The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot

Inside the CBCA Shortlist The Art of Taxidermy (Text Publishing) is a verse novel. This form is here used in an original way to express the grief caused by death. Sensitivity may be needed for grieving students. Lottie/ Charlotte’s mother has died and she is now becoming very interested in dead creatures. I keep them […]

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 […]

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 […]

Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein

Inside the CBCA Shortlist Small Spaces (Walker Books) is shortlisted in the Older Readers category of the CBCA 2019 awards. Something happened in Tash’s past that continues to affect her life. As a child, she saw Mallory Fisher taken from the carnival by an “imaginary monster”. She told the police. Now Tash doesn’t trust her […]

Lenny’s Book of Everything by Karen Foxlee

Inside the CBCA Shortlist I have read all of Karen Foxlee’s books as they’ve been published, beginning with her novels for adults and young adults, The Anatomy of Wings and the stunning The Midnight Dress, a tale of a teenage girl’s murder where tension simmers exquisitely. It is an alluring, mesmeric mystery with a finely […]

The Bogan Mondrian by Steven Herrick

Inside the CBCA Shortlist Steven Herrick has a stunning list of verse novels, poetry and prose for children and young adults. His books have been shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia awards multiple times and my favourite of his works, The Spangled Drongo, won the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards for children’s literature. I […]