The Adventure Begins with the Night of the Notables

Great adventures require planning. This week’s announcement of the CBCA Notable Book Awards is the first step in planning your Book Week adventure and joining in CBCA’s 80^th birthday celebrations.
Whoopee!

The adventure has begun! 

 

This week heralded the first step in building anticipation for the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year announcement on August 15, and, to kick off Book Week. From the many, many books that judges read, the Notable lists represent those that the judges felt were high quality examples of Australian children’s books published in 2024. The Night of the Notables included a video show with famous Australian book creators providing an introduction to the categories followed by a visual display of the book covers. Jess McGeachin, author and illustrator and this year’s designer of the art work to support the Book an Adventure theme, introduces the presentation. The words of wisdom and support from Briony Stewart, Shaun Tan and Meg McKinlay also provide young fans an opportunity to connect to familiar authors. Tristan Bancks concludes the presentation with information about the Shadow Judging. The Notable lists provide a long list of books in each category that are well worth spending time with – for reading, sharing and adding to collections. From these the coveted Short Lists are identified and these will be announced on March 25. 

 

With the announcement of the 2025 Notable books the long lead into Book Week and the Book of the Year celebrations has begun. How marvellous to have such early insights into those books that the judges have read, pondered and debated. A guide to the 2025 Notables is available from the CBCA eStore with short reflections on each title across all the categories. You can also search for reviews on CBCA's online review journal Reading Time. For educators, it is time to start reading and to explore the possibilities of involving a group of children in the Shadow Judging Book of the Year Awards program so that you are ready to start once the Shortlist is announced. The video and Tristan’s enthusiasm are sure to capture the interest of many readers.

 

Having a long lead time allows keen readers to explore the longer lists and then narrow their focus on short listed titles well in advance of Book Week. This enables lovers of children’s literature time to engage with and discuss a breadth of books and ensure that young people are provided with a range of quality titles to read themselves, or have read to them. If you are wondering just where to start, I highly recommend exploring the Tasmanian inclusions for amazing stories, stunning illustrations and engaging and fascinating information. Congratulations to our Tasmanian Notable inclusions:

 

Older Readers 

• My Brother, Finch by Kate Gordon (Riveted Press)

Younger Readers 

• Small Acts by Kate Gordon & Kate Foster (Walker Books Australia)

Early Childhood 

• Sky Country by Aunty Patsy Cameron, illustrated by Lisa Kennedy (Magabala Books)

Eve Pownall 

• Before the Mountain had a Name by Fiona Levings (Forty South Publishing)
• Extreme Animal Facts by Jennifer Cossins (Lothian Children’s Books)
• Into the Ice: Reflections on Antarctica by Alison Lester & Coral Tulloch (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Too Many Tigers by Monica Reeve (Forty South Publishing) 
• Wedge-tailed Eagle by Claire Saxby, illustrated by Christina Booth (Walker Books Australia) 

Jennie Bales

CBCA Tasmania Social Media Coordinator, retired teacher librarian and academic. Reader!

Finding books that are just the right fit

Choosing the right books to nurture a love of reading is vital and this week’s guest author taps into personal and professional knowledge gained as a bookseller and a parent. Read on for some great insights and suggested titles to whet the reading appetite for different aged readers.

As a bookseller and a parent I thought I’d share with you what my kids have been reading over summer and our families journey in reading so far.

 

My husband grew up in a bookshop and whilst his bookselling parents read to him often and shared books, he regards himself as a reluctant reader until he found the ‘Tomorrow When the War Began’ book series by John Marsden as a teen.  So my message here is, “don’t panic if your kid isn’t a reader yet,” maybe they just haven’t found what they love.

 

I was a voracious reader who happily accompanied my grandparents on their weekly library trip as well as made great use of my school libraries as a child and teen.  Yes, I’ve tried to make my kids love the books I loved growing up.  Sadly, nothing captured them quite like it did me, but we’ve found that letting them discover what interests them is more likely to keep them reading.

