It’s Book Week!!! Let the Fun Begin

Did you pick a winner? Join Loretta as she revels in the buzz of Book Week – the fun of dressing up as a favourite character and remembering magic moments with special books from past winners as a timely reminder to celebrate the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s 75th birthday. 

Dress up delights

Ms Frizzle. © L.Brazendale

Book Week!  One of my favourite times of the year. I love Book Week and I thought I would reminisce about past Book Weeks and I even got the old photo album out to look at past costumes I have worn to get me into the spirit to write about some of my past favourite picture book CBCA winners. 

I’m so looking forward to this year’s Book Week and sharing a special Book Week celebration with the kids at Burnie Library Kids Book Club! I’m dressing as a character in my favourite picture book that is shortlisted for this year! Clue: my character had the best time at a party. I wish all the short-listed authors and illustrators the best for the 2021 CBCA awards.

Meet: Jillian Jiggs | Pirate | Polly (put the kettle on) | Superhero. © L. Brazendale

Past favourites

1989 – Winner Graeme Base The Eleventh Hour

What a timeless book. I remember my teacher reading this to our class in primary school and just being memorised by the beautiful illustrations and the mystery within this book. Even today this book is still very popular with children. I was very lucky to host an online Q&A session with Graeme Base last year for primary school students and I couldn’t wipe the huge smile off my face because I got to meet (virtually) one of my favourite authors & illustrators. 

1990 – Winner Julie Vivas & Margaret Wild The Very Best of Friends

The beautiful watercolours bring out the characters with strength and believability that are able to set the tone for a heart-warming story that deals with death of a spouse and the effect on the surviving spouse and in particular the cat. The story has a good message and is about true friendship and how you cannot face tough situations all alone. 

1992 – Winner Jeannie Baker Window

Love Love Love this book. I remember borrowing this book many times from the library when I was little and just spending hours upon hours staring at each page and looking at the different changes each page had and letting my imagination run free. Great note  from the author in the back of the book about how quickly our world is changing. I often think of this book now I’m older when I’m traveling through places that I used to visit when I was child and noticing the changes.

1997 – Winner Elizabeth Honey Not a Nibble

This book conjures all the pleasures of summer at the beach. Character Susie is most determined to catch a fish, but she has the least luck. In fact, she catches nothing! (Very relatable for myself) Getting teased by her brothers doesn’t help. I really enjoyed the nature content and the twist at the end was beautiful – in fact Susie was very lucky in the end.

2005 – Winner Alison Lester Are We There Yet?

This book is better than any Australia Travel Guide. This story allows you to take a trip around Australia. My favourite thing about this engaging family vacation story is that each page has a map to show their progress around Australia and the numerous beautiful illustrations to show the different things in nature, cities that the family get to experience. 

Nemo. © L. Brazendale

Loretta Brazendale

Information Services Coordinator
Burnie Library | Libraries Tasmania 

Editor’s note: You can read Loretta’s thoughts on some of the notable and shortlisted titles in an earlier post and discover a host of past winners of the Book Awards through a series of posts on Momo Celebrating Time to Read.