Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards announced

The winners and honour books for this year’s Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards, one of the most influential awards on the Australian children’s book scene, have been announced.

The winners include: the picture book A Walk in the Bush (Gwyn Perkins, Affirm Press); junior fiction titles Rodney Loses It (Michael Gerard Bauer, illus by Chrissie Krebs, Omnibus) and How to Bee (Bren MacDibble, Allen & Unwin); the YA novel Take Three Girls (Cath Crowley, Fiona Wood & Simmone Howell, Pan); and the junior nonfiction book Do Not Lick This Book (Idan Ben-Barak, illus by Julian Frost, Allen & Unwin). Rovina Cai won the debut illustrator award for her work on the picture book for older readers, Tintinnabula (Margo Lanagan, Hardie Grant Egmont).

Erin Gough’s Amelia Westlake (Hardie Grant Egmont), which tells the story of an unlikely friendship between two girls at an elite private school, has won the Readings Young Adult Book Prize.

Vikki Wakefield’s Ballad for a Mad Girl (Text) and Allison Rushby’s The Turnkey (Walker Books) have won the YA and children’s novel categories, respectively, at the Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women.

Shortlists have also been announced for the Inky Awards for YA literature, which are chosen by a panel of teen judges, and the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards, which aim to ‘promote quality Australian books that help children get the best, most literate start in life’.

Category: Think Junior awards