For a published children’s book, fiction or non-fiction. The book must have a substantial literary content.
Prize: $15,000
200 nominations – Judges: Katharine England, Rosanne Hawke, David Harris
Winner
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin)
Beautifully written, illustrated and designed this book of short pieces presents a powerful stimulus to the imagination of readers of all ages. It is set in and celebrates the Australian suburb and the diverse families that make their homes there. Its anonymous narrators tend to be children, sometimes as adults recalling strange, enigmatic events of their childhood, more often a pair of friends or brothers encountering something intriguing, uncanny, amazing in the familiar neighbourhood: dangling their legs over the physical manifestation of the street directory’s ‘Limit of Maps’, or dogging a landlocked and dripping pearl diver to a mysterious but uplifting reunion. The individual texts are spare, formal, evocative, open-ended, inviting imaginative and allegorical interpretation according to the age and experience of the reader. The illustrations, which provide both context and content, augmenting, interpreting and sometimes taking the place of written text, variously recall Japanese woodblock prints, old French tapestries, John Brack street scenes and the distinctive, mindscapes of Tan’s own earlier creations. The overall design of the book, from the contents page arranged like stamps on an envelope to the acknowledgements listed on a library borrowing card are entirely in keeping with the high artistic values of the contents.
Shortlist
Where the Streets had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah (Pan Macmillan)
Randa Abdel-Fattah has told a story that promotes acceptance of others, and understanding of a difficult political situation: that of the occupation of the West Bank. It is told through the eyes of 13 year old Hayaat, who goes to Jerusalem with her best friend Samy on a mission to get a jar of soil to save her grandmother’s life. The reader is given a ‘tour’ of Jerusalem, exposed to curfews, permit systems, a riot, and check points that take all day even if you are going to your own wedding. This novel is confronting and an eye-opener, but it is also courageous and funny, and shows the universal love and importance of family amid the struggles.
Audrey’s Big Secret by Christine Harris (Little Hare)
Audrey Barlow has the difficult job of solving a mystery and then keeping it secret – no easy feat for the lively and imaginative eight year old. Christine Harris has created an unforgettable character in this well crafted and beautifully written novel. With her wisdom, quaint humour and belief in miracles, Audrey bravely helps right a wrong by keeping a runaway in her cubby in the bush. The third in a series set in outback SA during the depression years, this original stand alone novel makes accessible for young readers not only an historical period and the issue of the Stolen Generation, but the richness of family and community life. The story is enhanced by Ann James’ illustrations which are as delightful as Audrey herself.
Jarvis 24 by David Metzenthen (Penguin)
Marc E. Jarvis, number 24 on his football jumper, is a wingman with a great leap, good speed and skinny arms. His life is centered around footy, his mate Trav, home, school, work experience, girls. He sees a lot of girls, but unfortunately they don’t seem to see him. But there’s much more to Marc than meets the eye. He feels the slow suffocation of loss and grief. He matures through his work experience in the car yard. He is a realist who faces life with honesty and imagination. He endears himself to us because he speaks to readers with laconic humour and shares insights, dreams and hopes that matter. When he meets the athlete Electra, who has come to train at a wealthy local private school, Marc is shaken out of his apparently ordinary life and he and Electra run into a future they never expected. David Metzenthen writes with the sensitivity, subtlety and irony that we gradually come to appreciate then admire in Marc. The depth of Marc’s feelings and the delicacy of their expression make this a rare and moving novel. It feels real, right, and Marc stays with us long after we have closed the book.
Isabella’s Garden by Glenda Millard and Rebecca Cool (Walker Books)
Glenda Millard has taken the familiar ‘This is the house that Jack built’ formula and lyrically, exuberantly elaborated it to describe the lifecycle of the garden from the seeds sleeping in the soil “all dark and deep” through all the changes of weather and season, burgeon and leaf-fall that bring it round to its seed-time beginning again. The complex, driving rhythm varies its pace and mood like a musical composition but never falters as Millard adds entrancing extra dimensions in curly, evocative vocabulary – a chick in a thistle-down vest; a mantis that prays to the moon to delay winter – and skilfully and accurately negotiates the wide range of tenses her ever-changing time-frame requires. Rebecca Cool’s bold, bright, folk-art illustrations full of stylized children and colourful fabric patterns perfectly echo the rhythm and movement of the verse and fill in the detail of the changing seasons. This is a picturebook to charm and inform not only its pre-school to primary intended audience but also the adults who might read it aloud to them.
Noodle Pie by Ruth Starke (Omnibus Books)
Noodle Pie is as delicious as Vietnamese street food. We are there, sitting on a small plastic stool while the traffic crawls past and we slurp our beef pho. And we are with newly arrived Andy (Anh), trapped in a room with twenty of his relatives, eighteen of whom probably want to strangle him. Andy is a foreigner in a foreign country and he’s facing his newly discovered family which includes the feisty girl, Minh, and the formidable Aunty Mo. Andy’s father, who had fled Vietnam as a refugee more than twenty years ago has returned to Hanoi from Australia, bringing Andy with him. The charm and fun of this book come from its believability. The people are real, flawed and full of surprises. Even Andy’s crazy scheme to improve his family’s fortunes uncovers some ‘noodle lies’ about his family. Noodle Pie is Ruth Starke at her best and like the recipes at the end, this book makes us want more.
