Lemme tell ya, there's a whole lot of touring coming your way, starting with the annual Maori writers tour ‘On the Bus’ next week, then the NZ Post Book Awards finalists in the middle and the Storylines Festival on the end.

So – first up, ‘On the Bus’. This year it’s looking like a hoot, with Hinemoana Baker, James George, Kelly Ana Morey and Apirana Taylor heading to Christchurch to hook up with the 'Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread' exhibition of Maori weaving that’s just come home after being on a very long global tour itself.

James George, as we know, was recently shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for his book Ocean Roads (Huia, 2006), and he’s also the current the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow. Hinemoana Baker is just, well, a total gem of a human being and words actually fail me when I try and describe the way she puts music and poetry together. Feel the lurve …

Kelly Ana’s latest book is just out (On an Island, With Consequences Dire from Penguin) and is rattling cages already. And Apirana Taylor is well into Maori Theatre, plus poetry and fiction. This'll be a great group to catch up with – here's the latest on when and where they'll be appearing in Christchurch:

Thursday 29 March
1pm & 2pm - University of Canterbury (A8 Room)
4pm - Christchurch Central City Library (2nd Floor, Nga Pounamu Maori Centre)

Friday 30 March
11am, 1pm, 2pm & 3pm - Christchurch Art Gallery

But check out the Toi Maori website closer to the time for possible updates or additions to these dates.

Next up a few weeks down the track, there’s the NZ Post Book Awards for Children & Young Adults. No less than 20 finalists (both illustrators and writers) will be hitting 25 regions from North to South from Monday 7 May, visiting schools, libraries and bookshops, reading and discussing their work in front of audiences aged anywhere between two to fifteen. The party will end in the announcement of the awards at Parliament in Wellington on Wednesday 16 May.

Full details will soon be announced on the Booksellers website, and while you're there, don’t forget to vote for your pick of the books – voting closes on Tuesday 1 May.

Finally, early news of the 14th annual Storylines Festival, which runs from 5-10 June this year and will be bringing more than 50 writers, illustrators and storytellers into their annual collision with children and their families. Fabulous books, their creators and a wide variety of performers will entertain, educate and enthrall thousands of children, family members, teachers and librarians, during the week-long festival all over the country.

International guests joining New Zealand children’s literary heroes for the festival are: Carnegie Medal winner (for his young adult novel Tamar) Mal Peet from the United Kingdom; and Australian Shaun Tan, celebrated creator of sophisticated picture books such as CBCA Honour Books The Red Tree and The Lost Thing, and, most recently, a wordless graphic novel about immigration, The Arrival.

Huge free family days will be happening in Puke Ariki in New Plymouth, the Wellington Town Hall, Kerikeri Primary School (for the first time) and the Aotea Centre, The Edge in Auckland. Each venue will have readings, activities, performances, face painting, and the opportunity to meet the authors and illustrators. Themes include fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose, picture books for young and old, and novels for juniors and young adults. Activities include everything from book making to calligraphy, puppet-making to story writing and story telling.

Over to festival manger Crissi Blair:

As well, there are story tours which take a dozen New Zealand authors, illustrators and storytellers into schools and early childhood centres throughout the Auckland region and in Whangarei and Kerikeri. We’ve lined up award-winning participants including Gavin Bishop, Vince Ford, David Elliot, Lorraine Orman and Moira Wairama (whose Joy Cowley Award-winning book The Puppet Box will be launched at Auckland Family Day), so we know the kids who are lucky enough to have a visit will be totally enthralled.

And in Auckland, in venues from Albany to Manurewa, we’re having workshops to foster writing and illustration skills, with experienced authors and illustrators sharing their professional skills.

As well as these student-focused activities, the Heritage Hotels Seminar Series hosts the festival’s two international guests, Shaun Tan and Mal Peet, in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, where they’ll entertain and inform adult children’s literature enthusiasts and professionals discussing the theme of 'A Story is a Place'. The seminar series sold out last year, and the same is expected this year for these highly acclaimed speakers.

Keep your eye on the Storylines website for updated dates and info.

Oh, nearly forgot – it’s also International Childrens’ Book Day on April 2, and this year, New Zealand is hosting it. Our primary schoool is having a ‘dress as your favourite book character day’ with an Easter egg hunt thrown in. Yay! Hope the 9-year-old doesn’t want Pippi Longstocking again – getting the wire into those plaits was a bugger and she completely knackered my stripy tights. Sigh.