 

We have three boys and whilst two are now independent readers and in high school, the third Mr6 is still emerging and we continue to grow his confidence in learning to read.  So lets starts with what’s been working to engage my smallest (I’d rather be outdoors) child in reading.

 

We’ve been loving Sally Rippin’s School of Monster series, we started with me reading the majority of the words and him just reading the coloured word at the end of each sentence (this took the pressure off and made it easy for him at the end of a long day as we usually read before bed).  He’s now following the stories and adding in extra words as he recognises them and particularly likes the green/yellow/red new word breakdown at the end of each story in the bind-up sets.

 

I also like to have a novel we’re reading together that’s just for the joy of sharing a story, a recent read we enjoyed was Bravepaw and the Heartstone of Alluria by L M Wilkinson. And on those nights where we just need a quick read to share we still return to picture books, a recent favourite is When the Lights Went Out by Lian Tanner. 

 

My middle child Mr12 while now a fully independent reader, found the move from illustrated chapter books to chapter books harder as he loved the easy read and dislikes change.  He struggled to find what he liked on offer in upper primary reads.  After many try’s and fail’s we figured out he likes a puzzle or a mystery to solve and interpersonal dynamics at play. Some titles that have worked for him in the last year are:

 

*  Escape Room by Christopher Edge was the book that helped me find what he liked.

* We loved Stewart Foster’s Books, Check Mates and All the Way Down being two popular titles.

* The Spy Academy series by Jack Heath have been a great quick action packed read for him.

* The Cherub series by Robert Muchamore kept him busy for a while thanks to the number of titles on offer.

*  His most recent read was The Bletchley Riddle by Ruth Sepetys & Steve Sheinkin.

My eldest Mr14 has always been a book lover, he just reads and reads and reads. His upper primary years had him bent over the pages of both fiction and non-fiction war stories which then progressed to the dystopian offerings of The Maze Runner, The Divergent series and the Gone series. He loved Tomorrow when the War Began by John Marsden and The Cherub series by Robert Muchamore just to name a few.

 

These were some of his summer reads (I’m jealous of all the time he has to dive into a great book);

 

*  The Outsiders by S E Hinton

*  The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku 

*  The Last Reality series by Jason Segel 

*  The Jack West Jnr series  and the Scarecrow series and everything else he could get his hands on by Matthew Reilly.

Andy Durkin

Bookseller at Petrarch’s Bookshop

W: https://www.petrarchs.com.au/ 

FB: https://www.facebook.com/petrarchs/#

I: https://www.instagram.com/petrarchs/ 

Editor’s note: It is wonderful to see such an exciting list of titles that will appeal to boys! Just a note of caution that as the main characters in the Cherub series age and mature, so too do some of the themes.

Share a book on International Children’s Book Day

Have you ever enjoyed a book so much, you have wanted to tell everyone about it, rushed out to buy copies for family and friends or placed holds on copies of the author’s other titles? Research by Clarke et al. (2017) found that many Tasmanian adults enjoy sharing books as members of book clubs. IBBY Tasmanian members are providing a similar opportunity through ‘book sharing’ for young readers across Tasmania to talk about and promote their favourite books.

At last year’s IBBY Congress in Trieste, approximately 20 students from several European countries complained bitterly that adults were not sharing good books and that young adults themselves had little opportunity to share their favourites with other young adults. This led to a small group of enthusiastic IBBY/CBCA members deciding to encourage Tasmanian teachers, parents and grandparents to set aside 20 minutes on April 2 for students/children to share the books they love. Why that date? Wednesday April 2 is Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday also known as International Children’s Book Day.

Bradley (2018) champions recommendations from peers as the best way to inspire students to read. For suggestions on starting a culture of book sharing, Miller considers the importance of adults in sharing their own favourites but that ultimately “No matter how good we are at making book recommendations to a fifth grader, the best person to make a book recommendation to a fifth grader is another fifth grader” (Colby Sharp, 2017). 

Another idea drawn from Miller (2014) and expanded on by Jennifer Findley (n.d.) is book commercials along with other suggestions for providing opportunities for students to make personalised recommendations to their peers of the books that they have read and enjoyed. Further suggestions for celebrating books and reading can be found on BubbleUpClassroom. 

