Dear Alison by Simon Pollard (editor)

Target age 5+

In July 1942, with a notebook and pencil he had bought from a German guard, Dudley Muff started a very special diary. Dudley was 42 and a prisoner of war in Stalag XVIIIB in Germany when he wrote this diary for his niece, Alison.

Miraculously, the diary survived the war and now serves as a poignant account of one New Zealand soldier’s determination to survive at all costs.

Simon Pollard is Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at Canterbury Museum and Adjunct Professor of Science Communication at the University of Canterbury. In 2007, Simon discovered that the original of the diary that his great uncle Dudley Muff wrote while he was a prisoner-of-war in Germany was at Canterbury Museum. After Penguin New Zealand agreed to publish the diary, Simon spent 18 months, in his spare time, writing an introduction and epilogue to help put the diary in perspective almost 70 years after the end of the war.

Reserve me!

This award allows our toughest critics - New Zealand's young readers - to have their say in the New Zealand Post Book Awards. School-aged children and teenagers from all over New Zealand can vote for their favourite book from among the 20 finalists selected by the judges.

The award winner is announced by young readers at the awards ceremony and the author and/or illustrator of this coveted award wins $1,000.

Each year this award produces an enormous response - proof of its enduring popularity. Book lovers can vote only once, in any form. Every voting card or online vote that is received puts the voter's nominated school in the draw to win $1,000 of Booksellers Tokens.

Voting for 2010 closes at 5pm 30 April 2010.