2002 Children's Book Festival Stamps.

They say a picture paints a thousand words, but words, in turn, inspire pictures? That was the challenge for more than 2,300 schools in the 2002 New Zealand Post Children's Book Festival 'Design a Stamp' competition.
Primary and intermediate students throughout New Zealand seized the opportunity to design a stamp based on one of the finalists in the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. Choosing from three categories - picture book, junior and non-fiction - each child or class endeavoured to create a 'mini artwork' to fit the small stamp format.
The remarkable results led to this unique stamp issue. A national competition decided the 10 winners, whose ages range from five years to twelve years and whose homes span the length of the country.

Miniature Sheet.



40c - 'Cardinal McKeefry School - Wellington.'
National Winner.
Anna Poland, age12 - From Brodie.

40c - 'Glendowie Primary School, Auckland.'
First Runner Up.
Hee Su Kim, age 12 - From The Last Whale.

40c 'Rangiora Borough School, Rangiora.'
Second Runner Up.
Jayne Bruce, age 5 - From Scarface Claw.

40c - 'Ararimu School, Auckland.' gummed stamp.
Teigan Stafford-Bush, age 11 - From Which New Zealand Bird?

40c - 'Gonville School, Whanganui.'
Hazel Gilbert, age 8 - From Which New Zealand Bird?

40c - 'Temuka High School, Temuka.'
Gerard Mackle, age 11 -  From The Plight of the Penguin.

40c - 'Salford School, Invercargill.'
Maria Rodgers, age 10 -  From Scarface Claw.

40c - 'Ararimu School, Auckland.'
Paul Reed, age 12 - From Knocked For Six.

40c - 'Glendene Prinary School, Auckland.'
Jessica Hitchings, Ashleigh Bree, Malyna Sengdara and Aniva Kini, age 10.
From Grandpa's Shorts.

40c - 'Takapuna Normal Intermediate School, Auckland.'
Olivia Duncan, age 12.
From Which New Zealand Bird?


First Day Cover - 5 June 2002.

Technical information.
Date of issue: 5 June 2002.
The number of stamps: 10.
Denominations and designs: 10 x 40c stamps.
Sheetlet: $4.00.
Se-tenant block: $4.00.
Stamps border and first-day cover designed: CommArts Design, Wellington.
Printer and process: Southern Colour Print, Dunedin by offset lithography.
The number of colours: Four process colours.
Stamp size and format: 30mm x 40mm (horizontal).
Paper type: De la Rue 103gsm red phosphor stamp paper.
The number of stamps per sheet: 50.
Perforation: 14 x 14.
Period of sale: These stamps remained on sale until 4 June 2003.


Some of the images in this post were used with permission from the illustrated catalogue of StampsNZ
You can visit their website and Online Catalogue at, http://stampsnz.com/

Information & images for this post came from.