KOALAs 2018 winners announced

The winners of the 2018 Kids Own Australian Literature Awards (KOALAs), the children’s choice book awards for New South Wales, have been announced.

The winners and honour books in each category are:

Picture Book

• Do Not Open This Book Again! (Andy Lee, illus by Heath McKenzie, Lake Press)

Honour books

• Chip (Kylie Howarth, Five Mile)
• Pig the Star (Aaron Blabey, Scholastic)

Fiction for younger readers

• WeirDo: Really Weird! (Anh Do, illus by Jules Faber, Scholastic)

Honour books

• The Bad Guys Episode 5: Intergalactic Gas (Aaron Blabey, Scholastic)
• Ella Diaries: Pony School Showdown (Meredith Costain, illus by Danielle McDonald, Scholastic)

Fiction for older readers

• The 91-Storey Treehouse (Andy Griffiths, illus by Terry Denton, Pan)

Honour books

• Aquatica (Lance Balchin, Five Mile)
• Funny Kid for President (Matt Stanton, ABC Books)

Fiction for years 7-9

• The Fall (Tristan Bancks, Random House)

Honour books

• Maybe (Morris Gleitzman, Penguin)
• The Secrets We Keep (Nova Weetman, UQP).

The awards were announced at Cranbrook Junior School in Sydney on 8 November. Winners are 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), Victoria (YABBAs) and the Northern Territory (KROC Awards).

For more information about the KOALAs, visit the website.

Category: Awards Junior Local news