Children's Book of the Year Award: Early Childhood

Children's Book of the Year Award: Early Childhood
Children's Book of the Year Award: Early Childhood
Awarded for	Excellence in Australian early childhood books
Country	Australia
Presented by	Children's Book Council of Australia
First award	2001
Website	http://cbca.org.au/index.htm

Last updated August 17, 2025

The Children's Book of the Year Award: Early Childhood has been presented annually since 2001 by the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA).

The Award "will be made to outstanding books of fiction, drama, poetry or concept books for children who are at pre-reading or early stages of reading. They may be picture books, picture storybooks or texts in which illustrations play a substantial part in the storytelling or concept development."^[1]

Award winners

2000s

Year	Author	Title	Publisher
2001	Catherine Jinks , illus. Andrew McLean	You'll Wake the Baby!	Penguin Books
2002	Bob Graham	Let's Get a Pup!	Walker Books
2003	Penny Matthews , illus. Andrew McLean	A Year on Our Farm	Omnibus Books
2004	Pamela Allen	Grandpa and Thomas	Viking Books
2005	Mem Fox , illus. Judy Horacek	Where Is the Green Sheep?	Viking Books
2006	Deborah Niland	Annie's Chair	Viking Books
2007	Libby Gleeson , illus. Freya Blackwood	Amy and Louis	Scholastic Press
2008	Aaron Blabey	Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley	Viking Books
2009	Bob Graham	How to Heal a Broken Wing	Walker Books

2010s

Year	Author	Title	Publisher	Ref.
2010	Lisa Shanahan , illus. Emma Quay	Bear & Chook by the Sea	Lothian Books
2011	Jan Ormerod , illus. Freya Blackwood	Maudie and Bear	Little Hare Books
2012	Nick Bland , illus. Freya Blackwood	The Runaway Hug	Scholastic Press, Scholastic Australia
2013	Emma Allen , illus. Freya Blackwood	The Terrible Suitcase	Little Hare, Hardie Grant Egmont
2014	Jan Ormerod , illus. Andrew Joyner	The Swap	Scholastic Press, Scholastic Australia
2015	Libby Gleeson , illus. Freya Blackwood	Go to Sleep, Jessie!	Little Hare, Hardie Grant Egmont
2016	Anna Walker	Mr Huff	Penguin Random House	^[2]
2017	Johanna Bell , illus. Dion Beasley	Go Home, Cheeky Animals!	Allen & Unwin	^[3]
2018	Michael Gerard Bauer , illus. Chrissie Krebs	Rodney Loses It!	Omnibus Books	^[4]
2019	Alison Lester	Tricky's Bad Day	Affirm	^[5]

2020s

Year	Author	Title	Publisher	Ref.
2020	Frances Watts	My Friend Fred	Allen & Unwin	^[6]
2021	Libby Hathorn and Lisa Hathorn-Jarman, illus. Mel Pearce	No! Never!	Lothian	^[7]
2022	Andrea Rowe , illus. Hannah Sommerville	Jetty Jumping	Hardie Grant	^[8]
2023	Vikki Conley , illus. Max Hamilton	Where the Lyrebird Lives	Windy Hollow	^[9]
2024	Briony Stewart	Gymnastica Fantastica!	Lothian	^[10]
2025	Darren McCallum, illus. by Craig Smith	The Wobbly Bike	Walker	^[11]

External links

CBCA Awards History

References

↑ CBCA Guidelines for Publishers Archived February 20, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
↑ Paek, Jooae. "Subject guides: Early Childhood Education: Children's Book Council of Australia". libguides.acu.edu.au. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
↑ Convery, Stephanie; Harmon, Steph (17 August 2017). "Claire Zorn's grief-and-surfing story wins children's book of the year award". The Guardian . ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
↑ "Book of the Year Awards 2018". Children's Book Council of Australia . Archived from the original on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
↑ "CBCA Awards 2019 winners announced". Books+Publishing . 16 August 2019. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
↑ "CBCA Book of the Year 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing . 16 October 2020. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
↑ "CBCA Book of the Year 2021 winners announced". Books+Publishing . 21 August 2021. Archived from the original on 20 August 2021. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
↑ "CBCA announces 2022 Book of the Year Awards". Books+Publishing . 19 August 2022. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
↑ "CBCA Book of the Year Awards 2023 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 18 August 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
↑ Story, Hannah (16 August 2024). "'It's never been so difficult to get a book into kids' hands': The book prize reaching young people". ABC News. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
↑ "CBCA Book of the Year Award winners". Books+Publishing. 15 August 2025. Retrieved 16 August 2025.

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[cbcaah-1] CBCA Guidelines for Publishers Archived February 20, 2012, at the Wayback Machine

[2] Paek, Jooae. "Subject guides: Early Childhood Education: Children's Book Council of Australia". libguides.acu.edu.au. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.

[3] Convery, Stephanie; Harmon, Steph (17 August 2017). "Claire Zorn's grief-and-surfing story wins children's book of the year award". The Guardian . ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.

[4] "Book of the Year Awards 2018". Children's Book Council of Australia . Archived from the original on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2018.

[5] "CBCA Awards 2019 winners announced". Books+Publishing . 16 August 2019. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2019.

[6] "CBCA Book of the Year 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing . 16 October 2020. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2020.

[7] "CBCA Book of the Year 2021 winners announced". Books+Publishing . 21 August 2021. Archived from the original on 20 August 2021. Retrieved 20 August 2021.

[8] "CBCA announces 2022 Book of the Year Awards". Books+Publishing . 19 August 2022. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 19 August 2022.

[9] "CBCA Book of the Year Awards 2023 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 18 August 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.

[10] Story, Hannah (16 August 2024). "'It's never been so difficult to get a book into kids' hands': The book prize reaching young people". ABC News. Retrieved 16 August 2024.

[11] "CBCA Book of the Year Award winners". Books+Publishing. 15 August 2025. Retrieved 16 August 2025.

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v t e Children's Book of the Year Award: Early Childhood
2001–2009	You'll Wake the Baby! by Catherine Jinks (2001) Let's Get a Pup! by Bob Graham (2002) A Year on Our Farm by Penny Matthews (2003) Grandpa and Thomas by Pamela Allen (2004) Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox (2005) Annie's Chair by Deborah Niland (2006) Amy and Louis by Libby Gleeson (2007) Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley by Aaron Blabey (2008) How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham (2009)
2010–2019	Bear & Chook by the Sea by Lisa Shanahan (2010) Maudie and Bear by Jan Ormerod (2011) The Runaway Hug by Nick Bland (2012) The Terrible Suitcase by Emma Allen (2013) The Swap by Jan Ormerod (2014) Go to Sleep, Jessie! by Libby Gleeson (2015) Mr Huff by Anna Walker (2016) Go Home, Cheeky Animals! by Johanna Bell (2017) Rodney Loses It! by Michael Gerard Bauer (2018) Tricky's Bad Day by Alison Lester (2019)
2020–present	My Friend Fred by Frances Watts (2020) No! Never by Libby Hathorn & Lisa Hathorn-Jarman (2021) Where the Lyrebird Lives by Vikki Conley and Max Hamilton (2023) Gymnastica Fantastica! by Briony Stewart (2024) The Wobbly Bike by Darren McCallum (2025)
Picture Book (1955–present) Younger Readers (1982–present) Older Readers (1946–present) Eve Pownall Award for Information Books (1988–present)