And the winner is….

The Ena Noël Award is IBBY Australia’s Encouragement Award for young creators of Children’s and Young Adult Literature. The Award started in 1994, and Nella Pickup provides us with an overview and the 2022 recipient which has just been announced.

The nominated creator must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident and be under the age of 35 at the time the title (or titles) for which they are nominated was published. Many of the winners have become household names including Markus Zusak, Sonya Hartnett and Tasmania’s own Kate Gordon. Visit IBBY Australia for a complete list of recipients.

To be eligible for the 2022 Ena Noël Award, books had to be published in Australia between 1st July 2019–30th June 2021. The submission closing date was November 30^th, 2021 and judging was completed by the end of January 2022. 

The judging panel comes from varied backgrounds in children’s literature – creators, editors, publishers, librarians and booksellers and usually from different states, in 2022, from Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania. Panellists shared their notes and then met on Zoom. 

In 2022, the panel decided to release the shortlist.  These are the cream of young emerging Australian children’s and young adult book creators. Wish them a long literary future by purchasing their books.

Freda Chiu, A Trip to the Hospital (Allen & Unwin)

Kay Kerr, Please Don’t Hug Me (Text Publishing)

Gary Lonesborough, The Boy from the Mish (Allen & Unwin)

Jessica Miller, The Republic of Birds (Text Publishing)

Kamsani Bin Salleh, What do you call a baby…? (Magabala Books)

Kirli Saunders, Bindi Illustrated by Dub Leffler (Magabala Books)

And the Ena Noël Award medallist for 2022 is Gary Lonesborough, The Boy from the Mish (Allen & Unwin).

You can read more about Gary’s writing in this Kirkus review with Tom Beer.

Nella Pickup

CBCA Tasmania Life Member and IBBY Australia Executive Committee member

Hans Christian Andersen Award nominees for 2022

Every alternate year, IBBY (International Board of Books for Young People) recognises an author and an illustrator for their lasting contribution to the world of children’s literature.   For information about previous winners, current nominees and the Judges panel see https://www.ibby.org/awards-activities/awards/hans-christian-andersen-awards

The Australian nominees for HCA 2022 are Margaret Wild for writing and Tohby Riddle for illustration. We all know their names but who are they and why did IBBY Australia nominate them for this prestigious award?

Margaret Wild

Margaret Wild began writing children’s books in 1983. For 16 years, she combined her own writing career with managing and commissioning children’s books with a range of publishers including Omnibus Books, ABC Books, Methuen and Angus & Robertson. Since 2000, Margaret Wild has been a full-time writer publishing over 100 books. Her range is wide - from lyrical books of everyday domestic issues for the very young to more complex works for old readers. Her themes of homeless, imprisoned, dying, lost and the aged and such social concerns as bullying, divorce and Alzheimer’s disease have been said to be unconventional for children’s books. 

Margaret Wild has also written verse and prose novels, including Jinx (2001) which has been translated into nine languages.  

Her awards for personal achievement include 2020 Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature; 2011 Lady Cutler Award (CBCA NSW); 2008 Nan Chauncy Award for an outstanding contribution to children’s literature in Australia; and the 2001Centenary Medal for service to Australian society and literature.  

Tohby Riddle

Tohby Riddle created his first picture book in 1989. He has contributed cartoons to Good Weekend and The Sydney Morning Herald. A selection of his cartoons was published in What’s the Big Idea? (Penguin Viking, 2003). Riddle’s illustrations and writings have appeared in the NSW School Magazine, where he has been a member of the editorial staff, and was also editor for a time. 

His works include award-winning picture books, non-fiction and fiction for junior readers, television adaptations and a YA novel. His short stories have been anthologised in a number of collections. He has won and been shortlisted for many awards including: 1996 Winner of the IBBY Australia Noël Award for The Tip at the End of the Street (1996); 2001 Joint Winner of the Wilderness Society of Australia Environment Award (Picture Books Category) for The Singing Hat (2000); 2009 Winner Australian Publishers Association Design Awards Best Designed Picture Book Award for Nobody Owns the Moon (2008); 2009 Winner NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature for The Word Spy (with Ursula Dubosarsky) (2008); and 2011 Winner Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year: Older Readers Award for The Return of the Word Spy (with Ursula Dubosarsky) (2010). In 2016, The Greatest Gatsby: A Visual Book of Grammar was shortlisted for a Prime Minister’s Literary Award (Children’s Fiction) and was included on the International Youth Library’s White Ravens list. 

Tohby Riddle’s intertextual art is complex, engrossing and highly literate. What Tohby Riddle brings to his uniquely layered and perfectly calibrated illustrative art is utter integrity, brilliant wit, complex ideas, intellectual rigour and an ability to witness the world with a willingness to question and to challenge orthodoxies. 

Nella Pickup

IBBY Australia Executive Committee member

CBCA 2019 Awards Acceptance speech - Daniel Gray-Barnett

I know I speak for many Tasmanians when I say how thrilled we are when our local residents are recognised for their talents. This week Daniel Gray-Barnett, recipient of the 2019 CBCA Award for New Illustration, shares his recent acceptance speech and a couple of lovely photos taken during the Awards presentation.

Daniel’s talents were recognised for the delightful Grandma Z – the sort of a grandmother that sings to the imaginative, dare devil and adventurous spirit hidden within every child. If you have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Grandma Z watch this preview courtesy of Storybox Library.

Now to Daniel’s acceptance speech…

Daniel Gray-Barnett with his award winning book and medallion

I’d like to thank the Children’s Book Council of Australia as well as the judges for this incredible honour.

A big thank you to my publisher, Miriam Rosenbloom and the team at Scribble Kids for their faith in my work and giving me the opportunity to bring Grandma Z to life. It’s probably fitting that this book didn’t start with a manuscript at all, but with some illustrations of the characters that I did just for fun. I posted them to my Instagram and thought that would be the end of it.

Miriam saw them and convinced me that these characters had a really good story to tell. So we did. I’m very grateful, Miri, for your vision - working on Grandma Z has opened up doors in my career.

My earliest memory of falling in love with books was in Grade 2, when my teacher Ms Wootton, was reading to us The BFG. Of course, there is no question that Roald Dahl’s stories are captivating, but for me, the thing that really hooked me onto this book thing, was Quentin Blake’s illustrations.

Something about his scratchy drawings of a big-eared giant sparked my imagination. It was magical and I was (and still am really) in love. It was a stepping stone to imagining the rest of that world for myself. So for me, and I imagine a lot of other kids, illustration was and is an equally powerful way of connecting with stories and growing a love of books.

To all the teachers, librarians and booksellers who champion illustration and visual literacy with their students and kids - thank you so much, what you do makes a difference.

Daniel Gray-Barnett with Bob Graham at the
2019 CBCA Awards event

I’d like to commend the other artists and their terrific work - what they each do is so unique, skilful and difficult - and it’s important work too. I’m very proud to be in such a talented group.

Lastly, I just want to thank my husband, without his support I would find it very hard to do what I do.

Thank you everyone.

Daniel Gray-Barnett
W: https://danielgraybarnett.com/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/dgraybarnett.illo
T: @dgraybarnett

Editor’s note: Daniel is the guest speaker at the CBCA Tasmania AGM at 11.00 am on the 2 November 2019 at Hadley’s Hotel. RSVP tas@cbca.org.au
Visit https://www.cbcatas.org/ for details.