Two Walker titles jointly win Prime Minister’s children’s literature prize

Two titles published by Walker Books Australia jointly won the children’s book category of the prestigious and valuable Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in 2021: middle-grade graphic novel Fly on the Wall (Remy Lai) and picture book How to Make a Bird (Meg McKinlay, illus by Matt Ottley). Metal Fish, Falling Snow (Cath Moore, Text) took out the A$80,000 YA prize.

Also in young adult fiction, Felicity Castagna’s Girls in Boys’ Cars (Pan) won the $25,000 YA category in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, and The Gaps (Leanne Hall, Text) won the A$15,000 YA category in the recent Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature.

Historical middle-grade novel We Are Wolves (Katrina Nannestad, HarperCollins) won the $15,000 children’s literature award in the recent 2022 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, while the following picture books are winners in various age categories of the 2021 Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year awards, which aim to ‘promote quality Australian books that help children get the best, most literate start in life’: Look, Baby! (Janeen Brian, illus by Renée Treml, Little Book Press), Boo Loves Books (Kaye Baillie, illus by Tracie Grimwood, New Frontier), The Thing That Goes Ping! (Mark Carthew, illus by Shane McG, Ford Street), and Is This Your Egg? (Ella Kris, illus by Emma Cracknell, State Library of Queensland).

Middle-grade verse novel Bindi (Kirli Saunders, illus by Dub Leffler, Magabala) took home the 2021 Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year award in the eight to 10 years category, and was also shortlisted for the biennial Ena Noël Award for a young emerging writer or illustrator alongside The Republic of Birds (Jessica Miller, Text). Also shortlisted for the Ena Noël Award are picture books A Trip to the Hospital (Freda Chiu, A&U) and What do you call a baby…? (Kamsani Bin Salleh, Magabala) and YA novels Please Don’t Hug Me (Kay Kerr, Text) and The Boy from the Mish (Gary Lonesborough, A&U).

A middle-grade novel, How to Write the Soundtrack to Your Life by Fiona Hardy (Affirm), was recently named the winner of the 2021 Children’s Peace Literature Award, chosen by a judging panel of psychologists and children’s literature experts from a shortlist of seven that included a mix of picture books, middle-grade and YA novels: The Friendly Games (Kaye Baillie, illus by Fiona Burrows, MidnightSun), Twelve Days of Kindness (Cori Brooke, illus by Fiona Burrows, New Frontier), Littlelight (Kelly Canby, Freemantle Press), Sunflower (Ingrid Laguna, Text), Metal Fish, Falling Snow (Cath Moore, Text), and Scary Bird (Michel Streich, Scholastic).

The following books are all in the running for the children’s category of the 2022 Indie Book Awards, chosen by Australian independent booksellers: Dragon Skin (Karen Foxlee, A&U), Somebody’s Land: Welcome to our Country (Adam Goodes & Ellie Laing, illus by David Hardy, A&U), Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief (Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books), and Wandi (Favel Parrett, Lothian). Four novels are also contending for the awards’ YA category: The Monster of Her Age (Danielle Binks, Lothian), The Boy from the Mish (Gary Lonesborough, A&U), The Prison Healer (Lynette Noni, Penguin), and If Not Us (Mark Smith, Text).

Finally, Swiss-born long-time Australian resident Armin Greder has made the longlist for the 2022 Kate Greenaway Medal for outstanding achievement in children’s illustration for his picture book Diamonds (A&U), which was among several Australian books nominated for the Kate Greenaway and Carnegie medals.

Category: Think Australian awards