Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger by Jackie French (HarperCollins AU) “It wasn’t easy being the smallest bushranger on the goldfields. It was worsewhen your borrowed horse ate your wig.” (Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger ) Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger by Jackie French is shortlisted for the 2025CBCA Book of the Year: Younger Readers. Tigg and the […]
Read More Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger by Jackie FrenchThe Garden of Broken Things by Freya Blackwood (HarperCollins Australia) Inside the 2025 CBCA Shortlist 2025 CBCA Shortlist 2025 CBCA Notable Books Freya Blackwood is one of our most accomplished and highly regarded picture book creators. Two of her books are shortlisted in the 2025 CBCA Picture Book of the Year category: The Garden of […]
Read More The Garden of Broken Things by Freya BlackwoodEmma Quay talks about the way she captures movement in her illustrations. Images used are from Happy All Over, written & illustrated by Emma Quay Published by HarperCollins This is an exceptional piece by Emma. Students (and masters!) of art and illustration should use this as a ‘how-to-illustrate-movement’ guide and inspiration. Thank you for inviting […]
Read More Still Moving with Emma QuaySecret Sparrow by Jackie French Secret Sparrow by national treasure Jackie French (HarperCollins Australia) has just been shortlisted for the 2024 ARA Historical Prize alongside Two Sparrowhawks in a Lonely Sky by Rebecca Lim(Allen & Unwin) and Spies in the Sky by Beverley McWilliams (Pantera Press) in the Children and Young Adult category. The winner will […]
Read More Secret Sparrow by Jackie FrenchLights Out, Little Dragon! by Debra Tidball & Rae Tan (published HarperCollins Australia) Debra Tidball is a children’s author of award-winning picture books. The Scared Book won the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for Australia and New Zealand, and is a CBCA Notable Book. When I See Grandma won the Caleb Award and both books have been shortlisted for the […]
Read More Lights Out, Little Dragon! by Debra Tidball & Rae TanPicture Book Reviews by Joy in Books at Paperbark Words blog Books published by ABC Books, HarperCollins Australia & Working Title Press 2023 has produced a really great stash of picture books from ABC Books, Working Title Press and HarperCollins, as well as the reissue of some of the latter’s contemporary classics. The following books should be bought, borrowed […]
Read More Clever, Funny, Thinking Picture BooksRUNNING WITH IVAN by SUZANNE LEAL Published by Angus & Robertson (HarperCollins Australia) “Take it from me, Leo, at thirteen you can do almost everything. Never forget this. Difficult things, courageous things: they are all possible, even at thirteen. No, especially at thirteen.” (Running with Ivan) Suzanne and I first met while judging the NSW […]
Read More Running with Ivan by Suzanne LealThe Snow Laundry by Mette Jakobsen Mette Jakobsen is an excellent writer of literary fiction (The Wingmaker is a standout and I am keen to read her earlier novels) and now has branched into YA with The Snow Laundry, the first in her Tower series (published HarperCollins Australia). Mette begins her guest author post at […]
Read More The Snow Laundry by Mette JakobsenCalm, Sleepy, Joyful Books Book Reviews by Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog Most of these picture books are calm or sleepy books that help children relax and unwind. There is also an empathetic book about a grandma with dementia and a Play School Christmas book. All the books are published by ABC Books, except one by HarperCollins. A […]
Read More Calm, Sleepy, Joyful Books
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