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AustLit

Best Designed Young Adult Book
or Best Designed Young Adult Book Cover
Subcategory of Australian Publishers Association Awards APA Book Design Awards
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Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2021

winner y separately published work icon Loner Georgina Young , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2020 19599541 2020 single work novel young adult

'Lona has dropped out of art school and no one is quite sure why, least of all Lona. It’s just that nothing in her life seems to make sense anymore, including art. She spends her days sneaking into the darkroom at her old school to develop photographs and her nights DJ-ing at the local roller disco.

'Her aimlessness terrifies her, but everyone else appears oblivious to her fears: her parents are bewildered by her sudden lack of ambition, her brother is preoccupied with his new girlfriend, and her best friend Tab seems to be drifting away. Even a budding relationship with a bass-playing, cello-shredding med student isn’t enough to shake her existential angst.

'Lona knows it’s up to her to figure out what she wants to do with her life: the problem is, she has absolutely no idea where to start.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

designed by Imogen Stubbs

Year: 2019

winner y separately published work icon The Art of Taxidermy Sharon Kernot , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2018 13940872 2018 single work novel young adult

'LOTTIE is fascinated with death. She collects birds, lizards and other small dead animals she finds, trying preserve them, to hold onto the life they once had. Her aunt tries to put a stop to this worrying obsession, but her father can see a scientist’s mind at work, and he introduces her to the art of taxidermy.

'For Lottie, the beauty and tenderness she finds in her preserved creatures provide a way for her to feel close to the mother she lost.

'The Art of Taxidermy is an exquisitely imagined verse novel about sadness and loss, and the way art and beauty can help us make sense of it all.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Year: 2016

winner y separately published work icon Lifespan of Starlight Life Span of Star Light Thalia Kalkipsakis , South Yarra : Hardie Grant Egmont , 2015 8356961 2015 single work children's fiction children's science fiction

' A fresh take on the time tripping genre, The Lifespan of Starlight is Gattaca meets The Time Traveler's Wife. It already lies dormant within you: the ability to move within time. In 2084, three teenagers discover the secret to time travel. At first their jumps cover only a few seconds, but soon they master the technique and combat their fear of jumping into the unknown. It's dangerous. It's illegal. And it's utterly worth it for the full-body bliss of each return. As their ability to time jump grows into days and weeks, the group begins to push beyond their limits, with terrifying consequences. Could they travel as far as ten years, to escape the authorities? They are desperate enough to find out. But before they jump they must sure, because it only works in one direction. Once you trip forwards, there's no coming back.' (Publication summary)

designed by Josh Durham.

Year: 2014

winner y separately published work icon Zac and Mia A. J. Betts , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2013 6106145 2013 single work novel young adult (taught in 1 units)

'The last person Zac expects in the room next door is a girl like Mia, angry and feisty with questionable taste in music. In the real world he wouldn't--couldn't--be friends with her.

'But in hospital different rules apply, and what begins as a knock on the wall leads to a note--then a friendship neither of them sees coming.

'You need courage to be in hospital; different courage to be back in the real world. 
In one of these worlds Zac needs Mia. And in the other Mia needs Zac.

'Or maybe they both need each other, always.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

joint winner y separately published work icon Girl Defective Simmone Howell , Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 2013 Z1926105 2013 single work novel young adult detective mystery (taught in 2 units) 'It's summer in St Kilda. Fifteen-year-old Sky is looking forward to great records and nefarious activities with Nancy, her older, wilder friend. Her brother - Super Agent Gully - is on a mission to unmask the degenerate who bricked the shop window. Bill the Patriarch seems content to drink while the shop slides into bankruptcy. A poster of a mysterious girl and her connection to Luke, the new employee sends Sky on an exploration into the dark heart of the suburb. What begins as a toe-dip into wilder waters will end up changing the frames of Sky's existence. Love is strange. Family Rules. In between there are teenage messes, rock star spawn, violent fangirls and accidents waiting to happen. Sky Martin is Girl Defective: funny, real and dark at the edges.' (Publisher's blurb)

Year: 2001

winner y separately published work icon Flash Jack Maureen McCarthy , Ringwood : Puffin , 2001 Z858993 2001 single work novel young adult

'When burglars break into Jack's house, they take all his stuff.

'Now he's got no skateboard, no TV, no music, nothing. All his brothers do is fight, his mum thinks they all need counselling, his dad's trying to set an example, but hey, who's interested? Jack just wants to get out of that house.

'So he does.

'And he meets Diana.

'And her dog.

'And her grandma, who wears tiger-skin bikinis.

'They're all pretty vicious.

'And suddenly, life is anything but boring.(Publication summary)

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