There is definitely something bookish about the month of August, particularly where kids are concerned. The shortlist for the Children’s Book Council awards was announced a little while ago, and the winners will be announced at noon today.
When I looked at the shortlist, I found a few of our favourites, like Molly, Pim and the millions of stars, Cloudwish and A single stone. And when I looked through all the list, it made me want to go to a bookshop and buy all of them!
The book of the year: Early childhood
Piranhas don’t eat bananas
Aaron Blabey
Ollie and the wind
Ronojoy Ghosh
My dog Bigsy
Alison Lester
Perfect
Danny Parker
Freya Blackwood (illustrator)
Mr Huff
Anna Walker
The cow tripped over the moon
Tony Wilson
Laura Wood (Illustrator)
Book of the year: Older readers
The flywheel
Erin Gough
The pause
John Larkin
Freedom ride
Sue Lawson
A single stone
Meg McKinlay
Inbetween days
Vikki Wakefield
Cloudwish
Fiona Wood
Book of the year: Younger readers
The Cleo stories: a friend and a pet
Libby Gleeson
Freya Blackwood (illustrator)
Soon
Morris Gleitzman
Run, Pip, run
J.C. Jones
Sister heart
Sally Morgan
Molly and Pim and the millions of stars
Martine Murray
Shadows of the Master
Emily Rodda
Overall award for information books
Phasmid: Saving the Lord Howe Island stick insect
Rohan Cleave
Coral Tulloch (illustrator)
The white mouse: The story of Nancy Wake
Peter Gouldthorpe
The amazing true story of how babies are made
Fiona Katauskas
Lennie the legend: Solo to Sydney by pony
Stephanie Owen Reeder
Ancestry: Stories of multicultural ANZACS
Robyn Siers and Carlie Walker
We are the rebels: the women and men who made Eureka
Clare Wright
Picture book of the year
Ride, Ricardo, ride!
Shane Devries
(Text: Phil Cummings)
My dead bunny
James Foley
(Text: Sigi Cohen)
Flight
Armin Greder
(Text: Nadia Wheatley)
One step at a time
Sally Heinrich
(Text: Jane Jolly)
Suri’s wall
Matt Ottley
(Text: Lucy Estela)
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
Bruce Whatley
(Text: Eric Bogle)
And regardless of awards, two much-awaited books for children have been released this month. Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton have published their latest offering, The 78th storey treehouse, and after a break of many years, we have another Harry Potter story, this time a play called Harry Potter and the cursed child. The latter is sitting on my bedside table and I have promised to buy the first one for my kids as they are all claiming ownership. Mr 12 has all the other books in the series, Miss 9 says she has read them all at least twice and Mr 7 is reading the The 65th storey treehouse and tells me he wants to be the first one to read the latest one!
Last night, I found Mr 7 and Miss 9 reading with a flashing, fluorescent green ring light from their school disco under the covers, after they had been tucked into bed. I did scold them and take away the lights but I felt equal parts amused and proud!
PS. Apologies for not posting last week – my computer decided not to allow me to log in so I have been without email or internet for half a week. Only took me a couple of hours of talking to Randy and Jeremy in the US to sort out ….
Karen, if your children asked their Grandma about your late night reading habits as a child, what would be the answer?
Terri.
Ok, Terri, point taken!
Thank you Karen for that wonderful list of children’s books.
My favourite teaching time was reading the short listed books with
my Grade 1 students. I miss it very much.
So I’m off to Antipodes, ( our lovely Sorrento book store ) today with your list to choose a book for my Miss almost 3. You have inspired me!
Lucky Miss almost 3! It’s lovely your grandchildren can benefit from your teaching experience, Kathy.