YABBA Winners 2013!!

Yes, it's that time of the year when the YABBA awards are announced! YABBA stands for Young Australian Best Book Awards and is the children's choice book award in Victoria. These awards have been running for more than 25 years and seek to promote children reading Australian fiction. If you want to learn more, go to their new website at: yabba.org.au

The 2013 winners are...... (the envelope please...)

Fiction for year 7-9:
After by Morris Gleitzman
Have a look at our review of After here.

Fiction for Older Readers
The 26 storey treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
(Wow! That's the second year in a row for these children's fiction superstars!)

Fiction for Younger Readers
The golden door by Emily Rodda
Have a look at our review here.

Picture Book
Pooka by Carol Chataway

Cue wild applause!!! Congratulations to all these fantastic authors.


What now?

• Add your thoughts about in the comments below.
• Go to the catalogue and reserve it.
• Borrow it as an ebook.
• Review a book yourself.

2010 Inkys - it's time to vote

In case you didn't already know, the Inky Awards are Australia's only literary awards voted for by teenagers. The panel has chosen the shortlist, so now it's time for you to vote. Here are your options:

THE GOLD INKY (for an Australian YA book)

• Liar by Justine Larbalestier
• Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
• Raw Blue by Kirsty Eager
• Swerve by Philip Gwynne
• Stolen by Lucy Christopher

The SILVER INKY (for an international YA book)

• Going Bovine by Libba Bray
• Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
• Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
• Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Levithan & John Green
• The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

So get reading and head on over to insideadog.com.au to get your vote in.Everyone who votes goes in the draw to win an Inkys prize pack.

While you're at it, you may like to get creative and enter the creative reading prize. There's an iPad up for grabs!

Also feel free to use the comments below to tell us what you think of the books on the shortlist. Which books will you vote for? I've only read two from each shortlist but can't vote since I'm way too old.

Children's Book Council Awards

The Children's Book Council of Australia Award winners were announced today and you can see the list of winners and notable books over at the CBCA website.

The winners for each category were:

Older readers: Tales from outer suburbia, by Shaun Tan

Younger Readers: Perry Angel's suitcase, by Glenda Millard

Early Childhood: How to heal a broken wing, by Bob Graham

Picture Book (which is an all-age category): Collecting colour, by Kylie Dunstan

If you've any (or all) of the winners, or the shortlisted books for that matter, tell us what you think in the comments below.

2008 Inky Awards

While we're on the subject of awards, the longlist has been announced for this year's Inky Awards. If you're not familiar with the Inkys, they are a people's choice award, which means you get to vote for them. It all happens over at insideadog.com.au which is run by the Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria (that's the big building full of books right opposite Melbourne Central).

Here's their explanation of how it works:

• The Centre for Youth Literature picks a longlist of 10 Australian books and 10 International books from the last year.
• A panel of 4 young people and 2 famous people pick a shortlist of 3 Australian, 3 international books.
• YOU VOTE.
• The International winner gets the Silver Inky (snazzy trophy), and the Australian winner gets the Golden Inky (snazzy trophy PLUS $2000).

So get on over to insideadog, check out the longlist and start reading so you can start voting when the polls open on September 12. I've only read 4 of the 20 longlisted books, so I've got a long way to go.

Children's Book Council of Australia Awards

The winners of this years Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards have been announced. And the winners are...

Older readers category:
Winner: Sonya Hartnett, The ghost's child

Honour books:
John Heffernan, Marty's shadow
David Metzenthen, Black water

Younger readers category:
Winner: Carole Wilkinson, Dragon moon

Honour books:
Sherryl Clark (illustrated by Elissa Christian), Sixth grade style queen (not!)
Odo Hirsh, Amelia Dee and the peacock lamp

You can read more over at the CBCA site.

In the mature readers category, I had read all three of the books mentioned above and they were all fantastic reads. I would have been perfectly happy for any of those three to win. This group of books is probably best for the 15+ age group.

In the younger readers category, I had not read Dragon moon, or Sixth grade style queen, but really enjoyed Amelia Dee and the peacock lamp.

Have you read any of the winners, honour books, or other shortlisted books? Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments below.