Storylines and What Now: Kids' Picks 2019

The readers have spoken; the winner of the 2019 Storylines Kids Pick, in association with What Now, is:
The Fire Stallion by Stacy Gregg, published by HarperCollins.
The runner-up books were Lyla by Fleur Beale, published by Allen & Unwin and
1918 Broken Poppies by Des Hunt, published by Scholastic.

Storylines and the producers of the popular TV show What Now worked together to develop a partnership to encourage young New Zealanders to read the best books by New Zealand children’s writers. The incentive to read was an online competition, as we believed that engaging viewers to participate in a vote for a “Storylines Kids Pick” from the Storylines Notable Books Junior Fiction list was a wonderful way to encourage the What Now audience reading the 2019 Storylines selections for the best books published in 2018.

The vote was promoted live on air over two weeks, with presenters directing viewers to the What Now website. There they could find video-reviews of each of the Storylines Notable Books Junior Fiction titles presented by a primary school aged reviewer from Halswell School in Christchurch, where What Now is based., Viewers could watch the short, sharp reviews and select a favourite, with all those entering going into a draw to win a full set of the Storylines Notable Books Junior Fiction books for their school.

What Now reported an ‘unprecedented’ response to the competition promotion with well over a thousand individual and class-based entries. Young people from all corners of New Zealand voted for the book they would most like to read following the What Now ‘booksell’.

The schools winning the ‘lucky draw for a complete set of the Storylines Junior Fiction Notable books’ were Owhata School, Rotorua, and Cobden School, Greymouth.

What Now launched the competition on air on 31 March. Here's a short promo they developed for the competition to coincide with Storylines 2019 Margaret Mahy Medal and Awards Day.

What Now (made by Whitebait Media and in its 39th year on television) is a top-rating, much-loved, madcap, live two-hour show. Broadcast on Sunday mornings on TV2, its target audience is predominantly primary school aged. The show works hard to create a wide range of content for children of all interests and backgrounds.