Children's Book Council of Australia Younger Readers Notables

 

Dreaming with Eyes Open 2022 Slogan

On Tuesday this week (22.2.22) the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) announced the 2022 book award notable titles in five categories.

Here are a few things you need to know:

• Notables are like a long list.  This year there are over 100 books on the list.
• To be eligible for this award a book must be published in the year prior to the announcement. So books that win the award in 2022 were published in 2021. The book must also be Australian. Here is the full and official list of criteria. 
• There are six categories for these awards - Older Readers; Younger Readers; Early Childhood Picture books: Picture Books; Eve Pownall (non fiction); and New Illustrator
• The New Illustrator list does not include a set of notable titles
• The Notables were announced this week; the next step is the short list - or the top six books in each category. These will be announced on 29th March. (check back here later for details of the NSW event on this date)
• For the 2022 awards there were  total of 553 entries Older Readers: 62, Younger Readers: 129, Early Childhood: 111, Picture Book: 179, Eve Pownall: 72.  (New Illustrator had just over 40 entries)
• The February issue of Reading Time has a list of all the Notables with links to the Reading Time reviews where these have been completed. On this page you can also see the full bibliographic details for each book (Author, Title, Publisher, ISBN). 
• For 2022-23 I am a judge in the Picture Book and New Illustrator categories so I am unable, at this time, to talk about those books. You can be sure I will share them with you once the winners etc are announced in August. 

For this post I will share links to my reviews of the Younger Readers Notables:

Always Morris Gleitzman 

Are You There, Buddha? Pip Harry 

Cranky Chicken Katherine

Cuckoo’s Flight Wendy Orr 

The Detective’s Guide to Ocean Travel Nicki Greenberg 

Dragon Skin Karen Foxlee 

The Edge of Thirteen Nova Weetman 

Eliza Vanda’s Button Box Emily Rodda

Elsewhere Girls Emily Gale & Nova Weetman

Exit Through the Gift Shop Maryam Master Astred Hicks 

Footprints on the Moon Lorraine Marwood

Fozia and the Quest of Prince Zal Rosanne Hawke 

A Glasshouse of Stars Shirley Marr 

The Good Times of Pelican Rise: Save the Joeys Samone Amba 

Huda and Me H. Hayek 

Listen, Layla Yassmin Abdel Magied

Little Gem Anna Zobel 

Mim and the Baffling Bully Katrina Nannestad and Cheryl Orsini 

Mina and the Whole Wide World Sherryl Clark Briony Stewart

My Brother Ben Peter Carnavas 

Night Ride into Danger Jackie French 

Pawcasso Remy Lai 

Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief Katrina Nannestad

The Right Way to Rock Nat Amoore 

Seven Wherewithal Way Samantha-Ellen Bound

Wednesday Weeks and the Tower of Shadows Denis Knight & Cristy Burne

Here is a further, more detailed explanation of each CBCA award category:

CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers

Entries in this category should be books for young people aged between 13 and 18 years (secondary school level). Readers require a degree of maturity to appreciate the themes and scope of emotional involvement. Books in this category may be fiction, drama, illustrated text, poetry or graphic novels.

CBCA Book of the Year: Younger Readers

Entries in this category should be books published for children in the age range from 7 to 12 years (lower to upper primary school level). Books in the category may be fiction, drama, graphic novels, illustrated text or poetry.

CBCA Book of the Year: Early Childhood

Entries in this category should be books suitable in content and style for pre and beginning readers for children in the age range 0 to 6 years (pre-school and infant level). This include works of fiction, poetry, wordless, board and concept books. The illustrations reflect all the text on the page and often do not add extra meaning to the storyline. 

CBCA Picture Book of the Year

Entries in this category should be books of the genre in which the text and illustrations achieve artistic and literary unity and the story, theme or concept is enhanced and unified through the illustrations. A picture book can be written and illustrated by a sole creator or a collaborative effort between two or more creators. The text and illustrations work cohesively. The illustrations are an integral part of or extend the meaning on the page. The age range for this category is 0 to 18 years.

Eve Pownall Award 

Entries in this category should be books with the prime purpose of documenting factual material. Consideration should be given to imaginative presentation, interpretation and variation of style. This includes works of non-fiction, autobiographies and biographies. This does not include activity books, text books or procedural texts. The age range for this category is 0 to 18 years.

CBCA Award for New Illustrator 

Entries in this category are for books where the illustrator is emerging or new to the field of children’s book illustration. The entry must be the illustrator’s first children’s illustrated book published where illustrations form a significant part of the book’s narrative or information content. The age range for this category is 0 to 18 years.