2024 Book of the Year Awards: Younger Readers Shortlisted

Best Suited 9-12 Years
A celebration of community, adventure, kindness and, above all, dogs!

The summer holidays have finally arrived and Scout can’t wait for her adventure in the big rig with Dad. They’re on a mission to deliver donations of dog food to animal rescue shelters right across the state.

There’ll be lots of music, dad-jokes and a brilliant plan that will make sure everyone’s got a friend for the holidays. There might even be a special four-legged friend in it for Scout.

But Scout and her dad get more than they’ve bargained for. It’s bushfire season – and it’s not just the dogs who need rescuing . . .

Best Suited 3-8 Years
Featuring fun and fearless, surfing grannies, this picture book, by two of Australia’s best-loved creators ,will help the whole family nurture a love for the ocean and an appreciation of Australia’s beautiful coastline.

My granny and her friends go to the beach, and I come too. It looks like lots of fun. But I don t want to go in the water. There are strange things under the waves.
A story that many young reluctant swimmers will identify with, Granny Grommet and Me is about the power of our elders to transform scary experiences into exciting ones. Watching Granny and her friends duck and dive and twist and turn, enjoying catching waves and revelling in the bracing and invigorating ocean spray, helps a junior grommet gain enough confidence to appreciate the wonders which lie beneath the surface of the water. The
book was inspired by the real Granny Grommets, a group of surfing/boogie boarding ladies in Albany, Western Australia.

Best Suited 9-12 Years
A tiny dog, the runt of the litter, is born on a remote cattle station. She shouldn’t have survived, but when Elsie finds, names and loves her, the pup becomes a cherished companion. Life is perfect … until War arrives.

With Japanese air raids moving closer, Elsie’s family leaves the Pilbara for the south and safety. But the small dog has to stay behind. After travelling far from home with drovers and a flying doctor, she becomes a hospital dog and experiences the impact of war on north-western Australia. She witnesses wonderful and terrible things and gives courage to many different humans.

But through all her adventures and many names, the little dog remembers Elsie, who girl who loved her best of all. Will she ever find her again?

Best Suited 6+ Years
The fourth and final book in the Light series, which began with Lighthouse Girl and includes the CBCA shortlisted Lighthorse Boy.

There were 136,000 Australian horses sent to fight during the First World War. Just one came home. From the high country of Victoria to the desert sand of Egypt, from the waters off Gallipoli to the battlefields of France, this is the extraordinary story of Sandy, the only returning warhorse.

Best Suited 6+ Years
Based on the true story of Fay Howe, this gentle tale brings to life the hardships of those left at home during the war-waiting, wondering, hoping.

Fay lives alone with her father on bleak, windswept Breaksea Island, but her isolated life takes a dramatic turn with the outbreak of World War I.

Fay collects the messages of lonely soldiers heading to the frontline. She is their last hope of getting messages telegraphed back home.

Drawing on fascinating archival material, and interweaving fact with fiction, award-winning author Dianne Wolfer deftly recreates this period in Australian history from the perspective of a young girl.

Best Suited 6+ Years
Light Horse Boy goes behind the scenes of the great Anzac legends for an intimate look at their experience of World War I.

In 1914 Jim and Charlie abandon the Australian outback for the excitement and adventure of the war to end all wars.

But in the Light Horse they quickly discover the brutal realities of life on the frontline. And nothing will ever be the same again.

Light Horse Boy features stunning charcoal sketches by Brian Simmonds alongside primary source documents and historical photos.

Best Suited 6+ Years
If you loved the award-winning Lighthouse Girl and Light Horse Boy, you will also love In the Lamplight, with its combination of evocative charcoal drawings, archival materials and Australian history.

In the Lamplight is the story of Rose, a young English girl turned nurse who cares for and falls in love with Jim, the Light Horse Boy. On the long journey back to Australia they experience the appalling loss of life in the Spanish influenza epidemic, only to face more challenges upon repatriation.

Best Suited 6-9 Years
Isabel is on a plane heading back to her island birthplace in Papua New Guinea. Izzy is looking forward to seeing her family again, but there’s another tragic reason for the trip. Izzy’s twin brother, Ray, died in a freak diving accident, and Izzy and her mum are taking his ashes home for traditional death ceremonies.

After they arrive, Izzy realises things have changed since their last visit. Logging threatens the community’s way of life and sharks no longer answer the song of the shark callers.

Izzy’s cousin Noah explains that the clan needs someone to undertake a traditional diving ritual. The person must be a twin from the shark calling lineage. The dive will be perilous.

And Izzy is the last twin.

Will she have the courage to attempt the dive? And what deep, dark secrets will the ocean reveal if she does?

Best Suited 3-7 Years
Nanna’s button tin is very special. It has buttons of all shapes and sizes and they all have a different story to tell. But today, one button in particular is needed. A button for teddy.

