| Nobody will agree one hundred percent with
this list. I don’t even agree with it myself - there are several
favourites I’d like to have included, but I could not make them match the
criteria properly (see Introduction).
Many thanks to colleagues who recommended special favourites, but the same
comment applies. Perhaps we need an Alternative Top 100 List - where we
could put all the quirky titles that we fondly remember from our own
childhood and adult reading.
As I applied the criteria to potential titles I was aware of constant conflict among the criteria themselves. Children’s favourite books are often not books considered to be of high quality by professionals and critics. Books with a unique New Zealand flavour are not always books that will enhance the standing of our children’s literature in the eyes of the outside world. Conversely, New Zealand books that sell well overseas are not always favourites within New Zealand. Listed books published in the early part of the century were significant at the time, and I have tried to indicate this with quotes from critical works. However most of these books would not be enjoyed by today’s children (or adults for that matter). For this reason I have kept the inclusion of "old" titles to a minimum, and the list is weighted towards more recent books. Using awards as a criteria was difficult. As a librarian I could not ignore the awards bestowed on books. But I didn’t want the list to be simply a catalogue of New Zealand award-winners, so there are many award-winners not included because they did not meet the other criteria (such as being nominated by the public as part of the initial Interactive Project). In addition, I am aware of the question about whether award-winning books (ie. judged by adults) are what our children really want to read on an ongoing basis. Helen Beckingsale discusses this question in her article entitled New Zealand Award-Winning Children’s Books 1982-1992: is there any correlation between adult choice and children’s preferences? (Published in The Inside Story: Year Book of the New Zealand Children’s Literature Foundation, 2000) Having analysed the borrowing patterns at her library, Helen warns: "What is considered ‘good’ or noteworthy can depend on current trends and our judges must always be aware of what children like, and remember that they are applying their own experience of reading to books which are not intended primarily for them. If children’s taste for fantasy and for books in which the protagonist succeeds against all odds [these were the preferences indicated in the borrowing statistics - Ed.] are representative of wider tastes, these will be the books which are still being read in fifteen years whether they are award winners or not." In case you’re interested, the three most popular books in Helen’s survey were Wednesday Wizard by Sherryl Jordan (903 issues), The Juniper Game by Sherryl Jordan (826 issues), and Jellybean by Tessa Duder (796 issues). Professionals in the business will be quick to point out that The Kiwi Kids’ Top 100 list (published by Whitcoulls) will have been influenced by the book marketing taking place at the time. I am aware of that, but still used the list because it is one of the few indicators of New Zealand children’s reading preferences. If anyone knows of any other indicators, please let me know. Finally, a comment on our marvellous Margaret Mahy. It would have been easy to include most of her books on the list - but I wanted to be fair to other writers, so I have tried to keep her books limited to a good representative sample. As for choosing her best books - well, that was an impossible task, so I refuse to accept any criticism of my eventual choices! Lorraine Orman (August 2001) |