YABBAs 2014 winners announced

The winners of the Young Australian’s Best Book Awards (YABBAs), Victoria’s children’s choice awards, have been announced for 2014.

The winning titles are:

Picture storybooks

• The Dreadful Fluff (Aaron Blabey, Viking)

Fiction for younger readers

• Billie B Brown: The Best Project (Sally Rippin, illus by Aki Fukuoka, Hardie Grant Egmont)

Fiction for older readers

• The 39-Storey Treehouse (Andy Griffiths, illus by Terry Denton, Pan Macmillan)

Fiction for years 7-9

• The Last Thirteen Book 1: 13 (James Phelan, Scholastic).

The awards were presented at Hillcrest Christian College in Melbourne on 28 October.

The Graham Davey Citation, presented in memory of former YABBA president Graham Davey, was awarded to Carole Wilkinson for the ‘Dragonkeeper’ series (Black Dog Books). Now in its second year, the citation recognises ‘a person and/or work that through craft or contribution has made an impact on children’s literature’. 

John Flangan’s ‘Ranger’s Apprentice’ series (Random House) was inducted into the YABBA Hall of Fame. ‘Once a book has been nominated five times, but has yet to win a YABBA we feel it deserves recognition for the special place it occupies in the hearts and minds of Victorian children,’ said YABBA organisers.

The winners of this year’s awards were selected from the Reading & Enjoying Australian Literature (REAL) Awards shortlist, which also acts as a shortlist for the children’s choice awards in the Australian Capital Territory (COOL Awards), New South Wales (KOALAs) and the Northern Territory (KROC Awards).

For more information about the YABBAs, visit the website here.