Picture Books

WINNER Picture Book of the Year 2023

It goes without saying that we all believe our parents to be strange. Mine were unusual for a different reason than most. So begins an imaginative account of growing up different, the transformative power of love and the shape that a life can take.
Audience: Primary

Frank is a penguin with ideas. Mostly terrible ones. That's why his fellow penguins are nervous when he shows them his strange new creation. Something they'd never seen or expected to see in their cold and colourless Antarctic world - a red hat.
Audience: Ages 4 to 7

Honour Book 2023

Daisy lives in inland Australia with her dad and her grandparents. It's home, and she loves the red dirt land around her. But when her dad realises that she's never seen the beach and thinks the Australian anthem is about a country 'dirt by sea', he sets off to show her the ocean in a once-in-a-lifetime father-daughter trip along the Australian coast, inspired by the first holiday he took with Daisy's mum. Along the way they will learn about Australia and much, much more . . .
Audience: Primary

Goodjagah, little one, walk with me ... I want to tell you our Dreaming as the Elders told it to me. Gunai woman Kirli Saunders and Bigambul man Dub Leffler, explore a deep love and respect for Country and all her spirits ... past, present and beyond.

Honour Book 2023

When a young girl and her older brothers step into the ghostly Paradise Sands hotel, they fall under the rule of the mysterious Teller. The girl makes a deal with the commanding creature to free them all from his haunting paradise--and let them return to their mother, white roses in hand. But can the girl, determined as she is, hold up her side of the bargain?
Audience: Primary

Step inside the dollhouse-like interior of Farmhouse based on a real family and an actual farmhouse where Sophie salvaged facts and artefacts. She takes readers on a visit to a farmhouse across time, to witness the way that history spins stories.

WINNER Picture Book of the Year 2022

An iceberg is born into spring and travels through the seasons before dying in a new spring.
Audience: Ages 5 to 8

'All this will soon be yours, respect what I have built and make it prosper.' These are the last words of the old industrialist before dying. While the three brothers discuss how to fulfil their father's wishes, the sister lists for them the disastrous consequences that would follow: disease; marine pollution; deforestation; the destruction of the landscape; pollution of skies and rivers...
Audience: Ages 8 to 14

Honour Book 2022

Stella wants to be an astronaut. There is only one problem: Stella is an elephant. Every time she applies to Space Command, they come up with a new reason she can't join. But where there's a will, there's a way and Stella is determined to reach for the stars.
Audience: Preschool

The boy lives in a city, where everything is fast and loud. But amidst the bustle and the noise, the boy has a secret. In the overgrown lot next to his apartment building, deep within the green, he has a friend. But one day progress arrives, bringing with it plans for something new, and the boy must find a way to save his friend before it's too late...
Audience: Ages 3+

Honour Book 2022

Just One Bee is a story of hope, determination and never giving up: the story of One-bee and her dream to revert desolate wastes back to fields of flowers.
Audience: Ages 4+

Not all cats are tabby. Not all trees are tall. Not all clouds are white and not all flowers are yellow. A beautiful and inspiring story about the discovery that being different can be something wonderful.
Audience: Ages 2 to 6

Omnibus Books, 2020

Honour Book 2021

Audience: Young children

Quokka did not like being cute. Not one bit. The romping, stomping, chomping tale of one stubbornly adorable marsupial.

Walker Books, 2020

Audience: Preschool

No friendship is imaginary. When Ellie is very little, she finds a newborn dragon fresh from the egg on a supermarket shelf, and calls him Scratch. He is quite the sweetest thing she has ever seen! From that day on, Ellie and Scratch do everything together. Ellie's mum and her teacher can't see her fiery friend, but all her friends can and, over the years, Ellie's dragon grows to be big, house-trained, and very affectionate. And Ellie is growing, too.

Candlewick Press, 2021

WINNER Picture Book of the Year 2021

Audience: Ages 4 to 8

To make a bird, you'll need hundreds of tiny, hollow bones, so light you can barely feel them on your palm. So light they can float on air. Next you'll need feathers for warmth and lift. There will be more besides--perhaps shells and stones for last touches. But what will finally make your bird tremble with dreams of open sky and soaring flight?

Berbay Publishing, 2020

Audience: Ages 3+

Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Or is it just annoying? This irresistible read-aloud helps children deal with the sensitive topics of conformity, individuality and belonging in an accessible, kid-friendly way. Whether you're more like Norton or the bear, this story will show you that there's room for all kinds of creative expression.

Affirm Press, 2020

Honour Book 2021

Audience: Young children

The story of a plucky young cockroach who gate-crashes a birthday party - with hilarious results.

