Bob Docherty wins Betty Gilderdale Award (2025)

 

Bob Docherty wins Betty Gilderdale Award (2025)

By Trevor Agnew, QSM

 “Reading delays aging.” – Bob Docherty

An acre of wildflowers blooms outside Christchurch's Aranui Library, while tiny football players scamper across Wainoni Park in the mid-spring sunshine. Inside Aranui Library, the scene is no less delightful. Kate De Goldi is praising Bob Docherty before presenting him with the 2025 Storylines Betty Gilderdale Award. Bob is relaxed modestly in the front row, flanked by his family and surrounded by the cream of New Zealand’s creators and curators of books for young people. Rachael King, Gavin Bishop, Desna Wallace and Bill Nagelkerke are among the applauding audience as Bob – now officially retired -  gets up to speak about – well, books – of course.

“A child who doesn’t read is no better off than a child who can’t read,” is Bob’s text for the day. After a lifetime of encouraging kids to read, he tells us there are three key factors to getting young people to read: parents, teachers and librarians. 

Scots-born and growing up in Lyttelton, Bob read widely as a boy, encouraged by his parents. As he recites the titles which entranced him at home and school, his audience sighs in shared recognition and remembrance. Chicken Licken, Winnie the Pooh, The Hobbit, Narnia, The Famous Five and Biggles all parade by. Bob honours his high school English teacher, Gordon Ogilvie, who introduced him to Animal Farm. More authors’ names flood out: Alistair MacLean, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Graham Greene. It says everything you need to know about Bob’s enthusiasm for books that he read Doctor Zhivago while travelling down the Amazon in 35 degrees heat.

Bob’s first role in the National Library was technical as Film Librarian but he was soon a Reference Librarian specialising in young people’s books. “I read like a madman,” he recalls. More names fly past as he names his favourites: Jack Lasenby, William Taylor, Margaret Mahy, David Hill, Tessa Duder and Joy Cowley. From making booklists, he went on to visiting schools, as well as talking at library conferences and teachers’ workshops, always with the message of “how to get kids enthused about books.”

From his popular visits to schools, Bob found that most boys wanted their books to be a ‘quick fix’, short and full of action. “They enjoy ‘getting-away-with-it stories!”  (He calculated that he visited every boys’ school in the South Island.) Girls had different tastes, often preferring longer stories about friendship and relationships. Bob feels that girls have now moved to having some attitudes similar to those of boys and are happily reading about vampires and zombies. “They are all interested in fairness and justice.”

Bob also developed his signature professional technique of giving his audiences a potted summary of a story, capturing their enthusiasm, and then refusing to tell how it ends.  Familiar names appear again: Paul Jennings, Anne Cassidy, John Marsden, Harry Potter, and Twilight. Who is the best role model? Hermione, it seems. 

[On a personal note, Ben Brown, Bob Docherty and I once formed an “expert” panel advising a Christchurch audience on how to get boys to read. Bob wove magic, re-telling stories and leaving the cliff-hanger endings dangling. By the end of the evening Bob had not only the boys but also their parents seeking out the stories.]

Undaunted by being made redundant from the National Library in 2009, Bob continued visiting schools, providing workshops and enthusing readers and teachers alike. He was a judge for the Children’s Book Awards. Best of all, he also created the wonderful website, Bob’s Books. It offers bright, well-informed reviews of books for young people.  

[On a personal note, the NZ Book Council once contracted me to locate some sources of good website reviews of New Zealand books for young adults. Bob’s reviews were the best. They always proved fresh, perceptive, positive and – important, this – they didn’t copy the publishers’ blurbs. Bob’s work was always original. He had read the book!]

Bob operated his website for a dozen years and over 2,300 books. Then he decided that “old age is a fulltime job,” and called a halt to school visits in 2021. In his retirement he wrote a memoir, Boomer, available on Amazon. In a typically Bob gesture, he also promised, “I will still work on my blog and add a few adult books that are suitable at lower levels and I will still read the odd children’s book.”

