On Saturday 31st October, a capacity crowd of 120 excited children along with their responsible adults, CBCA members and a number of local authors and illustrators gathered at C3 Conference Centre in Hobart to celebrate this wonderful milestone in the Book of the Year Awards.
Do you like digging for treasure? Start a journey of discovery with Belle Alderman as she provides a window into the vibrant collection held by The National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature. In this fascinating post Belle presents the ‘research files’ held in the collection as hidden gems.
This week, Lyndon Riggall talks about reading - from reading scores, school libraries to building a reading culture - at school and at home. Lots of points to ponder and some positives to embrace as we get over the bumps to attain a smoother road.
CBCA Tasmania was pleased to conduct the 2026 Southern Readers Cup and appreciated the hard work of the staff at host school Dodges Ferry and the teachers and staff of the other participating schools, some of whom travelled quite long distances to attend. It was a delight to have some smaller country schools join in and make the most of this opportunity to come together to test their reading knowledge and creative interpretations of six wonderful books.
It is wonderful to conclude Book Week with a post from Tasmanian born Eleri Harris who is the Winner of the CBCA 2026 New Illustrator Award and the Eve Pownall Honour Award for the wonderful, comical and engaging A Loo of One’s Own: A Mostly True Tale of Australia’s First Female Parliamentarians. Eleri provides insight into her Tasmanian connections and how these influence and inform her written and artistic endeavours.
The successful books in the 2026 Book of the Year awards have been announced. This year the event included the announcement of the Shadow Judging winners, decided by participating student groups across Australia.
CBCA has provided students with the opportunity to become actively involved in the Book of the Year Awards through the Shadow Judging program. Momentum has grown and the importance of offering young people the opportunity to read, critique and judge the shortlisted books has proven its worth. Read on to hear from some of Tasmania’s Shadow Judges and their mentors.
This week’s post makes connections between the importance of boys, reading and male protagonists. With the 2025 Book of the Year Awards announcements just days away, read on to see how many of this year’s novels provide male role models within their pages.
Adrian Beck might be based in Melbourne, but his heart is firmly set in Hobart. Author, illustrator, speaker, entertainer - his passion of children and the books they love to read is a delight to discover.
Step behind the scenes with Tony Flowers as he shares insights into his most recent work, You, Me, Community. His illustrations support and enrich the theme of community with fascinating details, and embedded humour drawn from his personal journeys and experiences.
This week Bronwyn, from The Hobart Bookshop, shares an amazing array of recent publications designed to help children and teens put pen to paper to create their own stories. Enough to make you want to write yourself!