Sydney, N.S.W. Angus & Robertson, 2020

Audience: Ages 3+

Jules and George are the same in every way. It is quite impossible to tell them apart. Like all twins, Jules and George do everything together. But after a long, hot day at the beach, even twins sometimes disagree.

Ford Street Publishing, 2019

WINNER Picture Book of the Year 2020

Audience: Ages 3+

But what does a parrot need? A book about wanting and needing - what a child wants and what a wild bird needs.

Walker Books, 2020

Honour Book 2020

Audience: For preschool age

Nop is a scruffy kind of bear. He sits on a dusty armchair in Oddmint's Dumporeum surrounded by the beaders, knitters, patchers and stitchers who are much too busy to talk to him. So he watches the litter tumble until, armed with a new bow tie, he has an idea that will change his life forever.

Scholastic Press, 2019

Honour Book 2020

Audience: For preschool age

One, two, three... One, two, three... Every day was a hop and a skip for Three. He was happy to walk from here to there, wherever his nose led, or wherever his legs took him... all the way to new friends.

Little, Brown and Company, 2018

Audience: Preschool to Grade 3

Winner of the 2019 Caldecott Medal. A picture book from two-time Caldecott Medal award-winner Sophie Blackall that transports readers to the seaside in timeless, nautical splendor! Watch the days and seasons pass as the wind blows, the fog rolls in, and icebergs drift by. Outside, there is water all around. Inside, the daily life of a lighthouse keeper and his family unfolds as the keeper boils water for tea, lights the lamp's wick, and writes every detail in his logbook. Step back in time and through the door of this iconic lighthouse into a cozy dollhouse-like interior with the extraordinary award-winning artist Sophie Blackall.

Candlewick Studio, 2019

Audience: Ages 14+

A young WWI soldier's unauthorized visit home has dire consequences in a haunting story reimagined in miniature tableaux. About one hundred years ago, the whole world went to war. The war was supposed to last months. It lasted years. It is Christmastime, 1914, and World War I rages. A young French soldier named Pierre had quietly left his regiment to visit his family for two days, and when he returned, he was imprisoned. Now he faces execution for desertion, and as he waits in isolation, he meditates on big questions: the nature of patriotism, the horrors of war, the joys of friendship, the love of family, and how even in times of danger, there is a whole world inside every one of us. And how sometimes that world is the only refuge. Its publication coinciding with the centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, this moving and sparely narrated story, based on true events, is reenacted in fascinating miniature scenes that convey the emotional complexity of the tale.

Scholastic Australia, 2019

Audience: Ages 3 to 10

Tilly has found the perfect hiding place to keep her special treasures. No one knows about it, not even her big brothers and sister, who know everything. But one day, something happens that Tilly could never have imagined... Jane Godwin and Anna Walker have created a wistful, enchanting and timeless story about an old house, a young girl, and how the small things we hold dear stay with us always.

Sydney, NSW : Lothian, 2018

WINNER Picture Book of the Year 2019

Audience: Ages 10+

Cicada works in an office, dutifully toiling day after day for unappreciative bosses and being bullied by his coworkers. But one day, Cicada goes to the roof of the building, and something truly extraordinary happens... .

Ebook available from Axis360
St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 2018

Honour Book 2019

Audience: Ages 8+

A lifeless body. One of many in the waters of the Mediterranean. Precarious boats navigate the waters of the sea, from south to north. And more often than not, it is not only hope that drowns. The author and illustrator uses his distinctive charcoal drawings to depict a dark world with a global dimension. The only words in the story are a single sentence indicating what is happening to the body in the water in the first picture. From there on the reader needs to examine the pictures to draw conclusions about how that body came to be in the sea.

Ringwood: Penguin Books Australia, 2018

Honour Book 2019

Harvey owned a heap of stuff, but could always use more. The Orange 430 was the latest and the greatest. Harvey wasn't sure what it did, but he had to have it! A cheeky picture book for anyone who's bought a thingy or whatsit ... and doesn't quite know why. In his debut picture book, Michael Speechley explores our obsession with stuff in a fun and edifying way.

Clayton, Vic. : Puffin Books, 2018

Audience: Ages 4+

Girl on Wire is a simple yet brilliantly uplifting allegory of a young girl struggling to build her self-esteem and overcome the anxiety that many children feel as they grow - she walks the tightrope, afraid she will fall, but with the support of those she loves, her toes grip the wire and she walks forward, on her own, with a new confidence.

