CBCA Awards 2020 shortlists announced

The shortlists for this year’s Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards have been announced.

The shortlisted titles are:

Older readers

• The Boy Who Steals Houses (C G Drews, Hachette)
• How It Feels to Float (Helena Fox, Pan)
• Ghost Bird (Lisa Fuller, UQP)
• When the Ground is Hard (Malla Nunn, A&U)
• Four Dead Queens (Astrid Scholte, A&U
• This Is How We Change the Ending (Vikki Wakefield, Text)

Younger readers

• The Little Wave (Pip Harry, UQP)
• The Thing About Oliver (Deborah Kelly, Wombat Books)
• The Dog Runner (Bren MacDibble, A&U)
• Catch a Falling Star (Meg McKinlay, Walker)
• The Glimme (Emily Rodda, illus by Marc McBride, Scholastic)
• The Secrets of Magnolia Moon (Edwina Wyatt, illus by Katherine Quinn, Walker)

Early childhood

• We’re Stuck! (Sue deGennaro, Scholastic)
• One Runaway Rabbit (David Metzenthen, illus by Mairead Murphy, A&U)
• Bat vs Poss (Alexa Moses, illus by Anil Tortop, Lothian)
• When Billy Was a Dog (Kirsty Murray, illus by Karen Blair, A&U)
• My Friend Fred (Frances Watts, illus by A Yi, A&U)
• Goodbye House, Hello House (Margaret Wild,illus by Ann James, A&U)

Picture books

• Hello Lighthouse (Sophie Blackall, Orchard)
• Nop (Caroline Magerl, Walker)
• I Need a Parrot (Chris McKimmie, Ford Street)
• Three (Stephen Michael King, Scholastic)
• The Good Son: A story from the First World War, told in miniature (Pierre-Jacques Ober, illus by Jules Ober & Felicity Coonan, Walker)
• Tilly (Jane Godwin, illus by Anna Walker, Scholastic)

Eve Pownall Award for information books

• The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Ugly Animals (Sami Bayly, Lothian)
• Searching for Cicadas (Lesley Gibbes, illus by Judy Watson, Walker)
• A Hollow is a Home (Abbie Mitchell, illus by Astred Hicks, CSIRO Publishing)
• Wilam: A Birrarung story (Aunty Joy Murphy & Andrew Kelly, illus by Lisa Kennedy, Walker)
• Young Dark Emu: A truer history (Bruce Pascoe, Magabala)
• Yahoo Creek: An Australian mystery (Tohby Riddle, A&U)

Crichton Award for new illustrators

• Louie and Snippy Save the Sea (Grant Cowan, text by Collette Dinnigan, Berbay)
• Paperboy (Bethany Macdonald, text by Danny Parker, Dirt Lane Press)
• Fly (Jess McGeachin, PRH)
• Cooee Mittigar: A story on Darug songlines (Leanne Mulgo Watson, with Jasmine Seymour, Magabala)
• Baby Business (Jasmine Seymour, Magabala)
• Little Bird’s Day (Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr, text by Sally Morgan, Magabala).

The shortlisted books were chosen from the Notable Books list, which was announced in February.

The winners will be announced in Adelaide on 21 August.

For more information about the CBCA Awards, see the CBCA website.

Category: Awards Junior Local news