Bob continued this until his second retirement in April 2025. The Betty Gilderdale Award, presented by his fellow workers in the literary vineyard, is thus perfectly timed. It is also thoroughly deserved. By the end of his lively and enthusiastic speech – full text on the Storylines website –  Bob still found time to call out a few favourite stories, such as Mandy Hager’s Singing Home the Whale and A. N. Dixon’s The Edge of Light trilogy.

Yes, Bob has spent the afternoon making his audience want to read more books.

 Trevor Agnew, QSM,   November 2025

 

Fact Box: Winners of Storylines Betty Gilderdale Award Eve Sutton (1990) Dorothy Butler (1991) Elsie Locke (1992) Jo Noble (1993) Ron Bacon (1994) Graham Beattie (1996) Diane & Gary Hebley (1997) Phyllis Johnston (1998) Betty Gilderdale (1999) Veda Pickles (2001) Barbara Murison (2002) Jean Bennett (2003) Ray Richards (2004) John McKenzie (2005) Frances Plumpton (2006) Katerina Te Heikōkō Mataira (2007) Lois Rout (2008) Glyn Strange (2010) Ruth and John McIntyre (2011) Gerri Judkins (2012) Trevor Agnew (2013) Robyn Southam (2014) Trish Brooking (2015) Rosemary Tisdall (2016) Maureen Crisp (2017) Jeannie Skinner (2018) Crissi Blair (2019) Lorraine Orman (2020) Sarah Forster (2021) Libby Limbrick (2022) Joy Sellen (2024) Bob Docherty (2025)

 

Fact Box: The Storylines Betty Gilderdale Award “The Storylines Betty Gilderdale Award honours the late Betty Gilderdale, a lifelong advocate and supporter of children’s literature through her academic research, work as a reviewer and 30 years' committee service to Auckland’s Children’s Literature Association. Prior to 2000, the award was known as the Children’s Literature Association’s Award for Services to Children’s Literature. The award is given annually for outstanding service to children’s literature and literacy and carries a monetary prize of $2000. The recipient delivers a 40-minute address, known as the Storylines Spring Lecture, as part of the award presentation, usually in November. Nominations can be for distinguished service either at a regional or national level. Nominations are sought from the public and selection from those nominated is made by a panel selected by Storylines.”

 

Looking back at Kate De Goldi in the 1990s: Sanctuary; Love, Charlie Mike; Closed, Stranger

Looking back at Kate De Goldi in the 1990s
By Trevor Agnew

 

The 1990s are a long time ago. I was younger then and, reading Love, Charlie Mike, I was able to laugh at Gran’s argument with the taxi-driver who took her to the newly-built railway station. Gran declares, ‘This is not the station, young man…. Moorhouse Avenue, young man, quick smart about it.’

Now, the huge brick building in Moorhouse Avenue has vanished and I feel as confused and disoriented as Gran.

I remember being fascinated by the realities Kate de Goldie created in my mind. I actually went looking in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens for the Moreton Bay fig tree she describes there in Closed, Stranger. There isn’t one but Kate de Goldi needed it as a mood-setter, so she painted it in. I remember being surprised that the benches in the rose garden weren’t the same colour as in the book. Brown? Green? Who was right?

There is a nasty T intersection joining St Albans Road, with a concrete dome in the middle. One of the characters in Closed, Stranger  – Max perhaps – speeds over it in a car at one critical point in the story. I always thought of that story when I circled that dome. Now it’s gone, replaced by traffic lights. I remember the dome.

Sometimes the things she describes don’t even exist. A home in Closed, Stranger is given a real address and street number. I couldn’t resist having a look, but of course there was just a gap in the street numbering. I remember laughing as I strolled from letter box to letter box. No such number.

Then there’s Sanctuary. I remember a small family aquarium at New Brighton and a large crocodile in a small pond.   If you ever saw that crocodile, you understand everything that happens in Sanctuary. Kate De Goldi saw the crocodile.