Richmond, Victoria : Little Hare Books, 2018

Audience: For primary school age

When a great feather drifts from the leaden sky, two children recognise its extraordinariness and take it to the village for its protection. The villagers, however, want to encase it, upon which the feather loses its radiance. The children take it home and care for it through the night. In the morning it is again radiant, and when they set it free it leaves behind the first signs of blue sky and colour. The ambiguous ending invites multiple interpretations about the effects of selflessness and kindness.

Ebook available from Axis360
Sydney, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2018

Audience: Ages 5+

Barnaby is a pavement artist. This morning he started drawing me. I have a head that can think, eyes that can see, ears that can hear and legs that can run. Best of all, I have a heart that can feel. Thank you, Barnaby.

South Melbourne, Victoria : Affirm Press, 2017

WINNER Picture Book of the Year 2018

Audience: For children

Summary: Little Iggy doesn't want to leave the house, but Grandad insists - they always have fun together. What follows is a wonderful journey in the great Australian outdoors with singing birds, wallaby surprises, secret caterpillar messages and oodles of grandad humour. Here is a story about the wonders of nature, the funny side of life and spending time with the ones we love.

Lindfield, NSW Scholastic Australia, 2017

Honour Book 2018

Audience: For children

Summary: This is a Mopoke. Mopoke loves peace and quiet. He is about to find out that you can't always get what your want.

Lindfield, NSW : Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Australia Pty Limited, 2017

Honour Book 2018

Audience: Early childhood

Summary: Gumboots is a beautiful pet rabbit, but he likes to escape. A story that celebrates what it means to live in a community and a reminder that life is full of surprises.

Newtown, NSW : Walker Books Australia, 2017

Audience: For children

Summary: Part of the new-look award-winning Our Stories series, this is a modern Australian immigration story. I don’t want to go to Australia. I have just started grammar school. My best friend Sally goes there too. But it looks like there could be another war and Dad has convinced Mum to go. Because we’re migrants, the voyage is costing Mum and Dad only £10 each. My brother Brian and I are travelling free. It’s a long way to Australia. What if we never come back to England? In the 1950s and 60s Australia welcomed thousands of British immigrants as part of the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme. Ten Pound Pom is the true story of award-winning author Carole Wilkinson’s immigration to Australia.

Crows Nest, NSW : Allen & Unwin, 2017

Audience: Ages 9-12

Summary: The iconic ballet Swan Lake, the tragic love story of a princess transformed into a swan by an evil sorcerer, has been revered for more than a century. In this atmospheric adaptation, Anne Spudvilas reimagines the classic tale of passion, betrayal and heartbreak in the dramatic riverscape of the Murray-Darling.

Melbourne, Victoria : Penguin/Viking, 2017

Audience: For children

Summary: When Mae has to move house from the country to the city, she feels lonely and sad - until she discovers a beautiful place full of green in the centre of Paris. What she finds there sparks something special and beautiful that will make her feel much more at home.

London : Walker Books, 2016

WINNER Picture Book of the Year 2017

Summary: Francie and her mum, who is expecting a baby girl, are driving home from Grandma's in the heavy rain. When they're still far from home, they stop for a picnic. And as the car steams up, Francie presses her little finger on the window, spelling out "Daddy" and "Mummy" and leaving one space free, ready and waiting for the name of her soon-to-be sister...

New York : Little Bee Books, [2016]

Honour Book 2017

Summary: In this field guide from the future, a dashing explorer-Miss Liberty Crisp-details amazing creatures known as Mechanica: human-created life forms designed to replace extinct species. Set in the twenty-third century, the book describes how Earth could no longer support wildlife. The warnings had been ignored. Corporations continued to expose the environment to chemical and radioactive waste, and many Earth species began to disappear. By 2200, vast areas of the world had become uninhabitable and wildlife extinct. In place of the lost wildlife species, the corporations began to create Mechanica. But the Mechanica escaped their confinement, and started to develop in the wild on their own. Features steampunk-inspired renderings of mechanical bugs, birds, bats, snakes, and more!

Sydney, NSW Hachette Australia, 2016

Honour Book 2017

Audience: For pre-school age

Summary: When you live in a village at the edge of the No-Go Desert, you need to make your own fun. That's when you and your brothers get inventive and build a bike from scratch, using everyday items like an old milk pot (maybe mum is still using it, maybe not) and a used flour sack. You can even make a numberplate from bark, if you want. The end result is a spectacular bike, perfect for going bumpity-bump over sandhills, past your fed-up mum and right through your mud-for-walls home.
Note: Crichton Award 2017

Adelaide, SA Working Title Press, 2016

Audience: For primary school age

Summary: When a gentle creature sets out to search for a lost brother, we are taken on an ethereal journey across land and sea to strange, beautiful and faraway places.

