Gaelyn Gordon Award for a “much-loved” book

The Wednesday Wizard, a 1991 book by Tauranga-based fantasy writer Sherryl Jordan, has won the 2010 Storylines Children’s Literature Trust’s annual Gaelyn Gordon Award for a “much-loved” book. The Gaelyn Gordon Award is given by Storylines to honour a work of fiction that did not win an award at the time of publication but, by remaining in print for more than five years, has won acceptance by young readers as a successful book of enduring appeal.

“While Sherryl Jordan has gone on since 1991 to win praise as an author of young adult novels, particularly in America, this early book for younger readers, a time-slip story set in medieval England, has proved itself a true classic,” says Trust chair Dr Libby Limbrick. “It also led to two sequels, also both admired.”

Sherryl Jordan was the 1988 winner of the Choysa Bursary for promising writers, and has subsequently won children’s literature awards in New Zealand and overseas, mostly for her young adult fantasies Rocco, The Juniper Game, The Raging Quiet and most recently her 2007 works (both published in America) The Silver Dragon and Time of the Eagle. She won the 1993 Iowa Writing Fellowship and in 2001, the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal for her contribution to children's literature in New Zealand.

The Gaelyn Gordon Award was established in memory of New Zealand fiction writer Gaelyn Gordon, who died in 1997. Previous winners have included novels and picture books by Maurice Gee, David Hill, Elsie Locke, Pamela Allen, Fleur Beale and Lynley Dodd. For more information, including background information on the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award and Storylines, and/or to arrange an interview with Sherryl Jordan, please contact: Tessa Duder, Storylines Trustee, phone 021-667670 or email tessa.duder@ihug.co.nz.