The Children’s Book Council of Australia 2015 Short List and Notables

The Children’s Book Council of Australia awards are the most highly regarded children’s/YA lit awards within the industry and in the wider community. If you want to compare them to something, they are a little like the Man Booker Awards of the children’s literature industry. Tonight on 612ABC Brisbane, I chatted with with David Curnow about the 2015 Short List on our regular Tuesday night gig, ‘Bookworms’. The soundcloud of our chat is here. 

Australia has an incredibly diverse, vibrant and fabulous children’s literary community which produces some of the best children’s books in the world and the CBCA Book of the Year Awards recognize some of this exceptional talent each year, through the notables, short lists and Book Week celebrations. The theme for Book Week 2015 is ‘Books Light Up Our World’ and I have about a million ideas for this floating around in my already very crowded head!

Much like stickers many of us choose our wine based on the stickers on the bottle, many of us choose books to read based on the number of stickers on a cover. The CBCA stickers carry a hefty weight in terms of literary honour, and are widely recognized by parents and children alike as they select books from their public or school library, or at their local bookstore.

The awards were established in 1946, with the first winners receiving a camellia flower, before generous donations ensured a monetary prize for each category. The CBCA Awards Foundation was established in 1995 and in excess of a million dollars has been raised to ensure the future and independence of these important awards.

The Short List and Notables for 2015 can be used as a buying guide for home, school and library collections as they are an excellent starting point for parents and teachers looking to read the crème de la crème of children’s/YA literature in Australia. With five categories of book awards, there is a book to suit children from birth to 18 years old, and their parents and teachers!  The rigorous process of CBCA judging ensures the books on the Notables list are of a high literary standard. It is important to keep in mind that the CBCA Book of the Year Awards are based on the literary merit of each book and are not children’s choice/popular awards.

Each category contains a large range of books, suitable for different age groups, and parents/teachers should assess the themes and content of an individual book before choosing it for their child or classroom.

To add these books to your home, school or library collection, click on title links.

The 2015 Short List

Older Readers Category

Nona and Me (Clare Atkins), Black Inc. Press

Intruder (Christine Bongers), Random House Australia. My full review is here and I KNEW this one would be on the short list (takes a bow).

Are You Seeing Me? (Darren Groth), Random House Australia

The Protected (Claire Zorn), UQP . My full review is here and I KNEW this one would be on the short list (just saying)

The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl (Melissa Keil), Hardie Grant Egmont

The Minnow (Dianna Sweeney), Text Publishing

The full Notables list is here. 

 Younger Readers Category

Two Wolves (Tristan Bancks), Random House Australia. My full review and gush and love of this book is here.

The Simple Things (Bill Condon, ill. Beth Norling), Allen and Unwin

The Cleo Stories (Libby Gleeson, ill. Freya Blackwood), Allen and Unwin

Bleakboy and Hunter Stand out in the Rain (Steven Herrick), UQP. My full review of this book is here. 

Figgy in the World (Tamsin Janu), Omnibus Books, Scholastic Australia

Withering-by-Sea: a Stella Montgomery Intrigue (Judith Rossell), ABC Books, Harper Collins Australia. My full review of this book is here.

The full Notables list is here. 

Early Childhood Category 

Pig the Pug (Aaron Blabley), Scholastic Press, Scholastic Australia

Scary Night (Lesley Gibbs, ill. Stephen Michael King), Working Title Press

Go to Sleep, Jessie! (Libby Gleeson, ill. Freya Blackwood), Little Hare, Hardie Grant Egmont

A House of her Own (Jenny Hughes, Jonathan Bentley), Hardie Grant Egmont

Snail and Turtle are Friends (Stephen Michael King), Scholastic Australia

Noni the Pony Goes to the Beach (Alison Lester), Allen and Unwin

The full Notables list is here.

Picture Book Category

Rivertime (Trace Balla), Allen and Unwin

My Two Blankets (Freya Blackwood, text. Irena Kobald), Little Hare, Hardie Grant Egmont

One Minute’s Silence (Michael Camilleri, text. David Metzenthen), Allen and Unwin

The Duck and the Darklings (Stephen Michael King, text. Glenda Millard), Allen and Unwin

The Stone Lion (Ritva Voutila, text. Margaret Wild), Little Hare, Hardie Grant Egmont

Fire (Bruce Whately, text. Jackie French), Scholastic Press, Scholastic Australia

The full Notables list is here. 

Eve Pownall Award for Information Books

A-Z of Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land (Simon Barnard), Text Publishing

Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia (Demet Divaroren and Amra Pajalic, editors), Allen & Unwin

Mary’s Australia: How Mary Mackillop Changed Australia (Pamela Freeman), Black Dog Books, Walker Books Australia

Emu (Claire Saxby, ill. Byrne, Graham), Walker Books