French honour for Aotearoa writer
Tania Roxborogh has won a 2026 Étoiles Bleues – Ados award in France for the French edition of Charlie Tangaroa and the Creature from the Sea (Huia Publishers).
The prize, run by Le Collectif Génération Mer, celebrates stories that help teens connect with the ocean and our natural world.
“It means a great deal to me that a story about a Māori boy from Aotearoa New Zealand has crossed the ocean and been welcomed in France,” says Tania.
“Stories connect us, and I think our oceans connect us too. In Charlie Tangaroa, the sea isn’t simply the setting for the story. Charlie’s identity and whakapapa are connected to Tangaroa and to the moana. If we understand the ocean as something we are in relationship with, rather than simply something we own and use, that changes how we behave towards it.”
