Announcing the 2025 Book of the Year Awards – Shortlist

​The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Older Readers Shortlist

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• 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)
• 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 Skin I’m In by Steph Tisdell (Macmillan Australia)

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​The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Younger Readers 

• Aggie Flea Steals the Show by Tania Ingram, illustrated by A. Yi (Scholastic Australia)
• Fluff: Mess Up! by Matt Stanton, illustrated by Matt Stanton (ABC Books)
• Laughter is the Best Ending by Maryam Master, illustrated by Astred Hicks (Pan Australia)
• Saskia Spark-Lee: Fundraiser Fail by Rebecka Sharpe Shelberg, illustrated by Sofya Karmazina (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)

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Early Childhood Shortlist

• 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)
• How to Move a Zoo by Kate Simpson, illustrated by Owen Swan (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• One Little Dung Beetle by Rhian Williams, illustrated by Heather Potter & Mark Jackson (Wild Dog Books)
• Spiro by Anna McGregor (Scribble)
• The Wobbly Bike by Darren McCallum, illustrated by Craig Smith (Walker Books Australia)

​The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Eve Pownall Award Shortlist

• Always Was, Always Will Be by Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson (Magabala Books)
• Design & Building on Country by Alison Page & Paul Memmott, illustrated by Blak Douglas (Thames & Hudson Australia)
• Flora: Australia’s Most Curious Plants by Tania McCartney (NLA Publishing)
• I am a Magpie, I am a Currawong by Bridget Farmer (Black Cockatoo Books)
• Making the Shrine: Stories From Victoria’s War Memorial by Laura J Carroll (The Crossley Press)
• South With the Seabirds by Jess McGeachin (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)

​The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Picture Book Shortlist

• Afloat by Freya Blackwood, text by Kirli Saunders (Little Hare)
• The Garden of Broken Things by Freya Blackwood (HarperCollins AU)
• A Leaf Called Greaf by Kelly Canby (Fremantle Press)
• These Long-Loved Things by Ronojoy Ghosh, text by Josh Pyke (Scholastic Australia)
• The Truck Cat by Danny Snell, text by Deborah Frenkel (Bright Light)
• We Live in a Bus by Dave Petzold (Thames & Hudson Australia)

​The 2025 CBCA Award for New Illustrator

• A Teaspoon of Light, Nisaluk Chantanakom (WestWords)
• Digger Digs Down, Huni Melissa Bolliger (University of Queensland Press)
• Grow Big, Little Seed, Sarah Capon (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• Peek-a-Boo Lottie, Kristen Willis (Five Mile Books)
• Raymaŋgirrbuy dhäwu, When I was a little girl, Kylie Gatjawarrawuy Mununggurr (Magabala Books)
• The Land Recalls You, David Cragg & Noni Cragg (Scholastic Australia)