AustLit
Latest Winners / Recipients
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Year: 2012
winner y
Taj and the Great Camel Trek
St Lucia
:
University of Queensland Press
,
2011
Z1766288
2011
single work
children's fiction
children's
'BELTANA SOUTH AUSTRALIA 1875
Twelve-year-old Taj and his camel Mustara are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.
They are joining explorer Ernest Giles on his second attempt to cross the Australian Desert where wild dogs, scorpions, poisonous snakes and a constant shortage of water mean they are never far from disaster.
As if things weren't tough enough, Taj, raised in the ways of the Afghan people, is struggling to find his place in this new and exciting land.' (Publisher's blurb)
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Year: 2010
winner y
Tales from Outer Suburbia
Shaun Tan
(illustrator),
Crows Nest
:
Allen and Unwin
,
2008
Z1450931
2008
selected work
single work
short story
art work
young adult
(taught in 13 units)
'do you remember the water buffalo at the end of our street?
or the deep-sea diver we found near the underpass?
do you know why dogs bark in the middle of the night?
Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival, The Lost Thing and The Red Tree, reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange students and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight.'
Source: Back cover.
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Year: 2008
winner y
Don't Call Me Ishmael!
Malvern
:
Omnibus Books
,
2006
Z1258479
2006
single work
novel
young adult
By the time ninth grade begins, Ishmael Leseur knows it won't be long before Barry Bagsley, the class bully, says, "Ishmael? What kind of w'ussy-crap name is that?” Ishmael's perfected the art of making himself virtually invisible. But all that changes when James Scobie joins the class. Unlike Ishmael, James has no sense of fear—he claims it was removed during an operation.
Now nothing will stop James and Ishmael from taking on bullies, bugs, and Moby Dick, in the toughest, weirdest, most embarrassingly awful . . . and the best year of their lives.' (Publication summary)
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Year: 2006
winner y
It's Not All About You Calma!
Crows Nest
:
Allen and Unwin
,
2005
Z1216959
2005
single work
novel
young adult
humour
Calma Harrison is in love. Not just with herself, but also with the handsome checkout guy at Crazi-Cheep. So stocking shelves at the Crazi- Cheep seems like the perfect job - until that annoying customer tries to hold up the store ... And then there's the small matter of the rest of Calma's life, which is fast falling apart: her absent father turns up after five years and wants to 'talk, ' her mother is clearly living a secret second life, and her new best friend is hiding something horrible. Calma is sure she knows exactly what's going on. And clearly her direct, personal intervention is required to make things right. Except . . . if she's wrong. And then her butting in will make everything much, much worse. Am I Right or Am I Right? is a whip-smart, wise-cracking, big-hearted novel about a girl who is learning that things are not always what they seem, and how to start again when you've gotten it all so very wrong (publisher blurb).
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Year: 2004
winner y
Abyssinia
Ringwood
:
Viking
,
2003
Z1036199
2003
single work
novel
young adult
(taught in 2 units)
'A psychological thriller, a desperately moving and ultimately uplifting tale of childhood innocence. . .
As small children, growing up at the property called Abyssinia, two sisters played with their dolls house together, side by side, always. Grace loved Mary and Mary loved Grace.
But inseparable bonds can be unexpectedly shattered. When this happens to Grace, she is plunged into a dark and mesmerising world, a world full of bells and the ringing sky, of odd little children, strange events and frighteningly bizarre grown ups.' (Publisher's blurb)
Works About this Award
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Sweet Success for Tale of School Revenge 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 3 March 2008; (p. 12)
