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Tuesday, October 02, 2018

The Inky Awards 2018!

If you love children's and YA books and you think the kids should have a say in awards, there are the YABBAs, of course, in Victoria, and other awards in other states, but the State Library's Centre for Youth Literature has the Inkys.



The main difference is that any child or teen under a certain age whose school subscribes to the YABBAs can nominate(and the subscription is so cheap that even my school, with a tiny library budget, joined). The Inkys has a committee of teenagers to read a long list and decide on a short list. Then any child can vote, on the web site Insideadog.  This site has just been updated and is free to join for all young booklovers.




The CYL chooses a new committee every year. They must have quite a few applications, because some of my top students have applied and, so far, no luck. Still, somebody has to get the job, so if you have students who might enjoy this, get going to the web site!

So, what are this year's winners? There is the Golden Inky for Australian books and the Slver Inky for overseas books.



This year's Silver Inky is being presented to The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I have read this and found it well worth all the hype it has received. And there's a film coming soon! You shouldn't have any trouble buying a copy in your local bookshop or on line, or in ebook.



The Golden Inky went to Paper Cranes Don't Fly by Peter Vu.  I haven't read this yet (The first print was sold out recently, but I've been promised a copy for reviewing) but I'm particularly pleased about this one, because it was published by Ford Street, my absolute favourite publisher of all time. It's a small press, so unfortunately you may need to buy it from the publisher if you live outside of Australia. It has been compared to John Green's The Fault In Our Stars, only written by a very young man. I am told he was in his teens when he wrote this debut novel. A future Will Kostakis, perhaps?

If you live in Australia, you should be able to buy a copy in any good bookshop once it comes back into print.

Congratulations to both authors and their publishers, who must be very proud of them!











4 comments:

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Sue - sounds an ideal platform for kids to write, to judge, to be a part of a committee - a great learning experience ... good for YABBAs - cheers Hilary

Sue Bursztynski said...

It is indeed!

AJ Blythe said...

That is awesome they get kids involved in the process. Haven't heard of the Aussie author but will keep an eye out for the book.

Sue Bursztynski said...

I haven’t read it yet. It’s a debut novel by a very young author, published by Ford Street, a small press which has published me.