The winners of the CBCA Shadow Judging Book of the Year Awards
The winners of the 2023 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Shadow Judging Book of the Year Awards have been announced. Inaugurated in 2022, the awards this year were judged by over 2000 young readers from more than 250 groups across Australia.
A vibrant network of young readers, from emerging to young adult, dive deeply into the 2023 CBCA Shortlist and express their opinions and share their responses as judges ‘shadowing’ the CBCA Judges. They use the same criteria to reflect on literary values and to champion their choices. Within their groups they collaborate and develop their own creative response to a chosen book and share this with the community.
Each group focuses on one of the five categories: Older Readers, Younger Readers, Early Childhood, Picture Book, or the Eve Pownall Information Book. Every group, and their facilitator, are supported by a mentor from their state-based CBCA branch.
CBCA Shadow Judging national coordinator Jo Panckridge said the program ‘provides a unique opportunity to hear clearly the voices of young Australian readers to better understand what stories resonate for them’. ‘This is a program like no other in Australia. Their unique choices arise because the young reader is experiencing a different “emotional tug” even as they discuss and judge using the literary criteria. This is what building a dynamic reading culture looks like.’
Below are the winners for each category.
Older Readers (Ages 13-18 years)
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: Books in this category are for mature readers and some may deal with particularly challenging themes including violence and suicide. Parental guidance is recommended.
Completely Normal (and Other Lies) by Biffy James
Stella Wilde is secretly in love with the hottest guy in school, Isaac Calder. He seems to love her back, but there’s a problem - he already has a girlfriend, the gorgeous Grace Reyes.
When Isaac is killed in a car accident, the entire school is turned upside down with grief. And while Grace can mourn publicly, Stella has to hide her feelings to stop people from finding out about her and Isaac being more than friends.
But how long can Stella keep lying - to herself and everyone else? And when the truth finally comes out, how will it affect her newfound friendship with Grace?
Younger Readers (Ages 7-12 years)
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. 7-12 years.
Note: Some of the titles in this category may only be suitable for readers who are in the upper primary years as they contain mature themes, including violence. Parental guidance is recommended.
August and Jones by Pip Harry
Eleven-year-old Jones Kirby has just moved to Sydney from her farm in country New South Wales. She’s missing her alpacas and wide-open paddocks and can’t get used to her family’s tiny city apartment. She’s also worried that her vision is blurry - she lost her eye to cancer as a toddler. Could it be another tumour?
Enrolling at her new school, Jones meets shy, awkward August Genting. He loves fun facts, the library and knitting as much as Jones loves rock climbing and being outdoors. Who would have thought they’d become fast friends?
Early Childhood (Ages 0-6 years)
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.
Lionel and Me by Corinne Fenton & Tracie Grimwood (illus.)
When Lionel arrives, Maverick is unimpressed.
Is there enough love to go round for the two of them?
A delightful book that celebrates inclusion and friendship.
Age range 3 to 6
Picture Book of the Year (Ages 0-18 years)
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).
Frank's Red Hat by Sean E. Avery
A story about never giving up on your talents, because even though what you do may not be appreciated right now, it may be in time. Possibly by someone you’d least expect.
Frank is a penguin with ideas. Mostly terrible ones. That’s why his fellow penguins are nervous when he shows them his strange new creation. Something they’d never seen or expected to see in their cold and colourless Antarctic world - a red hat.
Eve Pownall Award for Information Books (Ages 0–18 years)
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.
Note: Books in this category are for mature readers and some may deal with particularly challenging themes including violence and suicide. Parental guidance is recommended.
Deep: Dive Into Hidden Worlds by Jess McGeachin
What hidden worlds lie beneath your feet? Or in the deepest parts of the ocean, where not even sunlight can reach? Come on a journey to meet glowing deep-sea creatures, zombie-making fungi and the trillions of tiny workers that live inside your own body. But be warned, things can get a little strange in the deep…
Deep is an illustrated non-fiction book that explores the places hardest to reach, from the molten depths of our planet to the frigid depths of outer space. Linking seemingly diverse subject matter, it invites the reader to explore worlds hidden from view.