On Friday 18 August 2023 the Children’s Book Council of Australia announced this year’s winners in the following categories:
- Older Readers
- Younger Readers
- Early Childhood
- Picture Book
- Eve Pownall Award
- CBCA Award for New Illustrators
The CBCA announced this year’s winners in the video below. All books can be borrowed or reserved at Cockburn Libraries now.
Book of the Year: Older Readers
Entries in this category may be fiction, drama or poetry and should be appropriate in style and content for readers in their secondary years of schooling. Ages 13-18 years. Note: Books in this category are for mature readers and some may deal with particularly challenging themes including violence and suicide. Parental guidance is recommended
Winner
Neverlanders by Tom Taylor, with illustrations by Jon Sommariva
Bee and her fellow runaways are their own found family. So when a stranger named Paco saves her life, Bee invites him to join their crew, thinking he’s another lost teen. The truth is Paco’s not just a lost teen, he’s a Lost Boy from Neverland. And he needs Bee and the others to come back with him. When the group is then spirited away by a foul-mouthed Tinker Bell, they discover that Neverland is not some fun-filled hideaway. It’s a war zone under siege by a horde of pirates with a merciless new leader who will stop at nothing to steal the land’s magic. Tink leads a fairy army that barely holds them at bay. Peter Pan is gone. And rest of the Lost Boys have been killed. Paco is all that remains… but he hopes that this group of teens will become the new Lost Ones. These young runaways may be Neverland’s only hope – but they’re about to learn that it’ll take a lot more than happy thoughts to win a war.
Honour Book
Completely Normal (and Other Lies) by Biffy James
Love has rules. So does grief. And Stella Wilde’s about to break them all… Stella Wilde is secretly in love with Isaac Calder. He already has a girlfriend — the gorgeous Grace Reyes — but he seems to love Stella back. He even promises Stella he’ll break up with Grace. But then Isaac is killed in a car accident, and Stella is left wondering who Isaac really had feelings for. So when Stella and Grace unexpectedly become friends, Stella hides the fact that she and Isaac were together. After all, being friends with Grace — at least until the truth comes out — is completely normal. Isn’t it?
Honour Book
The Other Side of Tomorrow by Hayley Lawrence
What if you thought you had forever … to live your life, to tell your story. But what if forever was taken from you? When your tomorrows are counted, all you have is this moment. And this story you wish was never yours to tell. When Abby traded her life in the city for a wholesome new life on the coast, it was meant to be a fresh start for her family. Behind them was the sickness and sadness of the past. But sickness doe not always play by the rules. And as Abby’s past threatens to swallow her future, she is forced to decide what is most important. What she will fight for. And she will fight. For however many days she has left.
Book of the Year: Younger Readers
Entries in this category may be fiction, drama or poetry and should be appropriate in style and content for readers from the middle to upper primary years. 7-12 years. Note: Some of the titles in this category may only be suitable for readers who are in the upper primary years as they contain mature themes, including violence. Parental guidance is recommended.
Winner
Runt by Craig Silvey
Annie Shearer lives in the country town of Upson Downs with her best friend, an adopted stray dog called Runt. The two share a very special bond. After years evading capture, Runt is remarkably fast and agile, perfect for herding runaway sheep. But when a greedy local landowner puts her family’s home at risk, Annie directs Runt’s extraordinary talents towards a different pursuit – winning the Agility Course Grand Championship at the lucrative Krumpets Dog Show in London. However, there is a curious catch: Runt will only obey Annie’s commands if nobody else is watching. With all eyes on them, Annie and Runt must beat the odds and the fastest dogs in the world to save her farm.
Honour Book
Evie and Rhino by Neridah McMullin, with illustrations by Astred Hicks
1891. On a stormy night off the coast of southern Australia, a ship transporting a cargo of exotic animals tosses and turns in enormous seas. Rhino senses they are in grave danger… Not far away, ten-year-old Evie and her grandfather shelter in their crumbling, once-grand old home. They know too well how deadly storms can be. When all is calm, Evie treks over the dunes to the sea and makes a discovery that will change her life, and Rhino’s, forever. Will the tragedies of their pasts finally be put to rest?
Honour Book
The Raven’s Song by Zana Fraillon and Bren MacDibble
“We’ve been told over and over we’re the generation that waits for the world to recover. We endure the heat. We endure the storms, the wrecking floods, the long droughts, the days of smoke as fire burns, coz this is what the honoured earth does when she’s trying to recover.” Shelby and her best friend Davy live quiet low-tech lives in a closed community that is made up of exactly three hundred and fifty kind, ethical people living on exactly seven hundred hectares. When they climb through a hole in the perimeter fence to venture into the surrounding jungle, what they find is more astonishing than anything they could have imagined. And when Shelby realises the terrible danger that is unfolding, it will take all of her daring and determination to ensure the past does not repeat itself.
