Children’s Book Week | 16–23 August 2025

This year’s theme Book an Adventure ties the exploratory aspirations of this year’s artist Jess McGeachin and our invitation to join us in celebrating 80 years of Children’s Book Week.

Come on an adventure with us in 2025 as we travel across lands, time, and memories.

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Shortlist for Older Readers Shortlist is: 

• A Wreck of Seabirds by Karleah Olson 
• Birdy by Sharon Kernot 
• Comes the Night by Isobelle Carmody 
• I’m Not Really Here by Gary Lonesborough
• Into the Mouth of the Wolf by Erin Gough 
• The Skin I’m In by Steph Tisdell 

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Shortlist for Younger Readers Shortlist  is: 

• Aggie Flea Steals the Show by Tania Ingram, illustrated by Anne Yi 
• Fluff: Mess Up! by Matt Stanton, illustrated by Matt Stanton 
• Laughter is the Best Ending by Maryam Master, illustrated by Astred Hicks 
• Saskia Spark-Lee: Fundraiser Fail by Rebecka Sharpe Shelberg, illustrated by Sofya Karmazina 
• Tigg and the Bandicoot Bushranger by Jackie French 
• To and Fro by Anton Clifford-Motopi 

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards shortlist for Early Childhood Notables is:

• Don’t Worry, Felix by Yohann Devezy & Katharine Alice, illustrated by Zoe Bennett 
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Tooth Fairy (And Some Things You Didn’t) by Briony Stewart
• How to Move a Zoo by Kate Simpson, illustrated by Owen Swan 
• One Little Dung Beetle by Rhian Williams, illustrated by Heather Potter & Mark Jackson 
• Spiro by Anna McGregor 
• The Wobbly Bike by Darren McCallum, illustrated by Craig Smith 

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Shortlist for Picture Book of the Year is: 

• Afloat by Freya Blackwood, text by Kirli Saunders 
• A Leaf Called Greaf by Kelly Canby 
• The Garden of Broken Things by Freya Blackwood
• These Long-Loved Things by Ronojoy Ghosh, text by Josh Pyke 
• The Truck Cat by Danny Snell, text by Deborah Frenkel 
• We Live in a Bus by Dave Petzold 

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Shortlist for the Eve Pownall Award  is: 

• Always Was, Always Will Be by Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson 
• Design & Building on Country by Alison Page & Paul Memmott, illustrated by Blak Douglas 
• Flora: Australia’s Most Curious Plants by Tania McCartney 
• I am a Magpie, I am a Currawong by Bridget Farmer 
• Making the Shrine: Stories From Victoria’s War Memorial by Laura J Carroll 
• South With the Seabirds by Jess McGeachin