As well as providing young readers with the opportunity to talk about their favourite recent reads, IBBY, Tasmanian children and teenagers are invited to submit a brief paragraph (no more than 50 words) to promote their chosen book and convince others that the book is so good that they want others to read and enjoy it. There are some engaging examples of peer book recommendations on a recent CBCA Tas blog post: What are teenage boys reading for pleasure? Insights from a school library. For those who need some guidance the following prompts provide some pointers to get started: 

• Why did you enjoy the book so much?
• What did you find most thought-provoking or compelling about the storyline or characters? (Don’t re-tell the story!)
• What is the main reason you’d recommend this book to someone else/ what would be the main reason you'd give them to convince them to give it a read? 
• Who do you think would enjoy reading this book?

Email your submission to ibbyicbdau@gmail.com  

Please include the child’s given name, age, and location. Selected reviews will be added to IBBY Australia website. Submissions close Friday 11 April.

 

References

 

Bradely, L. (2018, 27 Feb). How to get your students to read more? Peer recommendations. KQED: In the Classroom. https://www.kqed.org/education/530724/how-to-get-your-students-to-read-more-peer-recommendations

 

Clarke,  R., Hookway, N. & Burgess, R.  (2017). Reading in community, reading for community: A survey of book clubs in regional Australia. Journal of Australian Studies,  41(2), 171-183. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2017.1312484

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317280010_Reading_in_Community_Reading_for_Community_A_Survey_of_Book_Clubs_in_Regional_Australia 

Colby Sharp. (2017, 25 October). The book Whisperer Donalyn Miller talks about books. YouTube. https://youtu.be/5aVS_Gmi1ls?si=nJVknMfu61cdDlMM 

Miller, D. (2014). Reading in the wild: the book whisperer’s keys to cultivating lifelong reading habits. Jossey-Bass.
[Held by Libraries Tasmania along with other books by this inspiring advocate for reading.]

 

Nella Pickup, reader, grandparent of readers, IBBY & CBCA TAS member 

Jennie Bales, CBCA Tasmania Social Media Coordinator, retired teacher librarian and adjunct lecturer.

Editor’s note: Although written submissions are limited to Tasmanian entries, anyone, anywhere, can set up a book sharing session – at school, at home, in a library, in a bookshop or with friends. Join in and celebrate International Children’s Book Day on April 2.

Why not share a favourite children’s book here?

Celebrating 80 years of CBCA

This year, and into 2026, the Children’s Book Council of Australia is celebrating 80 years of Australian stories. What a proud and dynamic time this has been for children’s book publishing with some significant highlights shared here.

2025 marks 80 years since CBCA commenced in Australia, with the aim to promote and foster quality literature for children. The first Book of the Year was awarded in 1946, to Leslie Rees’ book Karrawingi the Emu (illustrated by Walter Cunningham and published by John Sands). Nan Chauncy Award winner, Mem Fox (2017) mentions, (in her award speech), about the joy of reading Leslie Rees’ books whilst living in South Africa as a child, and then being able to meet him in person, on her return to Australia as an adult. 

Celebrations will continue into 2026 as we commemorate 80 years of the Awards. In 1946 (and previous years) there were few books being published specifically for children, and it is of note that in 1952 an additional category (Picture Book of the Year) was established; perhaps the awards sparked interest in writing for children. In 1982 the Book of the Year Award was separated into Younger Readers and Older Readers categories. In 1988 the Eve Pownall (non-fiction) and New Illustrator Awards commenced; and finally in 2001 Early Childhood category was first presented. You can view the list of these awards on the CBCA website.

CBCA is also well known for the quality merchandise created each year to support the Children’s Book Week theme: in 2025 we are invited to Book an Adventure! (with artwork by Jess McGeachin). As well as the usual items, you are able to purchase a ‘passport’ for you/your child/your students to record a year of adventures. There will be more merchandise lines added to the website soon – so maybe wait a bit if you intend to buy! If you have not done so already, you can access your free year planner on the home page of the CBCA website.

