Celebrating 80 Years of the CBCA

For 80 years, the Children’s Book Council of Australia has been promoting quality Australian children’s books for young readers of all ages. Every year since 1946, the CBCA has presented The Book of the Year Awards to promote Australian books that had a high literary and artistic quality. These awards of literary merit for outstanding contributions to Australian children’s literature were created at a time when there were very few Australian children’s books, much less than there are today, and when the Australian authors and illustrators who were around were not that well-known.

The Book of the Year Awards are an annual award for these books and are the most influential and highly respected literary awards in Australia. Because without children’s books, adults would not become readers. The CBCA uses the awards and Book Week each year to promote books and reading for children of all ages, across genres and types of books. This fits in with:

The CBCA is a not-for-profit, volunteer run organisation with a purpose, a vision and a mission. Its purpose to “enrich young lives through Australian stories”. Its vision is to “see a thriving creative world embracing the transformational power of stories, across generations” and its mission is to “connect, communicate, celebrate, and advocate for the value of stories”. 

Book Week

Book Week – it is the one week (or month, if you’re an author) each year where the CBCA celebrates books during Children’s Book Week, which turns 80 this year. To pull this fantastic celebration of books off, the CBCA helps authors, illustrators, publishers, booksellers and other children’s book organisations to get a love and appreciation of words, images, and stories to adults and children. To help get the magic of stories into the hearts and minds of everyone and make reading truly magical.

Australian literature is important. It shows readers the different ways Australians live their lives. The different places they live in and the various cultures in Australia, and also works to bring Australia to life across the world with international editions.

Book week is the highlight of the year, and it’s the 80^th anniversary in 2025 – and this year, the theme is Book an Adventure! It will run from the 16^th to the 23^rd of August. This year, the artwork has been created by Jess McGeachin. He has captured the essence of the theme, Book an Adventure. The map is filled with lots of imaginary characters, inviting young readers to think about fantastic journeys through the worlds that books bring to life across the world and in different worlds. Hopefully, this will encourage children to imagine, explore and create their own adventures. ,

This year marks a milestone for the CBCA Book Week – 80 years of Book Week! 80 years of inspiring children and their imaginations through books and the worlds that they offer. And Jess’s imagination reflects the 2025 mission perfectly. Hopefully, this will continue for many decades and years to come.

The CBCA website has some awesome resources you can use from Twinkl to complement anything you are doing for Book Week in your library or classroom. So get in on the fun, and help celebrate the 80^th anniversary of Book Week and the CBCA!