It’s that time of year again when the local kid-lit community starts to get SUPER excited about Children’s Book Week, and gears up to celebrate the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards. We want to send a HUGE congratulations to all of the fabulous authors, illustrators and publishers on the shortlist! So many of our favourite books are here, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to see them recognised – including this year’s heart-warming National Simultaneous Storytime title, The Truck Cat, which will feature in a very special StoryBox Hub video in May, and the stunning The Land Recalls You by Kirli Saunders, illustrated by David Cragg and Noni Cragg, which is available to watch on the Hub now. 


As always, we’ll have you covered with a whole lot of story reads across the Early Childhood, Picture Book, Eve Pownall and New Illustrator categories. And to make celebrating Book Week 2025 a breeze for you and your young people, we’ll have tailored downloadable resources and activities covering the shortlisted titles too.


The 2025 CBCA theme, Book an Adventure, ties in with the exploratory aspirations of this year’s feature artist, Jess McGeachin. You can meet Jess in two of our brilliant, engaging Story Tools, Series 2 lessons, All About Non Fiction and Researching Non Fiction. Plus, check out his beautiful picture book, Kind: A Call to Care For Every Creature, read by Leah Vandenberg. And stay tuned, because Jess will also be dropping by the Hub to read his gorgeous shortlisted picture book, South With The Seabirds.


The CBCA was founded in 1945 in a time when Australian children’s authors and illustrators were virtually unknown. The following year, The Book of the Year Awards, an annual award to promote books of high literary and artistic quality, was established. This year marks 80 years of celebrating Children’s Book Week, and these awards are now the most influential and highly respected in Australia.


Watch this space for more exciting CBCA Book Week 2025 updates to come. And of course, we’ll have all the news when the winners are announced on Friday the 15th of August!