Melbourne, Vic. : Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd, 2016

Audience: For children

Summary: Dad came home with one of those old cameras, the kind that use film. But Dad didn't take photos of regular things people photograph ... A poignant story about love, loss and legacy: one son, one family, on photo.

Gosford, N.S.W. Scholastic Australia, 2016

Audience: For children

Summary: I'm called an asylum seeker, but that's not my name. A little girl and her mother have fled their homeland, making the long and treacherous journey by boat to seek asylum. Timely, powerful and moving, Out celebrates the triumph of the human spirit in the darkest times, and the many paths people take to build a new life. Touching story about starting a new life and the strength of the human spirit. Timely and sensitive discussion of what drives people to become refugees and the challenges they face.

Kew East, Victoria Windy Hollow Books, 2015

WINNER Picture Book of the Year 2016

Audience: For primary school age

Summary: Tonight is the night. The family has to flee. They've been tipped off that the authorities are after their blood. Set in biblical times, a small family sets off across a desert in search of refuge from persecution in their own country, and an ancient story becomes a fable for our times. Their journey is beset by heat and thirst, threatening tanks and the loss of their donkey, but eventually they reach a refugee camp where they can wait in safety for asylum in another country.

Parkside, SA Omnibus Books an imprint of Scholastic Australia 2015

Honour Book 2016

Audience: For primary school age

Summary: Ricardo loved to ride his bike through the village. He rode under endless skies, quiet and clear. He rode every day ... But then the shadows came. A haunting and evocative tale of war-torn Europe, showing the endurance of the human spirit.

Rundle Mall, SA MidnightSun Publishing, 2015

Honour Book 2016

Audience: For primary school age

Summary: A story about the relationship between a young boy,Luk, and his elephant, Mali. On the border of Thailand and Burma, Mali steps on a landmine. Luk supports her during her recovery. Mali is eventually fitted with a prosthesis and gets a second chance at life.

Newtown, NSW, Australia Walker Books Australia, 2015

Audience: For children. Ages 8+

Summary: My dead bunnys name is Brad; his odour is extremely bad. He visits me when Im in bed, but Bradley wasnt always dead ... A hilarious rhyming tale about a zombie bunny who comes back to visit his owner.

[Melbourne, Victoria] Viking Penguin Australia, 2015

Audience: For children. Age 6+

Summary: Suri was different from the other children and the high wall that encircled their lives was Suri's only friend, her comfort and holder of whispered secrets. That was, until one day, when from the depths of human frailty, one small child's voice was enough to change Suri's view of their world inside the wall - and that which lay beyond it.

Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2015

Summary: The iconic song about the Battle of Gallipoli, written by Eric Bogle in 1972 at the height of the anti-war movement, re-imagined by esteemed children's illustrator Bruce Whatley.

Surry Hills, A Little Hare 2014

WINNER Picture Book of the Year

Summary: Cartwheel has arrived in a new country, and feels the loss of all shes ever known. She creates a safe place for herself under an old blanket made out of memories and thoughts of home. As time goes on, Cartwheel begins to weave a 'new' blanket, one of friendship and a renewed sense of belonging.

Crows Nest, A Allen & Unwin 2014

Honour Book

Summary: A moving and powerful story about the meaning of Remembrance Day, drawing on the ANZAC and Turkish battle at Gallipoli. In the silence that follows a war long gone, you can see what the soldiers saw, you can feel what the soldiers felt. And if you try, you might be able to imagine the enemy, and see that he is not so different from you..

Surry Hills, A Little Hare 2014

Honour Book

Audience: Juvenile/Primary

Summary: Sometimes statues are granted a chance to become warm, breathing creatures. The stone lion has only one dream to run, pounce and leap in the park across from where he sits. But one snowy night, when a baby is abandoned at his paws, he is compelled to think differently.

Crows Nest : Allen & Unwin, 2014

Audience: For children

Summary: Grandpapa's eyes shine when he remembers the beauty of the world, long ago. Peterboy wants to find something wonderful to bring the light to Grandpapa's eyes and keep it there. What he finds is a duck, wounded and broken, and Grandpapa mends her from top to tail; quack, waddle and wing! This is a triumphant story, for children and adults, about the coming of hope in dark days, the warmth of friendship and the splendour of a new dawn.

Lindfield, N.S.W. Scholastic Australia, 2014

Summary: One small spark brought fire awake, Winding like a small black snake, Fire flickered, fire crept, Flames snickered, bushfire leapt... Inspired by the bushfires that have affected many Australians, Fire is a moving and sensitive story of a natural disaster as seen through the eyes of a cockatoo.

