This morning the Children’s Book Council of Australia announced the 2014 shortlists and notables in each of the categories.
Titles from the 2013 calendar year are nominated by their publishing houses and each of the state judges are whisked away for days until they decide each of the winners, honours, shortlists and notable lists. Read the rest of this entry »
Ladies and Gents, the Centre for Youth Literature interrupts your regular programming to bring you the 2014 Inky Awards longlist, fresh from the Somerset Celebration of Literature in Queensland!
Drum roll, please…
Gold Inky Award longlist (Australian books):
Zac and Mia by AJ Betts
All This Could End by Steph Bowe
Steal My Sunshine by Emily Gale
The Whole of My World by Nicole Hayes
These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
The First Third by Will Kostakis
Every Breath by Ellie Marney
Fairytales for Wilde Girls by Allyse Near
Run by Tim Sinclair
The Sky So Heavy by Claire Zorn
Silver Inky Award longlist (international books):
The Children’s Book Council of Australia (Victorian branch) held their 2014 Claytons Dinner on Tuesday evening at Trinity College, Kew. For those unaware, the Claytons are the predictions from local experts on the CBCA Book of the Year Award Categories. The event takes its name from a non-alcoholic beverage and advertising campaign (1970s-80s) as it is not quite the real thing.
The Older Readers category (Young Adult Fiction), as predicted by our very own Anna Burkey, were as follows:
Honorable mentions:
You can find the picks for Younger Readers (Middle Grade), Picture Books and Early Childhood on this Storify of the event.
Upcoming Events:
There are many more of these events across Australia should you like to hear about other knowledgeable bookish types on the best titles of 2013.
Make sure you check out these events!
Yes, your teen choice book awards are back, and better than ever with a brand new timeline. The Awards are all about showcasing the best and brightest young adult titles, as deemed by Australia’s teens, so following feedback we’ve revised the awards calendar:
How can you engage with the Inky Awards? Read the rest of this entry »
According to adults, teenagers are digital natives. Often depicted as a generation glued to their smart phones, snapchatting their selfies, stuck to their Facebook walls with their memes, and their lolcats, and their blatant disregard for spelling and grammar…
But what do young adults really think about the online environment?
As ever, we’re keen to provide a space where the voices and views of young people can be heard, and we’re very proud to be working with the Digital Writers’ Festival to deliver that in an exciting, new way.
Inside a Blog: the teen perspective will be a live-streamed panel celebrating young adult voices, as part of the entirely-online Digital Writers’ Festival. You can take part from anywhere in the world (with a decent internet connection).
Inside a Blog goes live at 11am AEDT on Saturday, 22 February at digitalwritersfestival.com, and features three teenagers who have written blog posts for InsideaDog.com.au in conversation with YA author Myke Bartlett. You can also ask the panellists your own questions, by joining the discussion on Twitter (#DWF14).
We love comics and graphic novels. They have a bilingual strength, using both visual and textual literacy. It lends them a unique advantage in the search for a gateway to other forms of reading, but it is also worthy of celebration and enjoyment in its own right.
Just like novels, graphic novels are vast and varying in type, tone, and themes, and trying to find a story or character that best suits you can be a daunting task. To help you in your quest for great graphic novels, we heartily recommend YALSA’s annual list, and 2014 has just been released!
If you attended or followed along at our Year Ahead in Youth Literature event you may already be familiar with some of the titles, like Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, Hellboy: The Midnight Circus, Adventure Time, or, well, anything by Faith Erin Hicks. (Our complete list of comics and graphic novels from the event is available here.) Read the rest of this entry »
A bright year beckons for youth literature, with 2014′s proof copies beginning to flood in to the office. So what lies ahead for us at the Centre for Youth Literature, and the partners we’re working with?
Centre for Youth Literature 2014-16 Strategic Plan
We’ve got four very clear goals that guide all our projects, events and networks.
We aim to be:
Last night the recipients of this year’s Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards were announced.
The Prize for Writing for Young Adults – judged by our own Anna Burkey, Hilary Harper and Alice Pung – was narrowed down to a list of outstanding finalists:
And the winner was….
Barry Jonsberg’s My Life as an Alphabet!
This isn’t just about me. It’s also about the other people in my life – my mother, my father, my dead sister Sky, my penpal Denille, Rich Uncle Brian, Earth-Pig Fish and Douglas Benson From Another Dimension. These are people [with the exception of Earth-Pig Fish, who is a fish] who have shaped me, made me what I am. I cannot recount my life without recounting elements of theirs. This is a big task, but I am confident I am up to it.
Introducing Candice Phee: twelve years old, hilariously honest and a little … odd. But she has a big heart, the very best of intentions and an unwavering determination to ensure everyone is happy. So she sets about trying to ‘fix’ all the problems of all the people [and pets] in her life.
Barry has had a phenomenal run of late winning the 2013 Gold Inky Award and the Older readers category of the 2013 Children’s Peace Literature Awards.
Congratulations to Barry and his fellow finalists on a cracking display of Australian young adult literature!
Last week there was a tremendous amount of discussion about our youth, the arts and their lack of appreciation for quality. Many opinions were freely shared on social media but we were particularly struck by Craig Hildebrand-Burke’s ‘Toss Bricks at Gen Y and you miss the bigger picture‘ comment on the importance of being open to change and the value in all art.
What do we think?
Let’s hear from the Centre for Youth Literature’s manager, Anna Burkey.
“The arts allow us to look at ourselves. They delight us, transport us, surprise us.”
So said UK artist David Shrigley, in a video made in support of the arts during dire financial times. His animated short is a powerful summary of the necessary roles the arts play in society in any age, and for any age.
Today’s young people are expressing themselves across boundaries, confidently defining their own social structures. Book clubs conducted via photography, music made across Skype, politics examined through YouTube comedy sketches – these new expressions may last or fade but each experiment is a chance to catch the eye of those around them and think ‘yes – this is who we are. We understand each other.’ Read the rest of this entry »
The Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria announced the winners of the 2013 Inky Awards – Australia’s only national teen choice literary prize.
The Gold Inky is awarded to an Australian author and includes $2,000 prize money. The 2013 Gold Inky winner is My Life as an Alphabet by Barry Jonsberg (Allen & Unwin).
My Life as an Alphabet by Barry Jonsberg
Introducing Candice Phee: twelve years old, hilariously honest and a little … odd. But she has a big heart, the very best of intentions and an unwavering determination to ensure everyone is happy. So she sets about trying to ‘fix’ all the problems of all the people [and pets] in her life.
The Silver Inky is awarded to an international author. The 2013 Silver Inky winner is The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic).
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Blue Sargent, the daughter of the town psychic in Henrietta, Virginia, has been told for as long as she can remember that if she ever kisses her true love, he will die. But she is too practical to believe in things like true love. Her policy is to stay away from the rich boys at the prestigious Aglionby Academy. The boys there — known as Raven Boys — can only mean trouble.
The Inky Awards are teen choice literary prizes. A panel of young adults judges from across Australia select the shortlist, which is then opened to a public vote for readers aged 12-20. The books with the most votes win. Read the rest of this entry »
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