18th May Book shortlists to watch out for!

Around this time of year, I know to check what is on shortlists for picture book awards. They are always good indicators of what is to come, indicators of what authors and illustrators are doing, indicators of what is new and good suggestions for my own reading. Two that I particularly watch for are Oscar's Book Prize  and The Alligator's Mouth Award because they are of significance to the readers I teach.

Oscar’s Book Prize is an annual award for the best picture book for pre-schoolers and young children. The prize was founded in 2014 by James Ashton and Viveka Alvestrand in memory of their three-year-old son Oscar Ashton who died unexpectedly in 2012. It aims  to reward the creativity of early-years literature and to highlight the importance of reading with children.

There are seven classes of preschoolers using the school library and this award enables me to find books for this age group that the teachers may not have met. Each year a teacher will read one of the shortlisted books, enjoy it and then come and ask for more books by that author or illustrator.  

This year's winner is Just the Two of Us by Polly Noakes. We have only two other books of hers, so this gives me some homework to do. I purchased the first  Gina Kaminski  book, Gina Kaminski Saves the Wolf because it appeared on so many shortlists, but it has not proved to be a favourite with teachers or children, so given the price of this new one I haven't purchased it and I'll wait til August and get the paperback. Hank Goes Honk  is funny and sure to be a hit.  It is illustrated by Duncan Beedie and his books are popular in the library, as are Fred Blunt's. 

Much has been written already about There's a Tiger on the Train, but despite ordering it quite a while ago it still hasn't arrived. It is available in bookshops in Australia now, but it wasn't when I ordered it. This picture book is by Mariesa Dulak who won the 2020 FAB prize, which is awarded by the publisher Faber to new writers and illustrators from BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) backgrounds. It has illustrations by Rebecca Cobb who is well known by preschoolers and has another book of her own A Wild Walk to School  on the shortlist for Picture Books to Shout About together with Duncan needle's Heavy Metal Badger.

In contrast The Alligator Mouth Book Award celebrates  the best in highly illustrated children’s fiction for readers aged 6 - 8. There are 12 classes of children at school in this age group and these lists have enabled me to learn about series that might not yet be available in Australia. This is where I learned about Adventuremice  which won last year and the series Pizazz, Indigo Wilde, Kate on the Case, Flamingo Hotel, Sam Wu  and Dave Pigeon all of which have their fans.

Other UK shortlists I browse

• Inclusive Books for Children Awards These fiction book awards showcase the best of the diverse voices and stories published in the UK and Ireland. 

• UKLA Book Awards The only national awards entirely judged by teachers, demonstrate how important it is to them, that all children and young people can find themselves represented in the books that they read or study.

• The Children's Book Award The Children’s Book Award is the only UK award voted for solely by children from start to finish. Over 1,000 new books are submitted to be read and reviewed by local Testing Groups across the country.  

26th August Book Week shortlists

As a conscientious teacher librarian, I have been sharing books from the CBCA shortlists with my students. Some of these books are 'big hits', but others will be hard to get out of the library. That always worries me, as many schools buy the whole of the shortlists, but they do not have the budget I have. Wouldn't it be better to buy books that you cannot buy at BigW or Kmart, books that children won't buy themselves and books that will inspire them to read more and differently. Books that expand their horizons. My library has a large collection of biographies, books about sport heroes, books that allow for the sharing of nonfiction topics but which have outstanding illustrations and books that are hard to find at bookshops or other libraries.

What are the most borrowed?

• Nature Story Books from Walker Books

We have many of the original Read and Wonder books that have morphed into the new series and all the recent ones. These books combine a story with factual writing using two fonts. They include animals that the students know but are happy to find out more about. Great White Shark was on the shortlist for the Eve Pownall Award.

• Easy graphic novels (toon books)

Yes, my students enjoy, Bad Guys  and Dogman, but they also love, Press Start, Kung Pow Chicken, Pizza and Taco, Flubby, Cranky Chicken, Stickman Odyssey and other book that looks like a bit like a comic.

• Little People Big Dreams series by Maria Isabel Sanchez

And then they will read more about a favoured person in other biographies.

• Anything a friend or their teacher recommends. If the principal mentions a book in assembly, everyone wants it.

• Books about plastic and rubbish in the oceans. See here:

I think as a staff we might have overdone this as a topic, but I do think the students genuinely do care and they are diligent about sorting their lunch rubbish.

Back to the shortlist. Let's look at what was popular with the students. Remember I only teach Preschool to Year 2 (4 to 8 year olds).

• Walk of the Whales by Nick Bland has been very successful because it fits the last category of popular books. The humour appealed to the students. The thought of a whale on a bicycle made them laugh. The students had plenty to say about this book. We had a scientist visit during Science Week who also inspired them to find out more about whales. Consequently very book in the library about whales has had an outing. See titles here.

• Stellarphant by James Foley. This book also combined humour with serious topics of inclusion, diversity, perseverance and individuality. The students were fascinated by the final pages that listed all the animals that have gone into space and luckily we had books about some of these eg. Laika the Space Dog; Laika the Space Astronaut; Dogs in Space; Monkey in Space; 50 Animals that Have Been to Space.

• Blue Flower and The Boy and the Elephant,  both of which are more serious in tone, touched my Year 2 students because they were concerned about the protagonists and their view of school. I underestimated how much having friends and being included at school matters to this age group. Many made connections between the two books because of how they felt about school and their family. Empathy was the subject of all the discussions. One girl told me that she felt sure Sonya Hartnett had not enjoyed school and she asked me how she is now that she is 'a famous author'. watching Freya Blackwood's textless book on Story Box Library definitely helped the students appreciate the detailed illustrations and the scope and importance of them to the story.

• Iceberg by Claire Saxby and Jess Racklyeft was also popular once I had read it and the  students had looked closely at the artwork on a large screen courtesy of Story Box Library. We have had this book in the library for quite a while and it was unborrowed until we shared it. This book fits the Nature Story Book model, factual but with wonderful illustrations. I find my Year 2 are fascinated by Antarctica and last term we had read about emperor penguins so they did have some background knowledge to 'hang the content on'. I am going to purchase Except Antarctica  as a companion read as this term Year 2 are looking at classifying animals into groups and this would tie in beautifully.

• Jetty Jumping by Andrea Rowe and Hannah Sommerville. The students like this book because as children who live on or near Sydney Harbour they have many jetties to choose from. I had concerns about this book for this Early Childhood age group (0-7yrs), as there isn't an adult in sight, many of my students are not strong swimmers, the protagonist is scared to jump and no-one validates that feeling as being acceptable, and in the end she appears to fall in and all is okay. For me I felt this book needed lots of scaffolding and discussion. We did have some interesting debates about whether she should jump just because her friends told her to. I used Tim Winton's The Deep  and Jabari Jumps by as companion reads because here the protagonists feel more in control of their fears and there are supportive adults watching.