26 Mar 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Shortlist Announced
The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Shortlist has just been announced. The List of Notables was published at the end of February.
This year’s shortlist features some of the best known names in Australian children’s literature, such as Isobelle Carmody, Freya Blackwood, Matt Stanton and Jackie French, past winners – including Kelly Canby who won 2024 Picture Book of the Year and Briony Stewart who won 2024 Book of the Year Early Childhood – while also showcasing the impressive work of three debut creatives, including comedian Steph Tisdell’s YA fiction The Skin I’m In, and Anton Clifford-Motopi’s To and Fro which draws on his own incredible personal story of identity & family. The books themselves are published by big houses right through to a self-published non-fiction, an incredible debut hand drawn graphic novel exploring stories of Victoria’s national war memorial, from artist Laura J Caroll.
(The ISBN is provided to assist in finding the books through bookshops or online)
Book of the Year: Older Readers
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.
| Title | Author | Publisher | ISBN |
| A Wreck of Seabirds | Karleah Olson | Fremantle Press | 9781760993924 |
| Birdy | Sharon Kernot | Text Publishing | 9781922790606 |
| Comes the Night | Isobelle Carmody | A&U Books for Children and Young Adults | 9781760294762 |
| I’m Not Really Here | Gary Lonesborough | A&U Books for Children and Young Adults | 9781761180767 |
| Into the Mouth of the Wolf | Erin Gough | Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing | 9781760507558 |
| The Skin I’m In | Steph Tisdell | Macmillan Australia | 9781760984977 |
Book of the Year: Younger Readers
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.
| Title | Author | Illustrator | Publisher | ISBN |
| Aggie Flea Steals the Show | Tania Ingram | Anne Yi | Scholastic Australia | 9781760976309 |
| Fluff: Mess Up! | Matt Stanton | Matt Stanton | ABC Books | 9780733342110 |
| Laughter is the Best Ending | Maryam Master | Astred Hicks | Pan Australia | 9781761560132 |
| Saskia Spark-Lee: Fundraiser Fail | Rebecka Sharpe Shelberg | Sofya Karmazina | Walker Books Australia | 9781760655556 |
| Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger | Jackie French | HarperCollins Publishers | 9781460763506 | |
| To and Fro | Anton Clifford-Motopi | A&U Books for Children and Young Adults | 9781761180378 |
Book of the Year: Early Childhood
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.
| Title | Author | Illustrator | Publisher | ISBN |
| Don’t Worry Felix | Yohann Devezy & Katharine Alice | Zoe Bennett | New Frontier Publishing | 9781923145054 |
| Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Tooth Fairy (And Some Things You Didn’t) | Briony Stewart | Briony Stewart | Lothian Children’s Books | 9780734421883 |
| How to Move a Zoo | Kate Simpson | Owen Swan | A&U Books for Children and Young Adults | 9781761180309 |
| One Little Dung Beetle | Rhian Williams | Mark Jackson & Heather Potter | Wild Dog Books | 9781742036656 |
| Spiro | Anna McGregor | Anna McGregor | Scribble | 9781761381010 |
| The Wobbly Bike | Darren McCallum | Craig Smith | Walker Books Australia | 9781760656416 |
Picture Book of the Year
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.
| Title | Illustrator | Author | Publisher | ISBN |
| A Leaf Called Greaf | Kelly Canby | Kelly Canby | Fremantle Press | 9781760993894 |
| Afloat | Freya Blackwood | Kirli Saunders | Little Hare | 9781760505899 |
| The Garden of Broken Things | Freya Blackwood | Freya Blackwood | HarperCollins Publishers | 9781460757550 |
| The Truck Cat | Danny Snell | Deborah Frenkel | Bright Light | 9781761212291 |
| These Long-Loved Things | Ronojoy Ghosh | Josh Pyke | Scholastic Australia | 978-1761293849 |
| We Live in a Bus | Dave Petzold | Dave Petzold | Thames & Hudson Australia | 9781760764647 |
Eve Pownall Award
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.
| Title | Author | Illustrator | Publisher | ISBN |
| Always Was, Always Will Be | Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson | Magabala Books | 9781922777614 | |
| Design & Building on Country | Alison Page & Paul Memmott | Blak Douglas | Thames & Hudson Australia | 9781760763565 |
| Flora: Australia’s Most Curious Plants | Tania McCartney | Tania McCartney | NLA Publishing | 9781922507716 |
| I am a Magpie, I am a Currawong | Bridget Farmer | Bridget Farmer | Black Cockatoo Books | 9780645713725 |
| Making the Shrine: Stories From Victoria’s War Memorial | Laura J Carroll | Laura J Carroll | The Crossley Press | 9781763515604 |
| South With the Seabirds | Jess McGeachin | Jess McGeachin | A&U Books for Children and Young Adults | 9781761068645 |
Award for New Illustrator
This Award aims to recognise and encourage new talent in the field of Australian children’s book illustration.
Ages 0–18 years
| Title | Illustrator | Publisher | ISBN |
| A Teaspoon of Light | Nisaluk Chantanakom | Dirt Lane Press | 9781923044210 |
| Digger Digs Down | Huni Melissa Bolliger | University of Queensland Press | 9780702268656 |
| Grow Big, Little Seed | Sarah Capon | Bright Light | 9781761212963 |
| Peek-a-Boo Lottie | Kristen Willis | Five Mile Books | 9781922943989 |
| Raymaŋgirrbuy dhäwu, When I was a little girl | Kylie Gatjawarrawuy Mununggurr | Magabala Books | 9781922142306 |
| The Land Recalls You | David Cragg & Noni Cragg | Scholastic Australia | 9781760975159 |