Now it is 2018. Another century. Another millennium. These three novels have been reprinted. Are they as good as I remember them? I’m busy at the moment but one day I’m going to read them again.

Meanwhile, here are the entries I wrote for The Source website back in the 1990s. This is what I thought then. It’ll be interesting to see how the stories have aged. The characters are strong, so I think it’ll be like vintage wine.

Sanctuary Kate De Goldi (1996 rep. 2018) Penguin pb $18 ISBN 9780143772002

‘Kate de Goldi’s first novel for teenagers is Sanctuary, a romantic triangle which also mirrors Noah’s Ark in its treatment of an animal rights dispute. A small zoo owned by an elderly couple is about to close, and the fate of a panther becomes an obsession, leading to tragedy.
Catriona Stewart (called ‘cat’, which is symbolically interesting) is in a state of dispute with her erratic mother Stella. She is also attracted to two young men and makes an unwise choice. Personal anguish follows.
This is a fresh and exciting novel, with vivid descriptions of the seaside suburbs of Christchurch. The characters are all convincing and the problems facing Catriona are both plausible and unexpected.’
 

Love, Charlie Mike Kate de Goldi (1997 rep. 2018) Penguin pb 9780143772026

 ‘Christy loves her cousin Sonny who she met for the first time at their grandfather's funeral. Now he is a peacekeeper in Bosnia and his letters have stopped. Was it like this for Gran when Pops went away to war? Perhaps not, as their marriage failed, but why is Christy's dad so odd since the funeral? Two experiences of love, parting, war and betrayal are separated by two generations but Christy comes to see that her relationship with her cousin and lover Sonny echoes the experiences of her grandparents, Pops and Gran, the latter once a beautiful and imperious woman, but now so bewildered she does not recognise the son she lives with. The outcome of that earlier wartime story is influencing the present and Christy decides to try and uncover some family secrets from her demented grandmother. The situation is complex but clever construction makes for a novel impossible to put down once started.’
 

I also wrote a brief outline of New Zealand Young Adult fiction for Magpies magazine, and mentioned Love, Charlie Mike:

… ‘Few teen writers have looked as hard at social issues as Paula Boock, But Kate De Goldi in Love, Charlie Mike shows an equally caring and serious approach.   She manages to create such real worlds that the characters seem to live just round the corner.  ‘In my day, we left mussels for the Maoris,’ says Gran, freed by Alzheimers disease from the rules of society.  It is Christy who has to take over the role of authority figure as she tries to find out why her love affair with her Maori cousin has ended, and what the secret is that has eroded the happiness of her family.  Christy’s mature self-confidence, her passionate enthusiasm for life and her eagerness for the truth make her a marvellous character.  Kate De Goldi is the best of the emerging teen authors. …’

Closed, Stranger Kate De Goldi (1999 rep. 2018) Penguin pb $18  ISBN 9780143772040

This novel follows two close friends, Westie and Max, through an emotional crisis which destroys both their lives. Max tries to tell what happened; his story plunges back and forwards in time but builds a convincing picture.
To Westie, adopted at birth, family barely matters and he looks forward to leaving home. At Max’s house, it is Dad who has left home to live with a woman half his age. Max’s highly eccentric mother, Dee, leans heavily on Psychic Hotline for advice, while his young brother Leon seems increasingly disturbed.
Then two women enter the young men's lives. For Max, it is Meredith bringing him music, compassion and love. For Westie, it is Vicky, his birth-mother bringing him a mother’s love and heartache. Max becomes obsessed by his new-found ‘real’ mother, and, in a brilliantly written passage, is unbelievably cruel to his adoptive parents. Some have raised eyebrows at the hint of incest between mother and son, but this is very skilfully, almost tactfully, handled. (Apparently such attraction between an adopted child and a ‘birth’ parent is not uncommon.) When Vicky comes to her senses and leaves, Westie seems to lose his senses, and the threads of Max’s tale begin to come together in a tragic climax.
Closed, Stranger is a splendid story, gripping and well told. It deals well with such issues as drugs and youth suicide, without losing the drama and intensity of the plot. The dialogue is marvellously accurate. Many readers will be unhappy about the swearing but Kate De Goldi’s young men talk just like young men. They don’t always get things right but the reader learns lots from what they see and say. Ultimately the book is about people and their relationships with each other, their families and friends. De Goldi's characters interact with each other and develop and change with a satisfying rightness.