Book of the Year: Early Childhood
Entries in this category may be fiction, drama or poetry and should be appropriate in style and content for children who are at pre-reading or early stages of reading. Ages 0-6 years.
Winner
Where the Lyrebird Lives by Vikki Conley, with illustrations by Max Hamilton
High in the mountains through the sleepy clouds. Deep in the forest past the chiming birds. Will we see the lyrebird? I don’t know. Tip-toe, tip-toe. The beauty of the Australian rainforest and the magic of family-time come together in this lyrical and delightful story of intergenerational connection, habitat and adventure.
Honour Book
Bev and Kev by Katrina Germein, with illustrations by Mandy Foot
Bev is tall and Kev is small. An unlikely pair! Could this be the beginning of a very big friendship? A tale about learning to love yourself and the value of a true friend.
Honour Book
Snap! by Anna Walker
Tap, tap, tap. Frog thinks there’s no one else in the forest, but you never know what’s just around the corner… A rollicking and hilarious soundscape adventure for the smallest of readers.
Picture Book of the Year
Entries in this category should be outstanding books of the Picture Book genre in which the author and illustrator achieve artistic and literary unity or, in wordless picture books, where the story, theme or concept is unified through illustrations. Ages 0-18 years. (NB. Some of these books may be for mature readers).
Picture Book of the Year
My Strange Shrinking Parents by Zeno Sworder
“It goes without saying that we all believe our parents to be strange. Mine were unusual for a different reason than most. So begins an imaginative account of growing up different, the transformative power of love and the shape that a life can take.”
Honour Book
Dirt by Sea by Tom Jellett, and written by Michael Wagner
Daisy lives in inland Australia with her dad and her grandparents. It’s home, and she loves the red dirt land around her. But when her dad realises that she’s never seen the beach and thinks the Australian anthem is about a country ‘dirt by sea’, he sets off to show her the ocean in a once-in-a-lifetime father-daughter trip along the Australian coast, inspired by the first holiday he took with Daisy’s mum.
Honour Book
Paradise Sands: A Story of Enchantment by Levi Pinfold
When a young girl and her brothers step into the ghostly Paradise Sands hotel, they fall under the rule of the mysterious Teller. She makes a deal with him to free them all from his haunting paradise. But can she hold up her side of the bargain?
Eve Pownall Award (for Information Books)
Entries in this category should be books which have the prime intention of documenting factual material with consideration given to imaginative presentation, interpretation and variation of style. Ages 0-18 years. Note: Books in this category are for mature readers and some may deal with particularly challenging themes including violence and suicide. Parental guidance is recommended.
Winner
DEEP: Delve into Hidden Worlds by Jess McGeachin
What hidden worlds lie beneath your feet? Or in the deepest parts of the ocean, where not even sunlight can reach? Come on a journey to meet glowing deep-sea creatures, zombie-making fungi and the trillions of tiny workers that live inside your own body. But be warned, things can get a little strange in the deep… Deep is an illustrated non-fiction book that explores the places hardest to reach, from the molten depths of our planet to the frigid depths of outer space. Linking seemingly diverse subject matter, it invites the reader to explore worlds hidden from view.
Honour Book
Come Together: Things Every Aussie Kid Should Know about the First Peoples by Isaiah Firebrace, with illustrations by Jaelyn Biumaiwai
In this book, Isaiah, a Yorta Yorta and Gunditjmara man, establishes a foundation of First Nations knowledge with 20 key topics and connects us to each topic through his own personal story and culture, from the importance of Elders to the Dreaming.
Honour Book
Wild Australian Life by Leonard Cronin, with illustrations by Chris Nixon
From a leading expert and visual artist comes this celebration of the astounding diversity of Australia’s animal kingdom. More than one million animal species make their homes in Australia from the deepest oceans to the tops of mountains and the harshest deserts. But just how do they survive?
CBCA Award For New Illustrators
This Award aims to recognise and encourage new talent in the field of Australian children’s book illustration. Ages 0-18 years.
Winner
Tiny Wonders by Sally Soweol Han
Bursting with colour, Tiny Wonders is the story of a small child trying to bring wonder back to her town through the language of flowers, from talented Korean-Australian artist Sally Soweol Han. April thinks if her town was a colour, it would be grey. Everyone is too busy to stop and look around. How can she help them slow down? When she remembers the happiness that dandelions brought her grandmother, April comes up with a plan… Bursting with colour, this is a sweet story about flowers, family and the wonders children wish for.
