CBCA 2025 shortlists announced

The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has announced its shortlist for the 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards.

The shortlisted books in each category, selected from the 2025 Notable Books list announced last month, are:

Book of the year: Older readers

• Birdy (Sharon Kernot, Text)
• Comes the Night (Isobelle Carmody, A&U Children’s)
• I’m Not Really Here (Gary Lonesborough, A&U Children’s)
• Into the Mouth of the Wolf (Erin Gough, HGCP)
• The Skin I’m In (Steph Tisdell, Macmillan)
• A Wreck of Seabirds (Karleah Olson, Fremantle)

Book of the year: Younger readers

• Aggie Flea Steals the Show! (Tania Ingram, illus by Anne Yi, Scholastic)
• Fluff: Mess Up! (Matt Stanton, ABC Books)
• Laughter Is the Best Ending (Maryam Master, illus by Astred Hicks, Pan)
• Saskia Spark-Lee: Fundraiser Fail (Rebecka Sharpe Shelberg, illus by Sofya Karmazina, Walker)
• Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger (Jackie French, HarperCollins)
• To and Fro (Anton Clifford-Motopi, A&U Children’s)

Book of the year: Early childhood

• Don’t Worry, Felix (Yohann Devezy & Katharine Alice, illus by Zoe Bennett, New Frontier)
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Tooth Fairy (And Some Things You Didn’t) (Briony Stewart, Lothian)
• How to Move a Zoo (Kate Simpson, illus by Owen Swan, A&U Children’s)
• One Little Dung Beetle (Rhian Williams, illus by Heather Potter & Mark Jackson, Wild Dog)
• Spiro (Anna McGregor, Scribble)
• The Wobbly Bike (Darren McCallum, illus by Craig Smith, Walker)

Picture book of the year

• A Leaf Called Greaf (Kelly Canby, Fremantle)
• Afloat (Kirli Saunders, illus by Freya Blackwood, Little Hare)
• The Garden of Broken Things (Freya Blackwood, HarperCollins)
• These Long-Loved Things (Josh Pyke, illus by Ronojoy Ghosh, Scholastic)
• The Truck Cat (Deborah Frenkel, illus by Danny Snell, Bright Light)
• We Live in a Bus (Dave Petzold, Thames & Hudson)

Eve Pownall Award

• Always Was, Always Will Be (Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson, Magabala)
• Design & Building on Country (Alison Page & Paul Memmott, illus by Blak Douglas, Thames & Hudson)
• Flora: Australia’s Most Curious Plants (Tania McCartney, NLA)
• I Am a Magpie, I Am a Currawong (Bridget Farmer, Black Cockatoo Books)
• Making the Shrine: Stories from Victoria’s War Memorial (Laura J Carroll, The Crossley Press)
• South with the Seabirds (Jess McGeachin, A&U Children’s)

CBCA Award for New Illustrator

• Digger Digs Down (Huni Melissa Bolliger, written by Johanna Bell, UQP)
• Grow Big, Little Seed (Sarah Capon, written by Bec Nanayakkara, Bright Light)
• The Land Recalls You (David Cragg & Noni Cragg, written by Kirli Saunders, Scholastic)
• Peek-a-Boo Lottie (Kristen Willis, written by Laura Holloway, Five Mile)
• Raymaŋgirrbuy dhäwu, When I was a Little Girl (Kylie Gatjawarrawuy Mununggurr, Magabala)
• A Teaspoon of Light (Nisaluk Chantanakom, written by Peter O’Connor, Dirt Lane).

The winners of the 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards will be announced on 15 August. The Sun Project: Shadow Judging Book of the Year, for which groups of young people across Australia vote for one winner per category from the 2025 shortlist, will also be announced on 15 August.

Children’s Book Week will run on 16–23 August.

More information about the CBCA Awards and this year’s Notables list is available on the CBCA website.

Category: Awards Local news