Children's Book of the Year Award: Younger Readers

Children's Book of the Year Award: Younger Readers
Awarded for	Excellence in Australian middle to upper primary school books
Country	Australia
Presented by	Children's Book Council of Australia
First award	1982
Website	cbca.org.au

The Children's Book of the Year Award: Younger Readers has been presented annually since 1982 by the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA). Note: from 1982 to 1986 this award was titled Junior Book of the Year. ^[1]

The Award "will be made to outstanding books of fiction, drama, poetry or concept books for readers who have developed independent reading skills but are still developing in literary appreciation. Generally, books in this category will be appropriate in style and content for readers from the middle to upper primary years." ^[2]

Award winners

The most awarded author is Emily Rodda, with six awards. ^[1]

1980s

Year	Author	Title	Publisher	Ref
1982	Christobel Mattingley , illus. Patricia Mullins	Rummage	Angus and Robertson	[1]
1983	Robin Klein , illus. Alison Lester	Thing	Oxford University Press	[1]
1984	Max Dann , illus. Ann James	Bernice Knows Best	Oxford University Press	[1]
1985	Emily Rodda , illus. Noela Young	Something Special	Angus and Robertson	[1]
1986	Mary Steele	Arkwright	Hyland House	[1]
1987	Emily Rodda , illus. Noela Young	Pigs Might Fly	Angus and Robertson	[1]
1988	Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins	My Place	Collins Dove	[1]
1989	Emily Rodda , illus. Noela Young	The Best-Kept Secret	Angus and Robertson	[1]

1990s

Year	Author	Title	Publisher	Ref
1990	Jeanie Adams	Pigs and Honey	Omnibus Books	[1]
1991	Emily Rodda , illus. Noela Young	Finders Keepers	Omnibus Books	[1]
1992	Anna Fienberg , illus. Kim Gamble	The Magnificent Nose and Other Marvels	Allen & Unwin	[1]
1993	Garry Disher	The Bamboo Flute	Angus & Robertson	[1]
1994	Emily Rodda	Rowan of Rin	Omnibus Books	[1]
1995	Wendy Orr , illus. Kerry Millard	Ark in the Park	HarperCollins	[1]
1996	James Moloney	Swashbuckler	University of Queensland Press	[1]
1997	Libby Gleeson , illus. Ann James	Hannah Plus One	Puffin Books	[1]
1998	Elaine Forrestal	Someone Like Me	Puffin Books	[1]
1999	Meme McDonald and Boori Pryor	My Girragundji	Allen & Unwin	[1]

2000s

Year	Author	Title	Publisher	Ref
2000	Jackie French	Hitler's Daughter	HarperCollins	[1]
2001	Diana Kidd	Two Hands Together	Penguin Books	[1]
2002	John Heffernan, illus. Andrew McLean	My Dog	Margaret Hamilton Books	[1]
2003	Catherine Bateson	Rain May and Captain Daniel	University of Queensland Press	[1]
2004	Carole Wilkinson	Dragonkeeper	Black Dog Books	[1]
2005	Sonya Hartnett	The Silver Donkey	Viking Books	[1]
2006	Elizabeth Fensham	Helicopter Man	Bloomsbury Press	[1]
2007	Catherine Bateson	Being Bee	University of Queensland Press	[1]
2008	Carole Wilkinson	Dragon Moon	Black Dog Books	[1]
2009	Glenda Millard , illus. Stephen Michael King	Perry Angel's Suitcase	ABC Books	[1]

2010s

Year	Author	Title	Publisher	Ref.
2010	Odo Hirsch	Darius Bell and the Glitter Pool	[[Allen & Unwin]	[1]
2011	Isobelle Carmody	The Red Wind	Viking Books	[1]
2012	Kate Constable	Crow Country	Allen & Unwin	[1]
2013	Sonya Hartnett	The Children of the King	Viking Books	[1]
2014	Catherine Jinks	City of Orphans: A Very Unusual Pursuit	Allen & Unwin	[1]
2015	Libby Gleeson	The Cleo Stories : The Necklace and the Present	Allen & Unwin	[1]
2016	Morris Gleitzman	Soon	Viking Books	[1]
2017	Trace Balla	Rockhopping	Allen & Unwin	[3]
2018	Bren MacDibble	How to Bee	Allen & Unwin	[4]
2019	Emily Rodda	His Name Was Walter	HarperCollins	[5]

2020s

Year	Author	Title	Publisher	Ref.
2020	Pip Harry	The Little Wave	University of Queensland Press	[6]
2021	Kate Gordon	Aster's Good, Right Things	Riveted Press	[7]
2022	Shirley Marr	A Glasshouse of Stars	Puffin	[8]
2023	Craig Silvey	Runt	Allen & Unwin	[9]
2024	Tristan Bancks	Scar Town	Penguin Random House Australia	[10]
2025	Maryam Master, illus. Astred Hicks	Laughter Is the Best Ending	Pan	[11]

See also

• Children's literature portal

• List of CBCA Awards
• List of Australian literary awards

External links

• CBCA Awards History

References

1. ""CBCA Awards 1946 on"" (PDF). Children's Book Council of Australia. Retrieved 7 January 2026.
2. CBCA Guidelines for Publishers Archived 20 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
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 16 August 2019. 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.