The author and illustrator of a book described as a taonga for this generation and the next has taken out the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award for the fifth time.
Gavin Bishop's book Atua: Maori Gods and Heroes was praised by the judges at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, for its sense of magic and the way it celebrates matauranga and te ao Māori.
Bishop spoke to Corin Dann.