Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) 2025 Notables part one

Image source: Instagram CBCA 

Last night I attended the announcement of the CBCA 2025 Notable titles at an event hosted by the CBCA NSW Branch. I posted my predictions yesterday. 

As usual I picked some and missed lots! Oh, and I am sad about some precious titles that missed out - I am going to talk about them again here because sometimes in the flurry of the Notables, and then later next month with the Shortlisted titles, it can be easy to overlook some other truly splendid titles. You do need to know that I am making an assumption that the books that 'missed the cut', and that I loved, were actually submitted. Books for our CBCA annual awards are submitted by their publisher and there is a fee to pay (up to AUS$199) and a requirement to send five copies of the physical book so while we assume every possible book reaches the judges, I can tell you this does not always happen. 

Before I talk about the 2025 Notables, as I said, I do want to mention a few books that I highly recommend - just because these are not Notables all of these should be added to your school library and all need to be shared or promoted to your readers. I am going to call these:

NOT ables
Picture Books

Missed the cut!

In my review I said: This is also an example of a quiet story.

Make a plan to share this gentle story with a young reader today.

In my review I said: EVERY Primary school library should add Tearaway Coach to their library collection ...  It would be great to compare this book with two older books illustrated by 

Andrew McLean - The Riverboat Crew and The Steam Train Crew.

In my review I said: This book is a perfect addition to a library because it looks at a different war - Vietnam and also it is a book that is accessible for very young children aged 6+.

Now to focus on the 2025 Notables. My previous post only focused on three of the five categories and not Older Readers (Young adult titles) or Eve Pownall (Non Fiction titles). You can see the video announcement here. 

In this post (the first of three) I will talk about the two picture book categories - Early Childhood (ages 0-6) and Picture Book which is about the format of the book and covers all ages (0-18). 

Huge thanks to the Teacher-Librarian at Telarah Public School for creating these posters. 

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Early Childhood Notables are…

• Amid the Sand Dunes by Andrea Rowe, illustrated by Hannah Sommerville (Little Hare)
• The Big Book of Australian Nursery Rhymes by Frané Lessac (Walker Books Australia)
• Dinosaur in My Pocket by Ashleigh Barton, illustrated by Blithe Fielden (Lothian Children’s Books)
• Don’t Worry, Felix by Yohann Devezy & Katharine Alice, illustrated by Zoe Bennett (New Frontier Publishing)
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Tooth Fairy (And Some Things You Didn’t) by Briony Stewart Lothian Children’s Books)
• Good Hair by Yvonne Sewankambo, illustrated by Freda Chiu (Walker Books Australia)
• Happy All Over by Emma Quay (ABC Books)
• How to Make a Bedtime by Meg McKinlay, illustrated by Karen Blair (Walker Books Australia)
• How to Move a Zoo by Kate Simpson, illustrated by Owen Swan (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• I am Tree Rex! by Mo Davey (Berbay)
• Just Like You by Natashia Curtin (Walker Books Australia)
• Kittens Do Not Care for Baths by Ali Rutstein, illustrated by Niña Nill (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• Meerkat Mayhem by Mem Fox, illustrated by Judy Horacek (Penguin Random House Australia)
• The Most Amazing Thing by Ian Hayward Robinson, illustrated by Matt Shanks (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Night Watch by Jodi Toering, illustrated by Tannya Harricks (Walker Books Australia)
• One Little Dung Beetle by Rhian Williams, illustrated by Heather Potter & Mark Jackson (Wild Dog Books)
• Over or Under? by Pip Harry, illustrated by Hilary Jean Tapper (Lothian Children’s Books)
• Reading to Baby by Margaret Wild, illustrated by Hannah Sommerville (Affirm Press)
• Sky Country by Aunty Patsy Cameron, illustrated by Lisa Kennedy (Magabala Books)
• Spiro by Anna McGregor (Scribble)
• To Stir With Love by Kate Mildenhall, illustrated by Jess Racklyeft (Simon & Schuster Australia)
• Two Turtles by Kiah Thomas, illustrated by Jake Minton (Little Book Press)
• Willow’s Gumboots by Beverly McWilliams, illustrated by Hélène Magisson (MidnightSun Publishing)
• The Wobbly Bike by Darren McCallum, illustrated by Craig Smith (Walker Books Australia)
• Worms Are Our Friends by Toni D’Alia, illustrated by Mica Purnell (Bright Light)

Are these three titles below really right for Early Childhood or would they better fit the Eve Pownall award?

