CBCA 2025 Book of the Year: Shortlist Mega Bundle

CBCA BOOK WEEK: AUGUST 16-23 2025

Theme: Book an Adventure!

Older Readers
Entries in this category may be fiction, drama or poetry and should be appropriate in style and content for readers in their secondary years of schooling. Ages 13-18 years.
Note: Books in this category are for mature readers and some may deal with particularly challenging themes including violence and suicide. Parental guidance is recommended.

Younger Readers
Entries in this category may be fiction, drama or poetry and should be appropriate in style and content for readers from the middle to upper primary years. 7-12 years.
Note: Some of the titles in this category may only be suitable for readers who are in the upper primary years as they contain mature themes, including violence. Parental guidance is recommended.

Early Childhood
Entries in this category may be fiction, drama or poetry and should be appropriate in style and content for children who are at pre-reading or early stages of reading. Ages 0-6 years.

Picture Books
Entries in this category should be outstanding books of the Picture Book genre in which the author and illustrator achieve artistic and literary unity or, in wordless picture books, where the story, theme or concept is unified through illustrations. Ages 0-18 years.
Note: Some of these books may be for mature readers.

Information Books (Eve Pownall Award)
Entries in this category should be books which have the prime intention of documenting factual material with consideration given to imaginative presentation, interpretation and variation of style. Ages 0-18 years.
Note: Books in this category are for mature readers and some may deal with particularly challenging themes including violence and suicide. Parental guidance is recommended.

New Illustrator
This Award aims to recognise and encourage new talent in the field of Australian children's book illustration. Ages 0-18 years.

This bundle includes the following Shortlisted Books:

OLDER READERS

• A Wreck of Seabirds - Karleah Olson
• Birdy - Sharon Kernot
• Comes the Night - Isobelle Carmody
• I'm Not Really Here - Gary Lonesborough
• Into the Mouth of the Wolf - Erin Gough
• The Skin I'm In - Steph Tisdell

YOUNGER READERS

• Aggie Flea Steals the Show!: Aggie Flea #2 - Tania Ingram
• Fundraiser Fail: Saskia Spark-Lee #2 - Rebecka Sharpe Shelberg
• Laughter is the Best Ending - Maryam Master
• Mess Up!: Fluff #2 - Matt Stanton
• Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger - Jackie French
• To and Fro - Anton Clifford-Motopi

EARLY CHILDHOOD

• Don't Worry, Felix - Yohann Devezy & Katharine Alice
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Tooth Fairy (And Some Things You Didn't) - Briony Stewart
• How to Move a Zoo - Kate Simpson
• One Little Dung Beetle - Rhian Williams
• Spiro - Anna McGregor
• The Wobbly Bike - Darren McCallum

PICTURE BOOKS

• A Leaf Called Greaf - Kelly Canby
• Afloat - Kirli Saunders
• The Garden of Broken Things - Freya Blackwood
• The Truck Cat - Deborah Frenkel
• These Long-loved Things - Josh Pyke
• We Live in a Bus - Dave Petzold

INFORMATION BOOKS

• Always Was, Always Will Be - Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson
• Design & Building on Country - Alison Page & Paul Memmott
• Flora: Australia's Most Curious Plants - Tania McCartney
• I am a Magpie, I am a Currawong - Bridget Farmer
• Making the Shrine: Stories from Victoria’s War Memorial - Laura J Carroll
• South with the Seabirds - Jess McGeachin

NEW ILLUSTRATOR

• A Teaspoon of Light - Nisaluk Chantanakom
• Digger Digs Down - Huni Melissa Bolliger
• Grow Big, Little Seed - Sarah Capon
• Peek-a-Boo Lottie! - Kristen Willis
• Raymangirrbuy dhawu: When I was a little girl - Kylie Gatjawarrawuy Mununggurr
• The Land Recalls You - David Cragg & Noni Cragg