The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) is a not for profit, volunteer run organisation that aims to engage the community with literature for young Australians. The CBCA presents annual awards to books of literary merit, for outstanding contribution to Australian children's literature.
Established in 1945, the Children’s Book Council of Australia was founded at a time when Australian children’s books were few, and Australian authors and illustrators were virtually unknown. In 1946 the CBCA established annual book awards to promote books of high literary and artistic quality. These awards are now the most influential and highly respected in Australia.
Each year, across Australia, the CBCA brings children and books together celebrating CBCA Book Week. Throughout the year, the CBCA works in partnership with authors, illustrators, publishers, booksellers and other organisations in the children’s book world to bring words, images and stories into the hearts and minds of children and adults.
Extract from the CBCA website https://cbca.org.au/about. Retrieved May 2020.
CBCA nominated books are an indication of quality and Tumut High School makes a point of including relevant examples in our collection. Many are acquired through our secondary subscription with Australian Standing Orders.
We make a point of purchasing all of the shortlist (final 6) for the older reader category and any exceptional picture and information books.
We usually have most of the notables (20) from the Older Reader category with some books from the Younger Reader, Picture Book, Information and Best New Illustrator categories.
Links (with DoE sign in) to the THS Oliver Library Management System:
There are six categories in the CBCA Book of the Year Awards:
CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers
Entries in this category may be fiction, drama or poetry and should be appropriate in style and content for readers in their secondary years of schooling. Ages 13-18 years. Note: These books are for the mature readers in this category and some deal with particularly challenging themes including violence and suicide. Parental guidance is recommended.
CBCA Book of the Year: Younger Readers
Entries in this category may be fiction, drama or poetry and should be appropriate in style and content for readers from the middle to upper primary years. Ages 7-12 years.
CBCA Book of the Year: Early Childhood
Entries in this category may be fiction, drama or poetry and should be appropriate in style and content for children who are at pre-reading or early stages of reading. Ages 0-6 years.
CBCA Picture Book of the Year
Entries in this category should be outstanding books of the Picture Book genre in which the author and Illustrator achieve artistic and literary unity or, in wordless picture books, where the story, theme or concept is unified through Illustrations. Ages 0-18 years (NB. Some of these books may be for mature readers).
Eve Pownall Award (Non-Fiction /Informational)
Entries in this category should be books which have the prime intention of documenting factual material with consideration given to imaginative presentation, interpretation and variation of style. Ages 0-18 years.
CBCA Award for New Illustrator (previously the Crichton Award for New Illustrators administered by the CBCA Victorian Branch)
This Award aims to recognise and encourage new talent in the field of Australian children's book Illustration. Ages 0-18 years.
Extract from https://cbca.org.au/shortlist-2020. Retrieved May 2020.
Shortlist: The notables list is then narrowed to six, announced Tuesday, March 30th.
Winners and Honours - announced Friday, August 20th. There are two honour and one winner for each category (except for New Illustrator, which has one winner only).
Watch the 2020 CBCA Shortlist presentation on the CBCA YouTube channel CBCA Shortlist presentation
2020 Foyer Guessing Game
2019 Student dress-ups
2018 Spot the Staff in dress-up
2017 Turning our library into a jungle
