CBCA Notables 2025

The CBCA Notables for 2025 were announced on the 25^th of February, and the Notables for the organisation’s 80^th year look amazing. I have read and reviewed several of the older readers and younger readers books, with more on my list to read and explore. Some I haven’t had the chance to read or review yet and hope to change that soon. There have been some great books this year, so I think the judges are going to have a tough time choosing the shortlist and winners!

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Older Readers Notables are…

• A Way Home by Emily Brewin (MidnightSun Publishing)
• A Wreck of Seabirds by Karleah Olson (Fremantle Press)
• Birdy by Sharon Kernot (Text Publishing)
• Comes the Night by Isobelle Carmody (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Deep is the Fen by Lili Wilkinson (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Eleanor Jones Can’t Keep a Secret by Amy Doak (Penguin Random House Australia)
• I Hope This Doesn’t Find You by Ann Liang (Penguin Random House Australia)
• I’m Not Really Here by Gary Lonesborough (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Into the Mouth of the Wolf by Erin Gough (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Kate Forsyth’s Long-Lost Fairy Tales by Kate Forsyth, illustrated by Lorena Carrington (New Dawn Publishing)
• Liar’s Test by Ambelin Kwaymullina (Text Publishing)
• Look Me in the Eye by Jane Godwin (Lothian Children’s Books)
• Maria Petranelli is Prepared for Anything (Except This) by Elisa Chenoweth (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• My Brother, Finch by Kate Gordon (Riveted Press)
• My Family and Other Suspects by Kate Emery (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Return to Sender by Lauren Draper (Macmillan Australia)
• The Skin I’m In by Steph Tisdell (Macmillan Australia)
• The Sweetness Between Us by Sarah Winifred Searle (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Thunderhead by Sophie Beer (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• White Noise by Raelke Grimmer (UWA Publishing)
• Wrong Answers Only by Tobias Madden (Penguin Random House Australia)

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Younger Readers Notables are…

• Aggie Flea Steals the Show by Tania Ingram, illustrated by Anne Yi (Scholastic Australia)
• Countdown to Yesterday by Shirley Marr (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Ella and the Amazing Frog Orchestra by Cassy Polimeni, illustrated by Hykie Breeze (UWA Publishing)
• Fluff: Mess Up! by Matt Stanton, illustrated by Matt Stanton (ABC Books)
• Hello Twigs, Look Who’s Grumpy by Andrew McDonald, illustrated by Ben Wood (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• How to Break a World Record and Survive Grade Five by Carla Fitzgerald (University of Queensland Press)
• Jy Goes for Gold by Carl Merrison & Hakea Hustler Samantha Campbell (HarperCollins AU)
• The Kindness Project by Deborah Abela (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Landovel by Emily Rodda (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Laughter is the Best Ending by Maryam Master, illustrated by Astred Hicks (Pan Australia)
• The Midwatch by Judith Rossell (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• Ming and Ada Spark the Digital Age by Jackie French (HarperCollins AU)
• Oscar vs the Grand Old Dude Named York by Ross Curnow (Walker Books Australia)
• The Other Shadow by Tania Ingram (Scholastic Australia)
• Real Pigeons Power Up by Andrew McDonald, illustrated by Ben Wood (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• Saskia Spark-Lee: Fundraiser Fail by Rebecka Sharpe Shelberg, illustrated by Sofya Karmazina (Walker Books Australia)
• Shower Land 1: Break the Curse by Nat Amoore, illustrated by James Hart (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Six Summers of Tash and Leopold by Danielle Binks (Lothian Children’s Books)
• Small Acts by Kate Gordon & Kate Foster (Walker Books Australia)
• Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger by Jackie French (HarperCollins AU)
• To and Fro by Anton Clifford-Motopi (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Tweet by Morris Gleitzman (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Twinning BFF’s (NOT) by Alexa Moses, illustrated by Sofya Karmazina (Scholastic Australia)
• We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord by Garth Nix (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Worst Week Ever Saturday by Eva Amores, illustrated by Matt Cosgrove (Scholastic Australia)

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Early Childhood Notables are…

• Amid the Sand Dunes by Andrea Rowe, illustrated by Hannah Sommerville (Little Hare)
• The Big Book of Australian Nursery Rhymes by Frané Lessac (Walker Books Australia)
• Dinosaur in My Pocket by Ashleigh Barton, illustrated by Blithe Fielden (Lothian Children’s Books)
• Don’t Worry, Felix by Yohann Devezy & Katharine Alice, illustrated by Zoe Bennett (New Frontier Publishing)
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Tooth Fairy (And Some Things You Didn’t) by Briony Stewart Lothian Children’s Books)
• Good Hair by Yvonne Sewankambo, illustrated by Freda Chiu (Walker Books Australia)
• Happy All Over by Emma Quay (ABC Books)
• How to Make a Bedtime by Meg McKinlay, illustrated by Karen Blair (Walker Books Australia)
• How to Move a Zoo by Kate Simpson, illustrated by Owen Swan (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• I am Tree Rex! by Mo Davey (Berbay)
• Just Like You by Natashia Curtin (Walker Books Australia)
• Kittens Do Not Care for Baths by Ali Rutstein, illustrated by Niña Nill (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• Meerkat Mayhem by Mem Fox, illustrated by Judy Horacek (Penguin Random House Australia)
• The Most Amazing Thing by Ian Hayward Robinson, illustrated by Matt Shanks (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Night Watch by Jodi Toering, illustrated by Tannya Harricks (Walker Books Australia)
• One Little Dung Beetle by Rhian Williams, illustrated by Heather Potter & Mark Jackson (Wild Dog Books)
• Over or Under? by Pip Harry, illustrated by Hilary Jean Tapper (Lothian Children’s Books)
• Reading to Baby by Margaret Wild, illustrated by Hannah Sommerville (Affirm Press)
• Sky Country by Aunty Patsy Cameron, illustrated by Lisa Kennedy (Magabala Books)
• Spiro by Anna McGregor (Scribble)
• To Stir With Love by Kate Mildenhall, illustrated by Jess Racklyeft (Simon & Schuster Australia)
• Two Turtles by Kiah Thomas, illustrated by Jake Minton (Little Book Press)
• Willow’s Gumboots by Beverly McWilliams, illustrated by Hélène Magisson (MidnightSun Publishing)
• The Wobbly Bike by Darren McCallum, illustrated by Craig Smith (Walker Books Australia)
• Worms Are Our Friends by Toni D’Alia, illustrated by Mica Purnell (Bright Light)