Trevor Agnew (1990s and Sep 2018)

From the Cutting Room of Barney Kettle

From the Cutting Room of Barney Kettle

 Kate De Goldi

Longacre [Penguin Random House]

NZ $30

 

Young Adult fiction enthusiasts relish E.L. Konigsburg’s writing. Kate De Goldi’s “homage to the incomparable Mrs Konigsburg” takes the form of a manuscript typed two-fingered from hospital by D.T.S.  

From his “meticulously ordered files,” D.T.S. has re-created not only the achievements of a keen young amateur film-maker, Barney Kettle, but also the beloved High Street district where both Barney and D.T.S. lived and worked. While the story (or stories) seem to be about Barney’s efforts to get his friends to co-operate in his films, it gradually becomes clear that a catastrophe has hit the un-named City (which occupies the same space in our mixed-up mental memory files as Christchurch) and that Barney’s summer of filming records a community that has been destroyed. 

 Like one of Barney’s films, the story takes several viewpoints and D.T.S. himself is an unseen narrator dropping hints to his readers at each chapter’s end. All adults and many young readers will enjoy this richly detailed and poignant novel.

Trevor Agnew

Note: This review was first published in Fairfax newspapers on 1 October 2015. 

NZ Young People’s Books: Best of 2012

By Trevor Agnew 

Published in Your Weekend Magazine, (The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand, Nov 2012)  

Best Books for Kiwi Youngsters: 2012

Publishing trends 2012
 

By Trevor Agnew   

2012’s most heart-warming publishing event was the return of a once famous imprint. Whitcoulls, under its new ownership, has returned to publishing with a magnificent hardback anthology of New Zealand stories and poems, Read Me Another One, Please! selected by Belynda Smith. Authors include Margaret Mahy, Roger Hall, Joy Cowley and Bill Nagelkerke. The best story is Granny Alex, by Tessa Duder, where a young woman swimmer, training for the Olympics, is encouraged by her grandmother. Satisfyingly, Tessa Duder’s beloved classic Alex (1987) is being re-issued by Whitcoulls Classics.

The darkest aspect of 2012 was undoubtedly the death of Margaret Mahy, a brilliant writer, whose high level of creative genius remains unequalled. Margaret’s unique way with language can be sampled in the new paperback edition of her collected verse, The Word Witch, which has a CD of her reading a dozen of the poems.  

Meanwhile Margaret’s prolific output means that her titles continue to appear posthumously. Footsteps in the Fog is an atmospheric celebration of the senses, with a blind girl leading her siblings to safety through dense fog. Mr Whistler is a gleeful picture book about an absent-minded

dancer who mislays his train ticket and has to undress on the station platform to find it (much to the joy of young readers). Both these books are illustrated by Gavin Bishop. It has been an excellent year for Bishop, whose Counting the Stars: Four Maori Myths has just appeared in paperback, while his 1999 masterpiece, The House that Jack Built, has been re-issued in a sumptuous hardback, a reminder of just how important good illustration and book design are.

 In November 2012, the German firm, Bertelsmann, owner of Random House, took over the British firm Pearson, owner of the various Penguin imprints. The promise is that Random House and Penguin will retain their distinct editorial identities. The concern, however, is that as the big firms swallow each other up, fewer books for young people will be produced. Ray Turton, editor of Magpies magazine, which reviews Australian and New Zealand books for young people, feels that over recent years “big publishers don’t know where their industry is going. They’ve been running round like hens with their heads cut off.” Turton warns that large corporations will always concentrate on mass-market books with larger print runs. “Everyone wants the next Hunger Games or Harry Potter.”

