CBCA 2022 Book of the Year short list

The CBCA have been awarding our Australian Children's books for 76 years. 

I have been a judge for this year (Picture Book of Year and New Illustrator) and so I cannot go into any detail about the books but I wanted to share the six short lists with you.  This is always an exciting day. Here is a link to all of the titles in the six categories and from this link you can also read the critiques written by the 15 judges.  Here is a video where you can see all of the books close up:

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.

Younger Readers (you could use my side bar search to check out my blog post about each of these)

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.

Early Childhood Picture Book

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. 

Eve Pownall (Non Fiction)

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.

I am not able to share anything about the New Illustrator or Picture Book of Year at this time. But here are the general descriptions. 

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

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.

Earlier today five children's book experts shared their own favourite books from 2021 eligible for the 2022 awards.  This presentation used to be called the Claytons short list. Each of the panellists took a different approach. One presented all of their favourite Young Adult (Older Reader titles) - well over 15 books you could add to a High School Library. Two of the presenters selected just six which mirrors the actual short list and one presenter included two of their favourite well designed fiction books from past years (2019 and 2020) as well as their choices from 2021. All five speakers offered amazing wisdom by talking about plot, illustrations, themes and book design. This event is run by the CBCA NSW branch each year. It may not be too late for this year because the videos will be available for a couple of weeks. The presentations by the Claytons judges is a terrific resource because you will hear about so many wonderful books that you might like to add to your school library or add to your own reading list. There are only 30 books on the CBCA short list but in 2021 hundreds of terrific books were published. 

Happy Short list Day to everyone!