“Seeing Finn now, as this young boy who’s so expressive and beautiful and open and sensitive and just so fully himself – the thought of him having to restrict himself as he grows older is really upsetting for me.”
A Guide to Rocks (Huia Publishers) was named the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year, described by the judges as “storytelling at its finest”.
It’s the second time the Waikanae-based pair have taken out the top prize at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. In 2019, they won for The Bomb, about a boy searching for the secret to a perfect manu.
A Guide to Rocks also won the 2026 BookHub Picture Book Award, while its te reo edition, He Taonga te Toka, translated by Kawata Teepa (Tūhoe, Te Whakatōhea), received the Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for a Book Translated into Te Reo Māori.
The couple have worked with Huia, an independent Māori publisher, since 2013. In her day job, Cotter writes for children’s television, while Morgan (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata) is a visual designer and freelance illustrator.
Morgan says he put a lot of himself into the father in A Guide to Rocks, drawing on his own whakapapa for a whānau wall that illustrates how the family’s “rocks rulebook” has been passed down through the generations.
Illustrator Josh Morgan drew on his own whakapapa for some of the family portraits pictured here.
Two of the portraits were inspired by an early ancestor who came to New Zealand from Ireland as a whaler in the 1800s and the Māori woman he married on the East Coast.
What Morgan wanted to show was that the fathers might have been misguided, handing down a strict set of rules, but loved their sons and were trying to do their best.
A lot of men – and he’s talking from personal experience – still think they have to fix things themselves.
“The book is about carrying those heavy feelings, but also the problems we hold in, because we think letting anyone else help is a sign of weakness,” he says. “So, it’s also about the dad and the son finding a way to really connect.
“It actually takes a lot of courage to bring someone in, to be vulnerable and open up about that stuff. At home, we try to share those experiences with our kids. For me, it’s also showing them that a man can say sorry when he’s messed up.”
Other awards presented on the night:
Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction: Dreamslinger (Penguin Random House) by Graci Kim. “Meticulous world‑building and characterisation are expertly combined with a humming plot.”
Wheelers Books Award for Young Adult Fiction: The Lost Saint (Allen & Unwin) by Rachael Craw. “A world full of sensory detail and unpredictable peril.”
Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction: Whenua: Māori Pūrākau of Aotearoa (Hachette) by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu). “An instant classic.”
Russell Clark Award for Illustration: Kupe and the Great Octopus of Muturangi (Allen & Unwin) by Mat Tait (Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne o Wairau). A retelling of the pūrākau of Kupe and his people chasing the great octopus of Muturangi across the ocean to Aotearoa.
Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award for a Book Originally Written in Te Reo Māori: Kupe me te Wheke nui a Muturangi by Mat Tait (Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne o Wairau). “An outstanding contribution to Māori children’s literature.”
NZSA Best First Book Award: Te Onehaumako (Huia) by Zeb Tamihana Nicklin (Pāhauwera, Ruapani, Tūhoe, Tāmanuhiri). A “truly memorable” young adult novella written in te reo Māori.
Joanna Wane is a senior lifestyle writer with a focus on social issues and the arts.