CBCA Book of the Year 2025 Awards

How did I go with my predictions?
Image source (you can see all the winners here)

Younger Readers - YES I did pick the winner BUT NO I did not pick the honour titles (see below)

Early Childhood Picture book - I picked ALL three but in the wrong order

Picture Book of the Year - I picked ONE of the three but not the winner

All up it as been quite controversial year for me. I did not like three of the Younger Readers shortlisted titles but the judges awarded honours to two of them!  I was absolutely certain Afloat would win the Picture book category - at least it did get an honour. But what happened to A Leaf Called Greaf - this is a book that should travel beyond our shores to other English speaking countries such as US, Canada, and UK. It can stand up with the very best books about life and grief and sadness and healing - a spectacular book. I do hope it reaches an international audience. 

For the first time I attended a 'live' event where the winners were announced along with a celebration of another initiative run by the CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) called shadow judging. I have mixed feelings about this program. These awards are designed to reward literary excellence. YES we do want our young readers to read and enjoy them and this might seem strange but this is not the main focus of the judging. The shadow judges (small teams of readers in a range of schools) read the six short listed books and then select their 'winner' based on criteria.

In contrast the 15 adult judges read hundreds of books and spend around 8 months reading, thinking, writing reports, and meeting to talk about the books. I worry that the hoopla over the shadow judging 'winners' detracts from the importance, and dare I say gravity, of the real awards. On the other hand I was impressed by the short reviews given by students at this event today - all of these students, who judged either Older Readers and Younger Readers, had very clearly thought deeply about the books and the themes and story structures. There were 12 Shadow Judges at the event today who each spoke for 3 minutes. There were 380 school teams - I am not sure if this is in NSW or across Australia. 

There was a loud cheer for Laughter is the best Ending and for The Truck Cat which I am sure every child there had enjoyed this year as the selected book for National Simultaneous Stort time. That means this book did have an extra special amount of exposure with our students in their schools and school libraries. I previously talked about Birdy, Spiro and South with the Seabirds.

Here are a few snippets of comments from the twelve students. I worked with some students from one of my local schools and I was thrilled to see the way her speech had incorporated ideas from every member of their Shadow Judging team.

Some comments by students:

• Narrative tension
• Another masterpiece
• Messy complicated relationships
• A book not just to be read - it is to be felt!
• Intriguing whirl-wind
• Relevant social commentary
• Evocative and realistic
• Cheeky humour
• Rich life lessons
• Real life situations
• Vivid portrayal of change
• Clever cover and word play in the title
• Resilience to cope with failure
• Easy to read and easy to follow the plot

Here are the 2025 honour titles:

One Dung Beetle

How to Move a Zoo

Afloat

These long-loved things

Some thoughts about the CBCA event today at the State Library of New South Wales:

• The lovely new auditorium holds 144 people. Unfortunately there were slightly too many people/students at the event and so adult visitors had to stand at the back. 
• Craig Silvey was one of the guest presenters but his contribution was via video. He did share the first chapter of his forthcoming sequel to Runt (CBCA Younger Readers winner in 2023). The new book is Runt and the Diabolical Dognapping.

• This does not matter at all but I did observe that of the twelve shadow judging student presenters most were from independent schools and only one was a boy. AND yippee it was the boy who bravely said his allocated book was not his favourite of the six Younger Readers short listed titles - his honesty was fabulous. (His choice was Laughter is the best Ending).

Here are the full details of the winners in the six categories (Source CBCA):