Author: joylawn

Book advocate. Joy Lawn is a freelance book reviewer and book judge specialising in literary fiction and children's and YA literature. She has recently judged the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, Qld Literary Awards - Fiction & Non-Fiction Book Award (chair), IBBY Australia Honour Books for Writing & Illustration, and has judged the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Russell Prize for Humour Writing, CBCA, Davitt Women's Crime Book awards & Aurealis Awards. Joy loves moderating sessions at Writers’ Festivals, including Brisbane, Byron, Sydney & Central Coast, reviews theatre & books for ArtsHub, books for Books + Publishing & writes the editorial and feature articles for Magpies magazine. Joy promotes Australian literature here and overseas. 'A great book compels you to reread your own soul.' — Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Bouncing Back: An Eastern Barred Bandicoot Story by Rohan Cleave & Coral Tulloch

Inside the CBCA Shortlist The bandicoot is a fascinating Australian native animal but is often forgotten, overshadowed by kangaroos, koalas, platypuses and wombats – the animals in books like Alison Lester’s shortlisted Noni the Pony Rescues a Joey. The Easter Barred Bandicoot is, of course, featured in this book. At times it is important to […]

Malla Nunn and When the Ground is Hard

Inside the CBCA Shortlist When the Ground is Hard (Allen & Unwin) is an original, ultimately empowering young adult novel. Thank you for speaking to Paperbark blog, Malla. Where are you based and why have you written a YA novel after a career writing crime fiction? I live in a weatherboard house in Sydney and […]

Black Cockatoo by Carl Merrison & Hakea Hustler

Inside the CBCA Shortlist Black Cockatoo (Magabala Books) is written by Jaru & Kija man Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler and is illustrated by Dub Leffler, who also illustrated Sorry Day, which is shortlisted in the CBCA Eve Pownall category. It is a memorable story about an Aboriginal family living in the Kimberley. Thirteen-year-old Mia […]

Remy Lai and Pie in the Sky

Thanks for speaking with Paperbark blog, Remy. Thank you for having me! I was impressed and touched while reading Pie in the Sky (Walker Books Australia), your debut novel illustrated with comics about Jingwen, his younger brother Yanghao and their mother who move to Australia. You have shared intense feelings and experiences while keeping the […]

Between Us by Clare Atkins

Inside the CBCA Shortlist Why and how is the novel a powerful forum to alert people to the plight of refugees and those in detention centres? Clare Atkins tackles significant social and political issues in her books. Her second novel, Between Us (Black Inc) is set in the Northern Territory between a Darwin school and […]

Waves: for those who came across the sea

Inside the CBCA Shortlist Waves: for those who came across the sea by Donna Rawlins, illustrated Mark Jackson & Heather Potter Waves (Walker Books Australia) is narrative non-fiction structured chronologically to show ‘waves’ of refugee movement to Australia. It is told in a factual style to show both current and historical reality and uses first […]

The Mediterranean by Armin Greder

Inside the CBCA Shortlist The Mediterranean (Allen & Unwin) is a picture book for mature readers. It is not for reading pleasure. It is deliberately confronting, aiming to shock the reader with the terrible issue of dead refugees. The quote at the end of the book tells us that the story is based on the […]

Rainbow Bear by Stephen Michael King

Inside the CBCA Shortlist Rainbow Bear (Scholastic Australia) overflows with family love, especially the love between a father and his children. It is full of gentle humour, founded in the natural rhythms of day and night, night and day; watched over by the celestial bodies of the sun, moon and stars – Stephen Michael King […]

Cicada by Shaun Tan

Inside the CBCA Shortlist Shaun Tan has won major Australian and international awards, including the Astrid Lindgren Award and an Academy Award for The Lost Thing. Australian authors and illustrators are breaking ground on the world stage in their portrayal of refugees and the displaced. (I have written about some of these books in Raising […]

Changing Gear by Scot Gardner

Inside the CBCA Shortlist Scot Gardner explores the young male experience with authenticity, most unexpectedly in the incomparable The Dead I Know, set in a funeral parlour, and most recently in Changing Gear (Allen & Unwin), which is very well written and engaging. Gardner hooks the reader into Changing Gear with some retrospective interaction between 10-year-old […]