I didn't predict One Little Dung Beetle as an Early Childhood selection because I thought it would be in Eve Pownall (Non Fiction). Equally I would most certainly have put How to Move a Zoo in as Non Fiction too. And finally Night Watch to my eye also falls into the Eve Pownall category. These are ALL brilliant books. 

So, of the 25 Early Childhood titles, I predicted (or had read) eight. There are now seventeen titles from this category I need to find and read. 

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Picture Book of the Year Notables are…

• Afloat by Freya Blackwood, text by Kirli Saunders (Little Hare)
• Bernie Thinks in Boxes by Zoe Bennett, text by Jess Horn (Affirm Press)
• Dragon Folding by Lucia Masciullo, text by Christopher Cheng (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Footprint by Sally Soweol Han, text by Phil Cummings (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• For 60,000 Years by Rhys Paddick, text by Marlee Silva (Scholastic Australia)
• The Garden of Broken Things by Freya Blackwood (HarperCollins AU)
• General Waste by Michel Streich (Scholastic Australia)
• Grow Big, Little Seed by Sarah Capon, text by Bec Nanayakkara (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• House by Charlotte Lane, text by Dan Giovannoni (Fremantle Press)
• The Land Recalls You by David Cragg & Noni Cragg, text by Kirli Saunders (Scholastic Australia)
• A Leaf Called Greaf by Kelly Canby (Fremantle Press)
• Listen, Hippo! by Gabriel Evans (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Night Watch by Tannya Harricks, text by Jodi Toering (Walker Books Australia)
• Stickboy by Matt Ottley, text by Rebecca Young (Scholastic Australia)
• The Space Between by Jess McGeachin (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Then and Now by Datsun Tran (Slingshot Books)
• These Long-Loved Things by Ronojoy Ghosh, text by Josh Pyke (Scholastic Australia)
• Three Dresses by Wanda Gibson (University of Queensland Press)
• Tilly in a Tangle by Monty Lee, text by Margrete Lamond (Dirt Lane Press)
• The Truck Cat by Danny Snell, text by Deborah Frenkel (Bright Light)
• Two Turtles by Jake Minton, text by Kiah Thomas (Little Book Press)
• Walking Together by Dub Leffler, text by Coral Vass (Scholastic Australia)
• We Live in a Bus by Dave Petzold (Thames & Hudson Australia)
• Why I Love Christmas by Tom Jellett, text by Michael Wagner (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Words That Taste Like Home by Michelle Pereira, text by Sandhya Parappukkaran (Bright Light)

Of the twenty-five books in the Picture Book category I predicted or mentioned only eight in my previous post. There are now about seventeen books in this section I need to find and read. I already have Stickboy; and Then and Now (and on first glance this one is sure to be short listed - it's a fabulous and very moving book with a quietly understated text). You will notice a couple of books are in both categories - Night Watch and Two Turtles. 

I'm sorry I missed Footprint. I previously talked about this book in a post about picture books that are essentially a poetic or lyrical text and often have no specific narrative. I also overlooked General Waste.

The CBCA reviewing journal is called Reading Time. Here is their page with links to all of their reviews (so far) of the Notable titles. This is a useful resource which you might like to save. 

Little Bones by Sandy Bigna

Did you know

that if you wish for something

in the stealthy shadows of your bedroom,

if you whisper the words

soft as the brush of a moth's wing,

if you feel the words rush through your blood,

your wish might come true.

What was this wish?  Bones has found a tiny bird skeleton.

I close my eyes for a moment,

then whisper

will all the longing in my heart,

I wish I could talk to you,

I wish you were alive.

There are five kids in this story. Bones and two other girls who are just finishing Primary school - Akio and Edie. Akio was a best friend to Bones but then along came - Edie and everything changed. And then a new kid who moves in next door named Tenny. Tenny is gender neutral:

Tenny kicks their legs against the dumpster,

just staring and chewing gum.

And the fifth kid is Nico. Spoiler we gradually discover he has died in a terrible accident. Bones now lives with her Nonna because mum has left to work up North. They do talk on the phone but the connection is often disrupted by bad reception and Bones misses her desperately.