New Zealand has a proud tradition of small publishing firms producing high quality books for the young.  In its thirty years of existence, the tiny Wellington publishing firm of Mallinson Rendell produced only about seven titles a year, but the remarkable quality of publisher Anne Mallinson’s judgement was reflected in book prizes and export orders.  When Mallinson Rendel closed its doors in 2009, its titles were purchased by Penguin. Lynley Dodd’s menagerie of cats and dogs thus migrated to Puffin, which has just issued the witty Slinky Malinki, Early Bird. Yet, even though the future of Hairy Maclary and his friends is now assured, would such a long-running series have been brought into existence and nurtured without the support of a visionary like Anne Mallinson?

Longacre Press, the small Dunedin publisher co-founded by Paula Boock, was another small firm that punched above its weight. Taken over by Random House in 2009, Longacre still appears as an imprint on novels like James Norcliffe’s The Magic Flute, a fantasy that pitches modern Kiwi kids into Arcadia. Another Longacre title is Kate De Goldi’s The ACB with Honora Lee, the superbly-presented story of a girl coming to terms with her grandmother’s dementia.

The good news is that new ‘little’ publishers keep popping up.  Several well-designed picture books have come from the Duck Creek Press, a branch of David Ling Publishing, including the stylish That Dog at the Beach by Janene Cooper and Evie Kemp (a sequel to their award-winning A Dog Like That).

Another recent arrival, Dreamboat Press, is a husband and wife operation, based on Waiheke Island. Mark and Rowan Sommerset have only produced five picture books so far but have already won awards. Their latest, I Love Lemonade, has the slightly naughty flavour that young readers adore.

All publishers need a point of difference to survive.  Wellington’s Gecko Press has concentrated on providing English language translations of award-winning foreign titles, both non-fiction, such as the French Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals, by Hélène Rajcak, and fiction, such as the hilarious Swedish illustrated story The Best Singer in the World by Ulf Nilsson.

 Huia Publishers focuses on Māori titles, and their young people’s books this year include such lively war biographies as Born to Fly (about Johnny Pohe) and Victory at Point 209 (Moana Ngarimu), both illustrated by Andrew Burdan in war-comic style.  Huia also a shrewdly reversed Gecko’s technique, by producing Te Haere ki te Rapu Pea, a Maori language version of Michael Rosen’s 1989 classic, We’re All Going on a Bear Hunt, evocatively illustrated by Helen Oxenbury.

Some publishers find that series help ensuring repeat custom. Little girls adore Elizabeth Pulford’s Littlest Angel series, where Lily Gets in a Pink Pickle is the sixth volume. Kyle Mewburn’s cheerfully anachronistic Dinosaur Rescue series reached Number 7 with Scuto-Stickysaurus. Meanwhile Chris Gurney’s up-dated fairy tale, The Frog Footy Player is the 14^th in the Kiwi Corkers series.

Some publishers give books special features to encourage buyers. Jenny Cooper’s splendid picture book, Do Your Ears Hang Low?, includes a CD of the Topp Twins performing the song (as a sequel to the same team’s 2011 version of There’s a Hole in My Bucket). Pio Terei is the vocalist on the CD which comes with Stevie Mahardika’s If You’re a Kiwi and You Know It. Several books now offer stuffed toys, like Craig Smith’s Willbee the Bumblebee. The Wonky Donkey meanwhile goes one better; as well as a stuffed toy, it now offers a miracle of paper engineering, The House that Wonky Built. Junior engineers who enjoy the classic, The Little Yellow Digger by Betty and Alan Gilderdale, can now own a trace ‘n’ race excavator toy version, which comes complete with the book. There’s even The Little Yellow Digger Activity Book.

