Scholastic New Zealand Award
for Best Children’s Book 2025
Finalist
Designer: Cat Taylor, Cat Taylor Design
Title: The Witch of Maketu and the Bleating Lambs
Publisher: Penguin Random House NZ
Format: 285 x 240mm, 32pp, paperback, section sewn, cover with matt lamination, spot UV.
Typography: Title font: Bunny Galore
Body font: Filson Pro
We used a drop cap and an accent font (Bunny Galore) to pick out words for extra impact when read aloud.
Anika’s text includes hilarious asides that were originally written in brackets in the text, but these felt a little intrusive and risked readers losing the thread of the story. Instead we provided for them with footnotes – a bit unconventional for a children’s picture book, but we wanted to give the reader the option to go down the rabbit hole or sail on past, according to the moment or the audience.
Publisher's Brief
"The brief was to design a contemporary picture book taking inspiration from the illustrator’s previous work for Anika Moa’s Songs for Bubbas 2 album art, and also to reference old-timey fairytales and classic tales that end with a moral.
Aligning with Anika Moa’s cheeky and expressive storytelling, we wanted the book to look a bit subversive and irreverent and deliciously spooky and kooky – but as a story with an antagonist/baddy as the main character (e.g. Badjelly the Witch, How the Grinch Stole Christmas) we needed to play up the humour and imaginative element, and make sure it didn’t look too scary for its preschool audience. Nobody wants tears at bedtime or bad dreams from a children’s book.
We were also inspired by the illustrator’s pastel colour palette (which also positioned the book’s mood away from scary to fun) and linework, and aimed to be sympathetic to the curve, lightness and playfulness of her compositions."
