CBCA Winners 2011

Here are this year's winners of the CBCA awards for children's books. I'd like to congratulate all the winners. I admit I've only read the Older Readers books, because I work in a secondary school and had no budget left to buy any of the others. However, I have heard of/read other works by some of the other writers - Isobelle Carmody, Michael Gerard Bauer, Leonie Norrington, Ursula Dubosarsky.

To be honest, I would have given the prize to either one of the older-reader Honour Books, if I'd had my druthers. Cath Crowley's book was a delightful piece of young adult fiction, gently funny and understanding of how teenagers think, while Doug MacLeod's was over-the-top black comedy. I asked my student Selena Wang how she would vote and her preferences were for these two books - and she has read all the books, but doesn't know, yet, what the results are; I asked for her vote before she went off to school camp. ;-)

Both books are, however, on this year's Victorian Premier's Awards short list and Graffiti Moon has already picked up some other awards, so at least they haven't gone unrecognised. And there's a People's Choice, so if you have read these books and think one should get a prize in the Premier's Awards, stroll across to the Wheeler Centre web site and vote.

One nice thing is that funny books are getting a look-in these days; I can remember being told, by one CBCA judge years ago, that funny books had no psychological depth!

Older readers:

WINNER
Hartnett, Sonya
The Midnight Zoo
Viking Books, Penguin

HONOUR
Crowley, Cath
Graffiti Moon
Pan Macmillan Australia

HONOUR
MacLeod, Doug
The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher
Penguin Books

Younger Readers

WINNER
Carmody, Isobelle
The Red Wind
Viking Books, Penguin Group (Australia)

HONOUR
Bauer, Michael Gerard
Just a Dog
Omnibus Books, Scholastic Australia

HONOUR
Branford, Anna
Illus: Davis, Sarah
Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot
Walker Books

Early Childhood

WINNER
Ormerod, Jan
Illus: Blackwood, Freya
Maudie and Bear
Little Hare Books

HONOUR
Champion, Tom Niland & Niland, Kilmeny
Illus: Niland, Deborah
The Tall Man and the Twelve Babies
Allen & Unwin

HONOUR
Norrington, Leonie
Illus: Huxley, Dee
Look See, Look at Me
Allen & Unwin

Picture Book

JOINT
WINNER
Baker, Jeannie
Mirror
Walker Books

JOINT WINNER
Greenberg, Nicki
Hamlet
Allen & Unwin


HONOUR
Bancroft, Bronwyn
Why I Love Australia
Little Hare Books
HONOUR
Riddle, Tohby
My Uncle's Donkey
Viking Books, Penguin Group (Australia)

Eve Pownall (non-fiction)

WINNER
Ursula Dubosarsky
Illus: Riddle, Tohby
The Return of the Word Spy
Viking Books, Penguin Group (Australia)

HONOUR
Brooks, Ron
Drawn From the Heart: A Memoir
Allen & Unwin

HONOUR
One Arm Point Remote Community School
Our World: Bardi Jaawi: Life at Ardiyooloon
Magabala Books