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Picture Book of the Year Notables are…

• Afloat by Freya Blackwood, text by Kirli Saunders (Little Hare)
• Bernie Thinks in Boxes by Zoe Bennett, text by Jess Horn (Affirm Press)
• Dragon Folding by Lucia Masciullo, text by Christopher Cheng (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Footprint by Sally Soweol Han, text by Phil Cummings (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• For 60,000 Years by Rhys Paddick, text by Marlee Silva (Scholastic Australia)
• The Garden of Broken Things by Freya Blackwood (HarperCollins AU)
• General Waste by Michel Streich (Scholastic Australia)
• Grow Big, Little Seed by Sarah Capon, text by Bec Nanayakkara (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• House by Charlotte Lane, text by Dan Giovannoni (Fremantle Press)
• The Land Recalls You by David Cragg & Noni Cragg, text by Kirli Saunders (Scholastic Australia)
• A Leaf Called Greaf by Kelly Canby (Fremantle Press)
• Listen, Hippo! by Gabriel Evans (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Night Watch by Tannya Harricks, text by Jodi Toering (Walker Books Australia)
• Stickboy by Matt Ottley, text by Rebecca Young (Scholastic Australia)
• The Space Between by Jess McGeachin (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Then and Now by Datsun Tran (Slingshot Books)
• These Long-Loved Things by Ronojoy Ghosh, text by Josh Pyke (Scholastic Australia)
• Three Dresses by Wanda Gibson (University of Queensland Press)
• Tilly in a Tangle by Monty Lee, text by Margrete Lamond (Dirt Lane Press)
• The Truck Cat by Danny Snell, text by Deborah Frenkel (Bright Light)
• Two Turtles by Jake Minton, text by Kiah Thomas (Little Book Press)
• Walking Together by Dub Leffler, text by Coral Vass (Scholastic Australia)
• We Live in a Bus by Dave Petzold (Thames & Hudson Australia)
• Why I Love Christmas by Tom Jellett, text by Michael Wagner (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Words That Taste Like Home by Michelle Pereira, text by Sandhya Parappukkaran (Bright Light)

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Eve Pownall Award Notables are…

• All About the Brain by Gabriel Dabscheck (Berbay)
• Always Was, Always Will Be by Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson (Magabala Books)
• Anti-Racism Kit by Sabina Patawaran & Jinyoung Kim, illustrated by Emma Ismawi (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• Australia’s Baby Animals by Jess Racklyeft (Affirm Press)
• Before the Mountain had a Name by Fiona Levings (Forty South Publishing)
• Come Together Again by Isaiah Firebrace, illustrated by Jaelyn Biumaiwai (Hardie Grant Explore)
• Design & Building on Country by Alison Page & Paul Memmott, illustrated by Blak Douglas (Thames & Hudson Australia)
• Extreme Animal Facts by Jennifer Cossins (Lothian Children’s Books)
• Flora: Australia’s Most Curious Plants by Tania McCartney (NLA Publishing)
• Follow Your Gut by Ailsa Wild & Lisa Stinson, with Briony Barr & Gregory Crocetti, illustrated by Ben Hutchings (Scribe Publications)
• I am a Magpie, I am a Currawong by Bridget Farmer (Black Cockatoo Books)
• The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Extinct Animals by Sami Bayly, illustrated by Sami Bayly (Lothian Children’s Books)
• Into the Ice: Reflections on Antarctica by Alison Lester & Coral Tulloch (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Making the Shrine: Stories From Victoria’s War Memorial by Laura J Carroll (The Crossley Press)
• Now for the Good News by Planet Ark Environmental Foundation, illustrated by Sarah Wiecek (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Plantabulous! More A to Z of Australian Plants by Catherine Clowes, illustrated by Rachel Gyan (CSIRO Publishing)
• Seed to Sky: Life in the Daintree by Pamela Freeman, illustrated by Liz Anelli (Walker Books Australia)
• Sensational Australian Animals by Stephanie Owen Reeder, illustrated by Cher Hart (CSIRO Publishing)
• South With the Seabirds by Jess McGeachin (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Sunny Finds His Song by Catherine Storey & Penny Watson, illustrated by Sarah Matsuda (Wet Season Books)
• Too Many Tigers by Monica Reeve (Forty South Publishing, Tasmania)
• Unreal by Kate Simpson, illustrated by Leila Rudge (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Walking the Rock Country in Kakadu by Diane Lucas & Ben Tyler, illustrated by Emma Long (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Wedge-tailed Eagle by Claire Saxby, illustrated by Christina Booth (Walker Books Australia)
• When the World Was Soft by Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation, illustrated by Alex Mankiewicz (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)