18 Aug The 2025 Children’s Book Council ‘Book of the Year’ Winners announced
The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Winners has just been announced. It’s the 79th CBCA Book of the Year Awards winners list and the CBCA’s 80th Year of incorporation.
The List of Notables was published at the end of February.
The Shortlist was announced at the end of March
Children and expert judges alike agree that The Truck Cat, a thought-provoking story of immigration and belonging, from Deborah Frenkel and Danny Snell, is the outstanding Picture Book of the Year, while the breadth of reading levels is well reflected in this year’s Younger Readers category, which has been won by Maryam Master for Laughter is the Best Ending. The powerful Always Was, Always Will Be wins the highly respected Eve Pownell award and is one of two indigenous category winners, while the new illustrator award goes to Brisbane illustrator Sarah Capon who specialises in creating intricate layered paper illustrations.
Three compelling novels from established YA authors Gary Lonesborough, Erin Gough, and Sharon Kernot round out the winners of the older readers category with Kernot’s Birdy, a verse novel, also named the Shadow Judges winner. While The Wobbly Bike, a heartwarming debut from Darwin tradie Darren McCallum, with award winning illustrator Craig Smith, has won the Early Childhood Category.
This year has also seen the return of the popular Shadow Judging winners being announced concurrently. Now in its fifth year, the Shadow Judging is the children’s choice. Over 400 groups of children, an estimated 4000 shadow judges, have met, discussed and responded to the judging criteria to vote on their choice of winning books, making the2025 Shadow Judges the largest group in the history of the project. This project is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
For more information download the full list here 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Winners
Or go to the CBCA website here
