Scholastic New Zealand Award
for Best Children’s Book 2023
Winner
Designer: Mat Tait with assistance from Megan van Staden
Title: Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Format: 285 x 257.5mm, 60pp, hardback square-backed, sewn, with endpapers and H & T bands. The large format enables landscape-shaped double page spread and illustrations extensive enough to include multiple charachters, a complex storyline and integrated text.
Typography: All text was hand-drawn meticulously by Mat — apart from the mihi and imprint pages.
Judges' comments Te Wehenga pulses with the wiri of Te Po. The complexity of the visual aspects of this purakau are handled masterful illustrations and attention to colour. Layered textures emerge from the background - manu, rakau, tukutuku, koru - demonstrating there's so much more happening behind the darkness of Te Po. The illustrated fonts are a delight - energetic, expressive and integrated. The square, hardback binding ensures this is a lasting title for the bookshelf.
Te Wehenga presents the origin narrative of Te Ao Māori with an original, stunning and complete design that combines beautiful dark illustrations with unique illustrated typography. The inventiveness, consistency and beauty of every page makes for captivating reading – delivering one of the very best designed books of 2023.
