 Hi everyone, it's Steph here from Kid Lit Joy, and I am doing a bit of a reaction video tonight, so that's why the setup is a little bit different. But the Children's Book Council of Australia released their 2024 Notables books, so for those of you who aren't familiar or haven't followed my channel for a while, the Children's Book Council of Australia has an award series every year. It culminates in Book Week, which is celebrated across Australia in schools and libraries and kinders and all sorts of places. The Notables is kind of like the long list of the books in the various categories that are released. And then next month we get the short list. So there will be six books in every major category. So there is Book of the Older Readers, which is the Young Adult Titles, Book of the Younger Readers, which is the Middle Fiction Titles, Children's Picture Book of the Year. There is an Early Childhood Picture Book. So those are sort of the picture books for Kinder and Early Primary School. There is the Eve Poundall Award, which is for nonfiction titles. And then there is the New Illustrator Award. So I thought we would just do a reaction video. I haven't seen what's been listed as a notable book this year. It's literally come out today and I've been at work, so I haven't seen it. But yeah, I thought we would go through and I'm just going to react to see which books I've read, which I haven't heard of and whatnot. So they always do sort of a big announcement show, so you can actually watch it on YouTube. And here we go, we've got options to download, the complete list, etc. And then we just jump straight into the categories. So Book of the Older Readers, which are fiction, drama or poetry, and for children aged 13 to 18 years. So I have read Hunger of Thorns by Lily Wilkinson. This is a really fantastic young adult story, particularly if you like strong female protagonists and you like a bit of a fantasy story. That was great. I've heard great things about Grace Notes. I just haven't read it yet. Jack Heath is always pretty consistent. This is on my radar to pick up at some point. I've not heard of I'm the Mal and Other Stories. It's quite a few on here that I haven't heard, but that's, to be honest, not unusual because I don't read a lot of young adult. Tends to be sort of things that people recommend to me. Nightbirds, I have read, gosh, that was ages ago that I read that. I've also read The Isle of the Gods. I've heard good things about Picasso and the Greatest Show on Earth by Anna Feinberg. All right, a couple more that I've read. I've read The Quiet and the Loud. I've talked about it on this channel. That's by Helena Fox. I've read The Sinister Booksell as a Bar by Garth Nix. I haven't read this time. It's real, but that one, that could be interesting. I know I've seen that cover before. And then Two Can Play That Game by Leanne Young. I read and loved. This is about two gamers who fall in love. It's really wonderful. We Could Be Something by Wilka Starkas. Also read this and really enjoyed it. It is a queer young adult title, and it follows multiple generations of a family. And then We Didn't Think It Through by Gary Lonsborough is just very hard-hitting, and I have talked about it a lot. So it's a really great First Nations young adult title. All right, Book of the Younger Reader. So this is the middle fiction, well, junior and middle fiction. So for children aged seven to 12 years, it can be fiction, drama, or poetry. I haven't heard of these first two. I know Matt Stanton. I haven't read very many of Matt Stanton's books. I have read Durran by Carl Merison and Hekea Hussler. This is fantastic. This is a follow-up to Black Cockatoo. Really great title. It is about an Indigenous girl who is living at a boarding school and dealing with sort of the cultural differences between her culture and this boarding school. And she finds herself really struggling while she's there. Huda was here by H Hayek is just so fun. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up on the shortlist again. Same thing with Durran. I didn't realize Siobhan Plaza had a middle fiction title out. So this is Meet Me at the Moon Tree. I would probably be inclined to pick that up at some point. Ming and Hilda lead A Revolution by Jackie French is part of a series. I read the first book in that series last year, I think. So that's interesting. I don't know how many are out in that series total yet. I don't know if this is the second or the third book. Could be more than that. I didn't know Sue Whiting had a middle fiction book out in the last little while. Real pigeons is everywhere. Haven't heard of Running with Ivan or Saving Charlie. I read Sunshine on Vinegar Street by Karen Coma. This was a lot of fun. It's about a girl who ends up moving to the city and having to make new friends and being in a new space was a really wonderful read. Jackie French has another book on here, The Great Gallipoli Escape. She writes a lot of historical fiction, so that's not surprising. I've not read the odds, but I did just take the first book into work for the classroom library. So clearly that's quite popular. The Sideways Orbit of Eevee Hart. Oh, that looks interesting. I'm going to definitely have to come back to this list and see if I can borrow some of these out from the library. And The Unlikely Heroes Club by Kate Foster and Uncle Xbox by Jared Thomas, which I have read and really, really enjoyed. Another Great First Nations book and Great Fall Junior Book Clubs. Book of the Year Early Childhood. So this is for children aged 0 to 60 years. Again, it can be fiction, drama or poetry. So straight off the bat, I have not read these first two, but I do love Sue DeGeneres' work, so I'm going to have to check this one out. And also, Sally Rippen is just phenomenal and is the children's laureate at the moment. So I'll need to come back to this. I have read Can You Teach a Fish to Climb a Tree by Joan Godwin. And it's quite a good one because it's very much focused on identifying your strengths and playing to your strengths. Duckling Runs Away, I've read. That's by Margaret Wilde. It's a very cute little story. Great for younger readers. Garl Stormbird by Trevor Formile is