As the publishing market-place shrinks, many frustrated, would-be writers try printing and selling their own books. Some of their efforts are dire but a few are excellent, like Brent Leslie’s self-published Jock Logan and the Sea Devil, a vivid account of a lad’s seagoing encounter with Count von Luckner.  Craig (Wonky Donkey) Smith created his own company in Queenstown to publish Kaha the Kea, illustrated by Bruce Potter. Like many other publishers, Craig feels the need to bring electronic media and the printed page together. Thus purchasers of Kaha the Kea can also enjoy an animated version on their iPad or computer.

And which of this year’s books will the young readers of 2062 be reading with pleasure?  My pick is David Hill’s best novel yet, a powerful story of dissent and its consequences, My Brother’s War.  The year’s best picture book also deals with the First World War: Glyn Harper’s handsome and moving Le Quesnoy: the story of the town that New Zealand saved, illustrated by Jenny Cooper.

Trevor Agnew

November 2012  

Book list: The Best of 2012:

Le Quesnoy: the story of the town that New Zealand saved, Glyn Harper, ill Jenny Cooper, Scholastic, NZ$20

My Brother’s War, David Hill, Puffin, pb, NZ$19.99
 

The Top Two Dozen of 2012:

Slinky Malinki, Early Bird, Lynley Dodd, Puffin, hb, NZ$24.99

Mr Whistler, Margaret Mahy, ill Gavin Bishop, Gecko, hb, NZ$34.99

Kaha the Kea, Craig Smith, ill Bruce Potter, Craig Smith Publishing, pb, NZ$26

If You’re a Kiwi and You Know It, Stevie Mahardika, Scholastic, pb, NZ$21

The Little Yellow Digger Activity Book, Scholastic, pb, NZ$10

Do Your Ears Hang Low?, ill Jenny Cooper, Scholastic, pb, NZ$26

That Dog at the Beach, Janene Cooper, ill Evie Kemp, Duck Creek Press, hb, NZ$29.99

Te Haere ki te Rapu Pea, Michael Rosen, ill Helen Oxenbury, Huia Publishers, pb, NZ$20

 I Love Lemonade, Mark & Rowan Sommerset, Dreamboat Press, hb, NZ$29.99

The House that Wonky Built, ill Katz Cowley, Scholastic, hb, NZ$29

The Best Singer in the World, Ulf Nilsson, ill Eva Eriksson, Gecko, hb, NZ$34.99; pb, NZ$19.99

The Littlest Angel 6: Lily Gets in a Pink Pickle, Elizabth Pulford, Scholastic pb, NZ$12

Dinosaur Rescue 7: Scuto-Stickysaurus, Kyle Mewburn, Scholastic, pb, NZ$12

The Frog Footy Player, Chris Gurney, ill John Bennett, Scholastic, hb, NZ$18.50

Footsteps Through the Fog, Margaret Mahy, ill Gavin Bishop, Puffin, pb, NZ$20

Small and Tall Tales of Extinct Animals, Hélène Rajcak & Damien Laverdunt, Gecko, hb, NZ$37

The Word Witch, Margaret Mahy, ill. David Elliot, HarperCollins, pb, NZ$40

Read Me Another One, Please! selected by Belynda Smith & Dorothy Dudek Vinicombe, Whitcoulls, hb, NZ$29.99

Born to Fly, Julian Arahanga, ill Andrew Burdan, Huia, pb, NZ$25

Victory at Point 209, Kawata Teepa, ill Andrew Burdan, Huia, pb, NZ$25

Jock Logan and the Sea Devil, Brent Leslie, Brent Leslie Books, pb, NZ$20

The ACB with Honora Lee, Kate De Goldi, Longacre [Random House], hb, $34.99

Alex, Tessa Duder, Whitcoulls Classic, pb, NZ$19.99

The Magic Flute, James Norcliffe, Longacre [Random House], pb, NZ$19.99