 Hi everyone it's Steph from Little Bookish Teacher and today I thought I would share my reaction to the Children's Book Council of Australia shortlist for 2023. So for those of you who aren't familiar with the CBCA or the Children's Book Council of Australia they have a well their website says they have a purpose and a vision for enriching young lives through Australian stories and to see a thriving creative world and looking at embracing the transformational power of stories across generations and every year they have a notables and a shortlist process that culminates in Book Week which for us is towards the end of August and schools and kindergartens and libraries all across Australia celebrate Book Week and during that week the winners of the shortlist categories are announced. So what I thought I would do is actually go through the shortlist on the website with you yeah so that's pretty much what we're going to do today and then I am thinking that I'm going to do a series where I actually read the shortlist from various categories and then sort of report back on my thoughts. Alright so the theme for 2023 is Read, Grow, Inspire. Every year there's a new theme, they have new artists and illustrators who come up with these gorgeous themes. This is their website so there's information, there's a shadow judging process where kids can be involved in judging the shortlist so on and so forth. So there's a whole lot of things that you can find on their website which I'll leave linked in the description but the shortlist has I think five categories so the first one is a young adult category which is Book of the Year, Older Readers. At the top it does always say whether or not there are books that feature mature content and in particular any themes that might be triggering or challenging for people. It also puts in the age category so the Older Readers is designed for books for 13 to 18 year olds. I will probably not read through this category, I'll probably read through more of the primary aged books but you have Ask No Questions by Eva Collins, Completely Normal and Other Lies by Biffy James, The Greatest Thing by Sarah Winifred-Seal which I have read, this is a graphic novel and it is a story of friendship and navigating those tricky situations. There is Neverlanders by Tom Taylor and Illustrated by John Somervira, The Other Side of Tomorrow by Hailey Lawrence and What We All Saw by Mike Lucas. If I get a chance I might try and pick some of these up from my local library and read through them but they're not necessarily my priority just because of the age group of the kids that I work with. So then there is the Book of the Year Younger Readers which is sort of the middle fiction category. They can be fiction or drama or poetry, they're designed for students seven to twelve years of age although having read some of these books you could definitely hang them at a slightly older audience just because of the content in them. So there is August in Tones by Pip Harry which I haven't read and I do have plans on picking up and reading and Evie and Rhino by Nerida McMullen is also one that I haven't read but currently have out to read from the library. I have read The Raven Song by Zana Frailin and Brendan McDibble, I'll leave a link to my review of that book down below. So I have read that one, I've also read Runt by Craig Sylvie, again I have a review for this so I'll leave it linked down below. The Way of the Dog by Zana Frailin I think I talked about in my middle grade verse novels series, this one is about a dog who is raised in sort of like a puppy farm and ends up escaping with a boy and then the dog and the boy are separated and it's the journey of the dog finding his way back to the boy. And then Xavier in the meantime I have a review on this channel, this is by Kate Gordon. It's quite a heavy middle grade title, this one I would definitely recommend that you either know the child that you're recommending it to or that you read it with them because the main character Xavier is dealing with a lot of mental health issues including hospitalisation at one point so there's some very heavy themes but it is a very well written book and it's well worth reading just you need to be aware of your audience with that one. The Book of the Year Early Childhood is an age category range of zero to six, these are picture books and they are picture books that have to be appropriate for that age category will come to the picture book of the year in a moment which is slightly different. I have not read any of these books and I am so excited to pick them up because there's quite a few authors in here that I don't always see in this category which is really nice so there's Beben Kev by Katrina Jermaine and illustrated by Mandy Foote. I love this, I love giraffes. There's Jigsaw, a puzzle in the post by Bob Graham who's just a classic iconic Australian children's picture book author, Lionel and Me by Corinne Fenton and illustrated by Tracy Grimwood, Market Day by Cary Galash and illustrated by Hannah Somerville, Snapped by Anna Walker which Anna Walker just does some gorgeous gorgeous books and Where the Liarbird Lives by Vicki Connolly and illustrated by Max Hamilton. So I am pretty sure now I have all of these books so this will probably be one of the first categories that I read and then there's the Picture Book of the Year which again is picture books but this one the picture books can range in audience age range from zero to 18 years so some of these books can be for mature readers and the whole idea of this category is that the story, the theme or the concept is unified through the illustrations and the text and there's a really strong thread of that through these books. So I've only read at the moment two books in this category I've read Dirt by Sea which was written by Michael Wagner and illustrated by Tom Gillett and I've read Frank's Red Hat by Sean E Avery. I do have Farmhouse by Sophie Blackwell to read My Strange Trinking Parents by Zeno Sorter, Our Dreaming by Curly Saunders and illustrated by Dub Lefler and Paradise Sands, A Story of Enchanted by Levy Pinfold and I'm looking forward to picking these up because these are not always authors or illustrators that I see in this category and while I think there'll be some mature themes in this one they don't seem to be too many picture books in here where the themes are specifically for the much older end of this age category which it's been in the past there's been a few books that have really been for much older readers but yeah I'm excited to read through this. Then you have the Eve Poundall Award so entries in this one can be for zero to 18 years of age but these are picture books that document factual material. Again these can also feature content for mature readers or deal with challenging topics or be quite long dense picture books so it's worth reading through them before you give them to a child although the books in this category are pretty good this year I'm excited to read through a lot of them. So there is A for Australian Reefs by Fran Lesak which looks absolutely gorgeous I've borrowed this out from my works library, Amazing Animal Journeys by Jennifer Kossens, Come Together Things Every Aussie Kid Should Know About the First Peoples by Zaya Firebrace. This one I have read and reviewed and I adore this book I think it is incredible. There is Deep Delve Into Hidden Worlds by Jess McGeachon who does incredible kids picture books Opal and Dart by Vianne Brain and also Wild Australian Life by Leonard Cronin which I have also read and reviewed at some point I can't remember when I reviewed this one I must have been last year but this is a really gorgeous animal information book as well. And then the final category is the CBCA Award for New Illustrator and this is about recognizing and encouraging new talent in the field of Australian children's book illustrations. Again the age category for these can be from zero to 18 years so the content will vary depending on the book and at this point I have only read We Are Australians by Duncan Smith and Nicole Godwin and illustrated by Jandamara Cadd. So the other books in this category include Australia from Dawn to Dusk which is illustrated by Brentos, The Best Hiding Place by illustrated by Sylvia Morris, Natureopolis illustrated by Ingrid Bartkowick, oh gosh I hope I pronounced that right, Tiny Wonders by illustrated by Sally Solhahn and there's no such book illustrated by Jack Edmonton so I'm really excited to also try these because I love these categories I think there's a great variety of books in here and it'll be nice to be able to share these with you guys as well because they're all Australian authors and illustrators. Stay tuned in the next couple of months I will share some recaps of the books in all of these categories I'm really excited about it and if there's anything that you would like to see reviewed sooner feel free to let me know in the comments. Thank you very much for watching I hope that you've enjoyed this video and learning maybe a little bit more about how we recognize children's picture books here in Australia there are other prizes we have the readings prize and a few other bits and pieces throughout the year as well but the CBCA is one that's kind of recognized across Australia and is celebrated pretty widely in schools here if you have any questions or anything feel free to leave them down below otherwise I hope the reviewer in the world you're staying safe and healthy and I will see you in my next video thanks so much for watching bye everyone