The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) has announced their Book of the Year Awards winners for 2021. These Awards celebrate the best Australian books for readers in early childhood up to young adult readers.

Here are the winners for each category.

Older Readers (for ages 13-18 years)

The End of the World is Bigger Than Love by Davina Bell

Identical twin sisters Summer and Winter live alone on a remote island, sheltered from a destroyed world. They survive on rations stockpiled by their father and spend their days deep in their mother’s collection of classic literature-until a mysterious stranger upends their carefully constructed reality.

At first, Edward is a welcome distraction. But who is he really, and why has he come? As love blooms and the world stops spinning, the secrets of the girls’ past begin to unravel and escape is the only option.

Honour Books:

• Metal Fish, Falling Snow by Cath Moore
  
• Where We Begin by Christie Nieman
  

Younger Readers (for ages 8-12 years)

Aster’s Good, Right Things by Kate Gordon

Each day Aster must do a good, right thing - a challenge she sets herself, to make someone else’s life better. Nobody can know about her ‘things’, because then they won’t count. And if she doesn’t do them, she knows everything will go wrong. Then she meets Xavier. He wears princess pajamas and has his own kind of special missions to make life better.

When they do these missions together, Aster feels free…but if she stops doing her good, right things will everything fall apart?

Honour Books:

• The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst by Jaclyn Moriarty & illustrated by Kelly Canby
  
• Worse Things by Sally Murphy & illustrated by Sarah Davis
  

Early Childhood (for ages 0-7 years)

No! Never! by Libby Hathorn & Lisa Hathorn-Jarman

There was a child, The sweetest ever, Until she learned these words: ‘NO! NEVER!’ Georgie is a sweet little girl who always makes her parents happy… until she discovers one powerful phrase: No! Never! It suddenly becomes her answer to every request, from tidying up her toys to going to bed. Her parents are at their wits end, but what happens when they decide to try saying No! Never! themselves?

Honour Books:

• Anemone is Not the Enemy by Anna McGregor
  
• We Love You Magoo by Briony Stewart
  

Picture Book of the Year (for ages 0-18 years)

How to Make a Bird by Matt Ottley & Meg McKinlay

A moving and visually stunning picture book that celebrates the transformative power of the creative process from inception through recognition to celebration and releasing into the world. We shadow the protagonist as she contemplates the blue print of an idea, collects the things that inspire from the natural world to shape a bird. And breathes life into it before letting it fly free.

Honour Books:

• Your Birthday Was the Best! by Felicita Sala & Maggie Hutchings
  
• Not Cute by Philip Bunting
  

Eve Pownall Award for Information Books (for ages 0-18 years)

Dry to Dry: The Seasons of Kakadu by Pamela Freeman & Liz Anelli

In the tropical wetlands and escarpments of Kakadu National Park, the seasons move from dry to wet to dry again. Those seasons have shaped the astonishing variety of plants, animals, birds, insects … migratory birds by the thousands, grasshoppers and owls, lizards and turtles, fruit bats and spear grass. And, gliding past them all in the rivers and waterholes, the long, sinuous shapes of crocodiles …

Honour Books:

• The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dangerous Animals by Sami Bayly
  
• Strangers on Country by David Hartley & Kirsty Murray, illustrated by Dub Leffler
  

Crichton Award for New Illustrators (for ages 0-18 years)

This Small Blue Dot by Zeno Sworder

With a strong message of interconnectedness, hope and empowerment, the story follows a little girl exploring the big and small things in life. From contemplating our place on this ‘blue dot’ to the best Italian, Chinese and Indian desserts, the book provides a broader, more inclusive view of who we are, where we come from and where our dreams may take us.

This year’s Children’s Book Week runs from 21 - 27 August with the theme: Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds. For more information about the CBCA Awards and Children’s Book Week, visit the CBCA website.