The Joy Cowley Award was established by Storylines Children's Literature Foundation of New Zealand in 2002 to honour the outstanding contribution to children's literature by Joy Cowley.
The Award is for a picture book manuscript, of no more than 1000 words, for children 0–7 or 7–13 years and is awarded annually, when merited. It consists of an award of NZ$1500 with an offer of publication by Scholastic New Zealand.[1]
Entries close 31 October each year. The award is announced each year in March and the book published the following year. The entrants must be residents of New Zealand.
| Year | Author | Book | Refs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | The Biggest Number in the Universe | [2] | ||
| 2004 | The Waka | |||
| 2005 | Kiss! Kiss | Yuck! Yuck | ||
| 2006 | The Puppet Box | |||
| 2007 | no award | |||
| 2008 | Tiny Miss Dott and Her Dotty Umbrella | |||
| 2009 | Magpie Mischief | |||
| 2010 | Out of Bed, Fred! | |||
| 2011 | Wooden Arms | |||
| 2012 | Alphabet Squabble | |||
| 2013 | I Can't Imagine How it Happened | |||
| 2014 | Stan the Van Man | |||
| 2015 | Witch's Cat Wanted, Apply Within | |||
| 2016 | The Curious Ar-chew | |||
| 2017 | no award | |||
| 2018 | Elaine Bickell | The Little Ghost Who Lost Her Boo | ||
| 2019 | Janelle Wilkey | Omeletta Hen | ||
| 2020 | Tania Sickling | Grandpa Versus Swing | ||
| 2021 | Kirsty Wadsworth | "Ihaka, the Unexpected Visitor" | ||
| 2022 | Melanie Koster | "Tama and the Taniwha" | [3] | |
| 2023 | Kristin Kelly | "The Squeaking" | [4] |