just a really wonderful First Nations title. I do need to... What did I get? I may have picked up a physical copy of that at some point. I did borrow it out from the library. I haven't read these two, but I'm very curious about hair. That sounds like it'll be a great one. In The Rockpool. Yeah, so I haven't read these ones. I have read Shadowcatchers by Kirstie Murray. And I've read The Concrete Garden by Bob Graham. And Bob Graham's pretty stock standard. I wouldn't be surprised if Bob Graham is on the short list. Oh, this one by Victor Stephenson looks really interesting in the trees. His books are always very fascinating. I have read These Little Feet by Hailey Rosthorne. I actually gave it a copy to my niece and we did her footprints inside the book. It's a very sweet book for very young children. It's a really, really lovely book. And yeah, these... I've heard of Will the Sleepy Sheep... Will the Sleepy Sheep Sleep? Oh my gosh, that's a tongue twister, but I haven't read it. But David Metzenthin always does some really interesting things with his books. All right, Picture Book of the Year. So these are picture books that cater to an audience from zero to 18 years. So some of these books can contain very mature things, as it says at the top. It's about the author and illustrator working together to achieve artistic and literary unity. So it's kind of like the best of the best. I've seen the Bowerbird Blues. I haven't read it though. So I haven't read many of the books in this first group. I do know Desert Jungle by Jeannie Baker. I need to get myself a copy of it. Jeannie Baker's works are always amazing. She does these incredible, beautiful collages that she photographs. Not collages. Well, they are. They're 3D collages using natural materials. I have Red Leaf Light by Trace Bella. That was a gorgeous graphic novel. Oh, there's a lot that I haven't read down here. That's going to be interesting. Well, there's Bob Graham again. It'll be interesting to see which category he ends up on the short list for because it'll be one of them for sure. I love the title of this one, The Garden at the End of the World. Okay, Timeless. Guys, Timeless was one of my favorite books because it is just so full of puns about time. The entire story is told through puns and it is such a delightful time. Time joke. Anyway, it is a really, really wonderful book. One of my favorites from last year. So hopefully, I would love for that to be shortlisted because it was just such a good time and it's just so clever in how it's been written. All right, so the Eve Poundall Award. Again, this is for children aged 0 to 18. This one has the focus of documenting factual material and then allowing for imaginative presentation and interpretation. Oh, I saw this book all about the heart in the school library. I might have to borrow it. Australian Country of Colour. I have, I absolutely love this book. It's such a gorgeous overview of Australian flora and fauna grouped together by colour. I'm actually going to be using it for a project over the next couple of months and I'm really looking forward to it. Australian Animals from Beach to Bush by Brent Osk. Just absolutely stunning. It's a really great book. What else have I read in here? Democracy by Philip Bunting is up here somewhere. There it is. It's on my collection. I do love his books. Hi, but Jess McGeechin. Also amazing. This is a series. There's a whole stack of them. Deep was short, was Deep shortlisted last year? It must have been shortlisted last year because that's how I got onto them. Love that series too. But a lot of these look really interesting. I've just read Tamara. I'll be talking about it in a video soon. This was great. I haven't read song lines yet, but I do have access to a copy of it. I'm really excited to get to it. The World's Most Atrocious Animals by Philip Bunting is a really funny, very informative, but humorous, non-fiction book about fearsome animals, but making fun of some of their attributes. This book, Thinks You Deadly by Corey Tutt, is a really great collection of biographies on Indigenous and First Nations people from Australia and their accomplishments. It is a great book to pick up. Oh, I didn't know Lisa Harvey Smith had a guide to the night sky. That sounds awesome. I love space, so I'll be very inclined to pick this up. I have also seen The Wildlife Compendium of the World by Tanya McCartney, but I don't think I have a copy of it. Yes, there's some of the great books there. All right, so they haven't put down the new illustrator. Maybe they don't do a short list or sorry, notables for new illustrator. Or maybe they pull from some of the other books, titles that don't get shortlisted, but have new illustrators. That'll be interesting to see. All right, so I will be doing another reaction to the short list in March just because I'm deeply fascinated by this. And I will decide whether or not I'm going to attempt to do what I did last year, which was read all of the books in various categories. We'll see. But if you're interested in that, let me know, because I do enjoy doing it. It's a great way to pick up some titles that sometimes I haven't heard of, because some of these do come from much smaller presses, so they don't necessarily get the same publicity as some of the bigger publishing houses. Hopefully you've enjoyed this quick look into the Notables list. There's a lot of really fantastic books on there. And as I said, so many that I want to check out at some point. So this is a really helpful handy list to actually look at when you want to investigate some Australian titles, because all of these are Australian children's titles, and they are often a very good range. So I'm excited to check that out. In the comments, I'd love to know if you have read any of these books. If you're interested in hearing about any of them in particular, let me know of any titles that you would like to see me talk about on this channel and I can try and prioritise them. Otherwise, feel free to leave a book stack emoji to let me know you're here. I hope that wherever you're on the world, just staying safe and healthy. And I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching. Bye, everyone.