On Saturday 31st October, a capacity crowd of 120 excited children along with their responsible adults, CBCA members and a number of local authors and illustrators gathered at C3 Conference Centre in Hobart to celebrate this wonderful milestone in the Book of the Year Awards.
President Steve Martin opened proceedings before passing the MC role over to Jennie Bales. Jennie described the newly created webpage, Notably Tasmanian, which has been developed to showcase Tasmanian authors and illustrators whose works have been recognised in the Book of the Year awards: as a notable or short list title, and highlighting those who have been short-listed or received Honour book or Winner in the relevant category.
Jennie introduced Jedda Robaard who illustrated Where the River Runs Free (written by Vikki Conley) about children out on a walk searching for a platypus in the river (the inspiration for this Platypus themed event and its location on the banks for the Hobart Rivulet). Jedda read this lovely book to an eager young audience and then showed them how to draw a platypus — simple lines and shapes — with varying successes but delighting all participants. Some of the attending adults - including illustrators - had fun following along.
TasWater sponsored the afternoon – thank you so much. Their book, Saving the Creek: The Water Guardians, was freely available. Kate Beard, from TasWater introduced the Water Guardians Water Literacy Program and went on to both entertain, and educate, the crowd. With the help of 13 young volunteers Kate kept her audience enthralled telling the story of a creek developing into a river and having to cope with the many pollutants which make their way into waterways. Each young volunteer added the contents of a small container into a jug to show, by the end, just how dirty our water can become. Along the way, Kate suggested solutions and improvements to reduce the pollution. It was a great session. Thanks Kate.
As with all good birthday parties, a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday was followed by guests collecting their cake, and eating it! A very big thanks to Felicity for the lovely cupcakes complete with a chocolate platypus on top – thoroughly moreish, and a popular feature that was greatly admired, and then devoured.
CBCA Tas also thanks Hobart Bookshop for providing the opportunity for some retail therapy with a range of representative titles available for purchase, and to local business, Red Parka, for kindly donating the thank you gifts for our presenters – beautiful platypus pins to remind them of the event. It was also great to see the creators who attended as they informally mingled and chatted to the audience – a real treat for all.
Which titles do you remember from past Book of the Year Awards? Check out the Notably Tasmanian webpage and downloadable PDF to see if there was a Tasmanian involved in recent years.
Maureen Mann
Retired teacher librarian and avid reader
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