A beautiful story about memories and the stories that shape a family. Gorgeous text by award-winning author Dianne Wolfer – perfectly depicting the relationship between and grandchild and nanna.

Zac loves being a ‘Nipper’ at the surf club, but he doesn’t like the races. He likes taking things easy at the beach, watching the sea creatures and thinking. He has been taking some swimming lessons and, with some trepidation, he enters the Ironkid race. With his father’s encouragement, he finds resolve within himself to finish the difficult race.

Best Suited 8-10 Years
Sarah is very anxious about playing the violin in the forthcoming school concert. Her Gran tells her to imagine that the ‘butterflies’ in her stomach can give her energy to help her play better. Sarah isn’t convinced, but when she begins to play on stage, she imagines the butterflies flying from her violin strings and finds that Gran was right after all.

Best Suited 11-14 Years
Mia is used to cyclone build-ups, but the noise and energy of the wild rain squalls keep her awake half the night. What if the cyclone hits before Mum gets back? As wild winds batter the coast, Mia knows she must keep calm. The animals need her.

Thirteen-year-old Mia lives on a bush block in the Pilbara, where she assists her mother’s work as a vet and equine therapist. Although she is used to the seasonal cyclones that threaten the West Australian coast, nothing can prepare her for the ferocity of Cyclone Veronica when she finds herself home alone and needing to protect their property and the animals she loves.

When her friend Nick arrives, pleading for help, and her favourite horse is injured, will Mia be able to withstand the greatest challenge of her life? As the storm intensifies, can she save her beloved animals?

Best Suited 10-13 Years
David is not looking forward to trekking though a muddy, mosquito-infested jungle with his mother, a wildlife photographer. As the trek continues, he finds it isn’t as bad as he thought it would be. He makes an unexpected new friend and learns about the differences in daily life, in a culture removed from his own.

Best Suited 7+ Years
Photographs In the Mud tells a compassionate story about the personal human tragedy of war, for both the combatants and their loved ones at home.

The Kokoda Track, 1942. Jack and Hoshi are soldiers from opposing armies, who meet in battle and discover they have much more in common than they could ever realise. Told from the point of view of two soldiers, one Australian, the other Japanese, Photographs in the Mud reveals the personal human tragedy of war from both the soldiers and their loved ones at home.

Billy, who has Down’s Syndrome, has always been close to his older brother Andrew. But things change when Andrew goes to high school and does not want to spend as much time with Billy. Billy decides to find something he can do on his own, and wins the lead role in their school play. His success in the play leads to a role in a TV show and a reconciliation with Andrew.

On his twelfth birthday, a young boy’s dream of being able to scuba dive with his family is finally fulfilled! He attends diving lessons where he learns all the necessary skills for diving. He feels confident performing these skills. However, when it comes to taking his face mask off under water, this proves to be far more difficult! Each time, panic and nervousness overtake him. He must overcome this fear and successfully remove his mask under water to pass the course, and be a ‘real’ scuba diver. Can he do it?

Best Suited 5-9 Years
Annie loves her pet snails. They have lots of adventures together. She even makes them a special home in an ice-cream container. She thinks they’ll be very happy. But will they?

Best Suited 9-14 Years
‘Life is about making a difference,’ Munjed says. ‘We all have a mission in life, to leave behind a legacy.’ His resilience, determination and view of the world as a glass half full, not half empty, has helped him excel in his chosen career. Highlights include his development of an improved osseointegration prosthetic limb, a new surgery that inserts a titanium implant into the bone, allowing patients to recover a certain level of feeling and greater mobility. His humanitarian work is equally as impressive, and includes being an ambassador for Red Cross, working with Amnesty International, and becoming a patron of the Asylum Seekers Centre.

Best Suited 10- 13 Years
Skye Blackburn-Lang is an entomologist and food scientist who has combined her two specialities and high energy entrepreneurial spirit to become a world leader in developing nutritious superfoods for a sustainable future from insects and their larvae – without the Yuck! factor.

From the time Skye was very young, she was passionate about all things creepy crawly and dreamed of becoming an entomologist when she was just four years old!

After finishing her university studies, she first worked in a pet food company developing nutritious food for cats but very soon created her own businesses introducing children and adults to the world of insects. She developed insect life cycle kits and butterfly sessions, becoming a regular and extremely popular speaker at schools, invited to show and talk about her insects at public and private events. She has appeared on television, on the children’s reality show Camp Orange, and has also worked with production companies that require her services and live insects in TV shows, films and advertisements. Her creepy-crawlies have become rock stars!

After visiting Thailand and seeing insects cooked up as yummy treats, she is now famous for producing amazing food – from ice cream, to muesli to choc chip cookies, made from protein and nutrient-rich insects that she farms herself. Food for the future!