Here are some text quotes to give you an idea about the tone and plot of this story:

It was Edie who gave me my nickname:

Bones.

She thinks it's an insult

but I've claimed it as my own.

Bird has a sweet sense of humour:

'Oh ...

umm ... I guess I meant

I wished you were alive

the way you once were,

with feathers and skin and ...'

Bird stares at me

with his hollow eye sockets.

'Well, you could have specified that.'

Wishing for a once-living thing

to be alive again,

the way it was,

goes against the laws of nature.

I cannot be as I was,

so the moons' power has transformed me into

something

no creature should be.

Bones has no idea how to reverse the curse but then she remembers her brother had a book called The Encyclopedia of Moon Magic. Alas, when Tenny and Bones go to the library they discover the book is out on loan. Now the hunt is on. They need to find this book, and they need to complete the ritual with Bird by the light on of the next full moon. Wait any longer and Bird will be trapped forever. There is also another major problem. Bones cannot, will not, ever return to that place in the forest. (Note the library visit scene on pages 84-87 would be a great passage to use if you are book talking Little Bones although this does contain the spoiler that Nico has died). 

There are several references to the story of Icarus in this book so familiarity with this famous myth could help the reader anticipate Nico's fatal accident. As the text says:

His favourite was

the story of Icarus

(the boy who flew so close to the sun

that his wings melted

and he fell

to his watery death).

I am not sure if this word is too strong but in some ways the journey taken by Bones to restore Bird back to his resting place feels like atonement. And there are also themes of grief, healing, and making new friends. Bones has witnessed the fatal fall of her brother as he climbed a tree to return a baby bird back to its nest. It was at her urging that he was hurrying. 

When I opened the parcel from University of Queensland Press (UQP) I actually squealed - a verse novel! An Australian verse novel! Little Bones is a debut novel for Sand Bigna. This book will be published on 4th March. It is always wonderful to share verse novels with students in a library. This one will be enjoyed by readers aged 10+. I also expect to see Little Bones listed as a 2026 CBCA Younger Readers Notable title. 

Here are the teacher notes - they are very detailed. You can meet the author at an event in Canberra on 19th March, 2025.

I was interested to read this from Sandy Bigna. You can find her on Instagram.

How did Little Bones come to be? Much of this book was written over a summer break when I had the freedom to dream, play and create. The voice of Bones came to me first, and along with her voice came an image of a lonely girl who collected animal bones and was dealing with issues of loss and fractured friendships. The story idea was inspired by my own fascination with animal bones – the symbolism of them, the way they tell a story of life rather than death. Growing up in Canberra, with its rich and evocative wetlands, bushland and forest areas, inspired the setting for this story.

Other books and verse novels that explore the loss of a sibling or a significant family member. In each of these we follow the journey of grief through to some level of acceptance or restoration.

Right as Rain

My Brother Finch

It is interesting to link Nico with Finch because both boys really embrace life.

Bird

The Probability of Everything

Telephone of the Tree

Picasso and the Greatest Show on Earth

Bridge to Terabithia

Meet me at the Moon Tree

Wild wings

In the Garden with Flori by Sonja Danowski translated by Marshall Yarbrough

Young readers will gasp - there is a moment in this book when Linn makes a terrible mistake. Her grandfather has had an accident, and he is in hospital. Linn offers to care for his precious greenhouse garden. There is a hint in these words:

"Inside, in the greenhouse, Grandpa grew flowers and vegetables ... because they were inside, the delicate plants were protected from pests and bad weather."

Linn has taken her dog Flori to help with the garden but Flori is more interested in digging. He finds a way to dig under the wall of the greenhouse and escape into the garden. This means that something from outside can come in but Linn does not know this. When she arrives at the garden the next day it has been decimated by snails!

How can Linn tell her grandfather? He will be so disappointed. In the illustration above you can see part of the solution. Linn's friend Emi loves to paint. She paints a set of pictures showing the way the garden should look. Of course Linn still has to confess about the snails but luckily there is a happy ending because the digging by Flori has unearthed Grandpa's precious old watch that he thought was lost forever. 

The last two pages of this book give readers some facts about snails. See inside this book here. 

Young readers are sure to be fascinated by all the flower names mentioned in this book - marigolds, lupis dahlias, bellflowers, hostas, along with vegetables such as squash and kohlrabi. 

