‘Tis the eve of the NZ Post Childrens’ Book Awards – as I write this they've been announced, earlier tonight, at Parliament. There’s been quite a bit of hoo-ha about the chosen finalists or conspicuous lack of them, but it’ll all be done and dusted by now.

A few superb kids books have arrived on the LeafSalon doorstep in the last couple of weeks, only one of which, alas is on the list, but it’s a goodie: Tim Tipene’s Haere – Farewell, Jack, farewell (Huia, $16.99) with utterly beautiful illustrations by Huhana Smith. This is an excellent ‘circle of life’ book about death and birth, in that order. There’s no false sentiment about it –Tim has somehow managed to make it both matter-of-fact and quietly spiritual at the same time. The illustrations probably helped with that – our kids were deliciously horrified by (at first, then quite accepting of) the occasional see-through ghost (calmly smiling, in funeral best) who had come to pay their respects to old Jack.

They were similarly intrigued by the mystical taniwha figures looping through the cold grey skies over the house where Jack’s tangi is going on. Throughout it all the kid who’s telling the story is informed and (therefore) quite philosophical. And then, when the wailing is done and Koro Jack is gone, spring comes, and there’s a new life to celebrate: baby Jack. With the baby’s arrival, and the sun’s, joy comes back to the whanau. This is a story that, together with its pictures, promotes the big questions from the littlies. Not to be missed.

Our school had the good fortune to have a visit from Tim Tipene when this book was at manuscript stage, so it’s great to see it in print and up for an award. It’s well deserved, a lovely and meaningful book to keep.

The second book is a lovely little hardback from Mallinson Rendel, The Littlest Llama ($25) by Jane Buxton, illustrated by Jenny Cooper. It’s the story of a very young llama who is bored and goes looking for fun. The rhythm of the rhyme is perfect – I think if you’re going to do a rhyming book, it’s got to really work, else it’s irritating to read, and my kids pick up on it straight away.

The littlest llama, now four times rejected,
was feeling unwanted and sad and dejected.

Without even saying goodbye to his mama,
away from the herd walked the littlest llama.

So, natch he gets lost and frightened, runs home (past various South American flora and fauna you can spot with your little loved one) to find, surprise! A new baby llama to play with. Again, the illustrations make this book a treat; the llamas all have very cute, expressive faces with long, llama eyelashes, and they do lots of peculiarly llama-esque things (neck wrestling, dust bathing). All our kids liked this book, even my three-year-old son, who usually only consents to read books about trains, planes and automobiles.

Finally there’s a whale of a tale from new author Ben Galbraith, a slip of a lad at 25, whose book The Three Fishing Brothers Gruff (Hachette Livre, $29.99) is a pirate-ish romp with an environmental message (hooray!) and utterly brilliant design.

It’s a biggish hardback, and has got so much going on between the story and the illustrations it’ll keep fresh for ages. It’s about three nasty fishing brothers who fish the guts out of Poverty Bay and then decide to go and strip the Bay of Plenty so they can get really rich. But they’re well sorted out by Minke Whale, who stops their dastardly over-fishing once and for all – with a bit of good old-fashioned death, not just some bleeding-heart slap on the wrist, either. And best of all, once the ‘orrible brothers have gone, the people learn their lesson: don’t dirty the water with oil or rubbish, only take enough fish to feed yourselves, and leave the small fish to grow bigger for another day.

The extraordinary design wins it for me though. It’s montages of illustrations with bits of photo here and there, (in the manner of Lolly Leopold, a little) with lots of visual textures and clever cutouts which frame things from page to page and are good for little fingers to poke through. Always good for a laugh. I predict a big design win for this book at some stage.

So there you go, something for everyone. Pop back Wednesday at 6pm sharp to see the winners of the NZ Post Childrens’ Book Awards. I already know, but can’t say. I love this job.