations by Andrew Burdan
Publisher Ministry of Education / Lift Education
Format 232 x 170mm, 12pp, saddle stitched
Judges’ Comments The idea of teaching children about unions might have led some authors down a traditional path of industrial disputes, but In the end uses the boyhood fascination with war and the currency of the dark comic genre to deceptively lure the reader into a story about a shooting at Waihi mine in 1912. The intricate detail of the period clothing and architecture, combined with well-proportioned and emotionally engaging faces and characters are the perfect antidote to what could have been a worthy but unread book. The use of blacks and reds underlie the grimness of the times and yet the warmth of friendship comes through without sentimentality.
