Kiwi classic wins Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-Loved Book

Wellington writer honoured.
 

A classic of New Zealand children's literature, Uncle Trev, has won Wellington writer Jack Lasenby the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved Book for 2012.
 Described as 'unfailingly entertaining' yarns by a master storyteller, the first collection Uncle Trev was published in 1991, quickly followed by Uncle Trev and the Great South Plan and Uncle Trev and the Treaty of Waitangi. A fourth collection, Uncle Trev's Teeth and Other Stories was published six years later, with Uncle Trev and His Whistling Bull published this year.

 The Gaelyn Gordon award is given annually by the Storylines Children’s Literature Association in memory of the late Hamilton novelist Gaelyn Gordon. It recognises a book unheralded at the time of publication but which has remained in print and proved itself an enduring favourite with young readers.
'Jack Lasenby's hilarious stories about archtypal New Zealand characters Uncle Trev, Aunt Effie and  the horse Harry Whakatipu, introduce young readers to the rural New Zealand of his childhood,' says Storylines Trust chair Dr Libby Limbrick. 'He is often justly described as "the grand old man" of New Zealand children's literature, and Uncle Trev as one of its most endearing characters.'

 The award will be presented at the Storylines annual Margaret Mahy Day in Auckland on Saturday, 31 March.