The German title of this book is Im Garten mit Flori.

I met Sonja Danowski at a USBBY conference and ever since that time I have had several of her books on my wish list. Last week I decided to purchase a few books from my lists and one of them was this book which I so happy to add to my own bookshelves. I previously talked about Little Night Cat.

Anticipating the Night of the Notables

 

Tonight (February 25, 2025) the CBCA judges will reveal the Notable titles which consist of up to 25 books in each of the five Book of the Year categories. In another literary competition a list like this might be called the Longlist but I do prefer the name Notable.  There are in fact six CBCA categories but New Illustrator only has a short list of six.

The exact wording from the CBCA rules states: Judges may decide on a Notables list of up to 25 books entered in each category. It is made of the best 25 books entered in each category, as judged by the category judge panel.

Of course I have not read every book that was submitted. Just t give you an idea of the volume of reading by the judges when I was a picture book judge (2021-2023) over the two years we were sent over 450 picture books to read and discuss.

Here are a few of my predictions in Younger Readers and Early Childhood/Picture Book of the Year.

Younger Readers

Entries in this category are 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.

Leo and Ralph

Bravepaw

A Small collection of Happinesses

Something Somewhere

The Cave

The 113th Assistant Librarian

The Midwatch

All the Beautiful Things

The Lost History

The Kindness Project

Andromache Between Worlds

There are two books which I have also read which I think better fit the Older Readers category - Thunderhead by Sophie Beer and Laughter is the best ending by Maryam Master. 

As I write this post I have also started reading We do not Welcome our ten-year-old Overlord by Garth Nix. I am enjoying this science fiction story.

Other titles which might make the Younger Readers cut are Six Summers of Tash and Leopold by Danielle Binks; My Brother Finch by Kate Gordon; Cora seen and Heard by Zanni Louise; The Apprentice Witnesser by Bren McDibble; Esme in the Limelight by Kate Gordon; and To and Fro by Anton Clifford-Motop. I also wonder if the Verse Novel The Riding Gallery by Sally Murphy will be included. 

I keep seeing the series 11 Ruby Road being recommended but I have not yet read any of these books by Charlotte Barkla. And I also missed reading Small Acts by Kate Foster and Kate Gordon. 

POST UPDATE I also need to mention Countdown to Yesterday which, given the gift of hindsight, I would most certainly have said this book would be a notable and on the shortlist and in the top three and even possibly the winner! Alas that didn't happen but I was slightly placated when I saw Kirkus gave Countdown to Yesterday a star review. 

Countdown to Yesterday

Early Childhood or Picture Book category

Early Childhood: Entries in this category are 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). Books aim to introduce new concepts and/or vocabulary with particular attention on developing reading skills. This includes works of fiction, poetry, wordless, board and concept books. There is a strong sense of “show. don’t tell” throughout the book.

Picture Book: Entries in this category are 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. In the case of wordless picture books, the illustrations alone successfully convey a cohesive story The illustrations are an integral part of or extend the meaning on the page. Books in this category can be suitable for any audience within the range 0 to 18 years

What stars are for

Listen Hippo

The Wobbly Bike

The Truck Cat

Bowerbird Brood

Tearaway Coach!

The Hidden Hat

Over or Under?

To Stir with Love

Imagine a Time

Three Dresses

Bernie thinks in Boxes

The Doll Box

Happy All Over

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Tooth Fairy

Other picture book possibilities: Words that taste like Home by Sandhya Parappukkaran illustrated by Michelle Pereira; The Garden of Broken Things by Freya Blackwood; Afloat by Kirli Saunders Illustrated by Freya Blackwood; and Nightwatch by Jodi Toering illustrated by Tannya Harricks (could be entered in Eve Pownall Non Fiction). I also read General waste by Michel Streich; 

In the Picture Book category Stickboy by Rebecca Young illustrated by Matt Ottley is sure to be a Notable.

I haven't seen these but they are on my to read list: Today by Robert Vescio illustrated by Felicity Byrne; Walking Together by Coral Vass illustrated by Dub Leffler; The Mosaic by Deborah Kelly illustrated by Nicki Johnson; When the Lights went out by Lian Tanner illustrate by Jonathan Bentley; and Not Scary, Jonathan by Peter Carnavas illustrated by Amanda Francey.