Crows Nest, NSW : Allen & Unwin, 2014

Audience: Ages 8-12

Summary: A tender and beautifully illustrated tale of a boy and his bird-watching uncle, on a paddling trip on Australia's Glenelg River. A story about slowing down, growing up, and connecting with the land and its creatures.

Sydney, NSW : Lothian Children's Books, 2013

WINNER Picture Book of the Year

Audience: Ages 8+

Summary: This is a deceptively simple story about two boys, one older and one younger, and the kind of rules that might govern any relationship between close friends or siblings. Through each exquisite illustration of this nearly wordless narrative, we can enjoy wandering around an emotional landscape that is oddly familiar to us all.

Gosford, A : Scholastic Australia, 2013

Honour Book

Audience: Juvenile/Primary

Summary: Because he was the king, he could make the sheep do whatever he wanted, whenever he pleased. But he just couldnt make them like him. A royal romp about a little pig with a lot to learn, from best-selling picture book creator Nick Bland.

London, UK : Walker Books Australia Pty Ltd, 2013

Honour Book

Audience: Ages 4+

Summary: At 9.59 on Thursday morning, Jodie draws a duck. Just as she is about to add one final silver button to the duck's boots, her little brother takes his first step. At this exact same moment, a man buys bread, a soldier leaves home, a baby is being born... Bob Graham beautifully captures a world vision in one solitary moment.

Richmond, Victoria : Little Hare, 2013

Audience: For pre-school age

Summary: It is the first thing he puts on each morning. It gives him the courage to deal with all kinds of tricky situations, such as getting out of bed, sliding off a chair, and riding his bike. But sometimes someone else's trouble can be greater than your own, and this is what Toby discovers one day. This powerful and fantastical story about a fearful child finding his independence is from the author and illustrator of Tree: A little story about big things.

Hawthorn, A : Penguin Books Australia, 2012

Audience: Juvenile/Primary

Summary: As the library burns, Peter and his father flee their home, taking with them a book more precious than jewels - a book that tells the story of their people. When Peter loses his father and has to walk over the mountains, he must bury their treasure in an iron box to protect it, leaving it behind.

Kingswood, A : Penguin Books Australia, 2012

Audience: Juvenile/Primary

Summary: Why would anyone want to live on a farm where the winds are so fierce that even the pigs are blown away? Fortunately Mum is a clever inventor and can think of one very good reason.

Ebook available from Axis360
Sydney : Allen & Unwin, 2012

Audience/Format: Primary school age

Summary: The Coat stood in a paddock at the end of a row of strawberries. It was buttoned up tight and stuffed full of straw and it was angry. 'What a waste of me!' it yelled. Then along came a man. 'I could do with a coat like that,' the man said. Together, swooping and swinging, they travelled to the Cafe Delitzia, and had the night of their lives.

Parkside, S. Aust. : Omnibus Books, 2012

Audience/Format: Ages 5-8

Summary: Tanglewood lives on an island far away, visited only by the wind. One day a bird shelters from the storm among its branches and a precious bond is formed. But Seagull belongs to the sky and, too soon, must leave. Will she ever return?

Melbourne, Vic. : Viking, c2012

Audience/Format: Picture book

Summary: Setin New York, this gorgeous picture book is a storyabout friendship, life in the big city, and following your dreams. This is a tale about a big city. It's a tale of hotdogs and music and the summertime subway breeze. It's a tale of singing on rooftops and toffees that stick to your teeth. But most of all, it's the tale of Herman and Rosie.

Melbourne : Penguin , 2012

Audience/Format: Picture book

Summary: Children's Laureate and much-loved picture-book creator Alison Lester travelled to Antarctica as an Antarctic Arts Fellow. Her alter ego, Sophie Scott, goes on the same adventure in a friendly, informative and beautifully presented book that sees the wonder of Antarctica through a child's eyes.

Lindfield, N.S.W. : Scholastic Press, 2012

Audience/Format: Ages 5+

Summary: An exciting collaboration by two of Australias favourite and highly acclaimed picture book creators. Features iconic Australia figures such as Phar Lap and Ned Kelly. Beautiful lyrical story accompanied by detailed collage illustrations using tissue paper. Influenced by classic Australian literature and picture books.

Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 2012

Audience/Format: Ages 7-12

Summary: "Each year on 25 April, the nation stops to remember. This is the history of that day. This beautiful picture book traces the story of Anzac Day through the last century. From those who first stood in silence at dawn, and wore rosemary or poppies for remembrance, to children of today who wear their grandparents' medals, an ever-increasing number in Australia, New Zealand, and around the world pause to remember the first Anzacs landing at Gallipoli"