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Wilderness Society announces Karajia, environment award winners

Tuesday, 14 October 2025   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

The Wilderness Society has announced the winners for the 2025 Environment Award for Children’s Literature and Karajia Award for Children’s Literature.

Chosen from shortlists announced in June, the winners are:

Environment Award for Children’s Literature

Fiction

  • Ella and the Amazing Frog Orchestra (Cassy Polimeni, illus by Hykie Breeze, UWAP)

Nonfiction

  • Tree (Claire Saxby, illus by Jess Racklyeft, A&U Children’s)

Picture fiction

  • Afloat (Kirli Saunders, illus by Freya Blackwood, HGCP)

Karajia Award for Children’s Literature

Fiction

  • When the World Was Soft (Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation, illus by Alex Mankiewicz, A&U Children’s)

Nonfiction

  • Ask Aunty: Bush Survival Skills (Aunty Munya Andrews, illus by Charmaine Ledden-Lewis, Hardie Grant Explore)

Picture fiction

  • The Moon Story (written and illustrated by Marshia Cook, with some illustrations by Tamua Nuggett, ILF).

Created in 1994, the Environment Award for Children’s Literature promotes “a love of nature through books”. The judging panel this year includes primary school teacher Shannon Wong-Nizic, writer, actor and voice artist Leah Vandenberg, and picture book author and poet Johanna Bell.

The Karajia Award for Children’s Literature “celebrates and recognises the important message of First Nations authors and illustrators that honour a connection to Country – sharing stories exploring land, community, culture and language”. Judges for the awards include Wilman, Noongar and Ballardong teacher Isobel Bevis, painter and Yidaki (didgeridoo) player Blak Douglas, and performer Lucas Proudfoot.

National campaigns director Amelia Young said, “The books we read as children become part of who we are and create a connection to wildlife, rivers, forests, beaches and mountain tops. Reading plants a seed for future generations to show up for nature.”

Last year’s winners included The Littlest Penguin and the Phillip Island Penguin Parade (The Penguin Foundation & Jedda Robaard, Puffin); The Trees (Victor Steffensen & Sandra Steffensen, HG Explore); Hope Is the Thing (Johanna Bell & Erica Wagner, A&U Children’s); In My Blood It Runs (Dujuan Hoosan, Margaret Anderson, Carol Turner & Blak Douglas, Macmillan); and Nedingar: Ancestors (Isobel Bevis & Leanne Zilm, Fremantle Press).

More information about the awards is available on the Wilderness Society website.

 

Category: Awards Local news