Each year many schools and public libraries celebrate Children’s Book Week by hosting dress-up days/parades. A wonderful way to bring books to life.

In recent years CBCA has also commenced Shadow Judging of the Book of the Year Awards. Schools register to judge the shortlisted books in one of the categories and based on the same criteria used by the Book of the Year Judges, they nominate the book they deem worthy of the Award. These are now announced at the same time as the Book of the Year Awards. We witnessed at the 2024 Book Week celebration at Government House the depth to which these young people consider their choice.

What is your favourite title that has won a CBCA Award? Ivan Southall’s Ash Road won in 1966. In 1967 I was in Grade 4 at school in Hobart when the Black Tuesday bushfires swept through southern Tasmania on the first day of term. When I came across this book in Grade 6 it took no imagination to identify with the children’s experiences. In my first year as a teacher-librarian, I was thrilled when Ruth Park’s Playing Beattie Bow won. I also recall the excitement when Robin Klein and Emily Rodda suddenly appeared in the short lists in 1983 and 1984.

I look forward to February 25 when the notables are announced and March 25 when the shortlists are announced.

Felicity Sly is Treasurer of CBCA Tasmania, and a recently retired teacher-librarian.

Editor’s note: Thanks Felicity, you have certainly jogged my memories and provided inspiration for the celebrations to come. I too loved Playing Beattie Bow. 

My pick in my first year as a teacher librarian way back in 1984 was Bertie and the Bear by Pamela Allen – a book that still delights today as a read aloud AND, of course, Possum Magic by Mem Fox. This year also heralded the introduction of Penny Pollard in Penny Pollard’s Diary, by Robin Klein. The original cover was perfect!!!!

Are you a reader?

Happy new year to all our readers, and welcome back to another year of the CBCA Tas blog. Thanks to Maureen Mann for starting the year with a challenge to examine our own reading commitment.

As this new year begins, my social media seems to have been filled with book related items. Many of them I ignored, but every so often something piqued my interest. Are you a reader of books or listener of audiobooks? 

We all read every day but it’s frequently not sustained reading. Our reading ranges from the incidental of signs and notices in our everyday lives. It includes the time, (and for so many) it’s probably too long, on social media. Or all the reading we do within our working days, while looking at screens. 

But reading a book or listening to an audiobook requires us to concentrate for a much longer period. So, this time I am focussing on some of the things I have found, hoping to inspire the less frequent readers among you to do more.

100 Things We’ve Lost to the Internet by Pamela Paul, published 2021. The title intrigued me and so I thought of some of the things I have lost. These include: the excitement of seeing photos just back from the developer; hard copy newspapers every day; not making eye contact with people outside: everyone is glued to their device; maps and atlases for serendipitous travelling. 

A review by Kate W in booksaremyfavouriteandbest lists them all with her comments. What have you lost? 

 

66 days to learn to love reading again, an article published in the online Guardian newspaper, by the Australian journalist Doosie Morris (8 January, 2025), encourages those who have lost the mojo for reading in a sustained way. She says that all one needs is just under 10 weeks to change your habits. 

The CBCA Tas Facebook page reposted Mike Lucas’s Book Week poem, celebrating 80 years of the CBCA Book of the Year Awards. It’s the first I have seen of many which will celebrate this year’s milestone. 

Brisbane Libraries are encouraging children to register to create their own library display. Each month someone is chosen as Kid Librarian. What a fantastic idea. Wish I had thought of it while I was still working. What theme would you choose to highlight, even though you’re probably not a kid librarian?

Libraries Tasmania recently released the most popular books of 2024, over several categories, and for physical as well as eLibrary items. Does this kind of list help you in your reading journey? If you haven’t already seen it, have a look here. 

Do you have a new year reading goal? Is your aim to read more than you did last year? Or expand your reading beyond your normal choices? 

And finally, a few books which I have enjoyed recently.

Maureen Mann
Retired teacher librarian and avid reader