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The Bilby Awards are Queensland's children's
choice awards. They are run by the Children's Book Council
of Australia (Queensland Branch). They aim to foster
participation in reading while increasing enjoyment
of litearature.
Bilby stands for
Books I Love Best Yearly.
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The BILBY Awards run in two phases.
Phase One: At the beginning of each year,
students in Queensland schools are asked to nominate their
favourite books. They are not limited in any way, except winners
from the previous two years are not eligible. They are encouraged
to nominate online, but paper nominations are also accepted.
Phase Two: Once the students have
nominated their favourite titles, shortlists are developed
from the nominations. These lists cover three levels of reading
maturity. Students are then asked to read a recommended number
of three titles from the list, and to vote for their favourite.
Reading is not mandatory. Students may have titles read aloud
to them.
Once the final votes have been counted, presentations
are made to the winning authors at the Award Announcement
for the following categories: Early Childhood, Younger Readers,
Older Readers. Usually representatives of the winners' publishers
accept the awards on their behalf.
(Note: Prior to 1997 there were three categories
for primary students - Read Alone, Read Aloud and Read Australian
and one category for Secondary. In 1997 the new format
was introduced.)
Join
the BILBY Project for this year
Winners
from previous years
Most states in Australia have children's choice
awards, but have different selection and judging processes.
Other countries in the world have been running children's
choice awards for many years. Lists of their winners can be
found at the Children's
Literature Web Guide.
Information
about other Australian Children's Choice Awards can be found
on the WA CMIS site
