This year’s report reveals that there are few taboo topics in the Older Readers’ Category, and more exploration of Aboriginal–white relations than in any other category. While publishing for Younger Readers is flourishing, most books are aimed at the lower end of the target age group, and at the popular extremity of the literary spectrum. Upper primary and lower secondary readers are not well catered for, while the winners are ‘boys in lower primary school [who] are now the most provided-for group of readers’. Historical fiction and fantasy are vigorous genres.

The Early Childhood section, catering to pre-school and infant grades, was won by Penny Matthews and Andrew McLean’s A Year on Our Farm. The simple, clear text reads aloud beautifully, allowing McLean’s luminous watercolours to tell much of the story. Each double-page spread represents a month’s activities on the farm. To support young readers, the corresponding season is named and visually represented by a tree, symbolising seasonal changes. Perspective, size and point of view are varied in this warmly idealised representation of rural life.

The Picture Book category, no longer age-specific, reflects the change over recent years to an increased sophistication in form and content. This year’s winner, In Flanders Fields, by Norman Jorgensen and Brian Harrison-Lever, represents that change. It tells a sombre story about a pause in battle on Christmas morning, when a young Allied soldier rescues a robin trapped in no man’s land. The sepia sketches of trenches and ruined fields are relieved by the splash of the red breast of the robin, a use of colour reminiscent of Innocenti’s Rose Blanche and Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. While the judges’ report praises the compassion of the imagined young man and the ‘powerful and moving’ nature of the text, one hopes that older readers will grasp the irony of the ensuing slaughter of the men who momentarily shared sympathy for a tiny creature.

The winning book for Younger Readers, Rain May and Captain Daniel, by Catherine Bateson, is a taut, witty story with an appealingly acerbic narrator, twelve-year-old Rain, and a Trekky neighbour, eleven-year-old Daniel, who narrates his sections à la Star Trek. When her parents separate, Rain moves with her mother from Brunswick to her deceased grandmother’s house in central Victoria. Rain must make major adjustments, not only in her physical surroundings but also to her emotional landscape. This book is a gem – perceptive, funny and so readable.

Although Markus Zusak’s The Messenger was not published as Young Adult fiction, as were his earlier novels, he seems to be so categorised. Ed, aged nineteen, is a taxi driver mixing it with his sad-case friends and coffee-drinking dog until mysterious cards arrive with cryptic messages that precipitate him into various adventures. It is a darkly comic exploration of the nature of love, happiness and goodness.

Non-fiction readers are well catered for in the Information Books category. While Alan Tucker’s winning book, Iron in the Blood, deals with brutality and punishment in nineteenth-century penal settlements, it is impossible to read it without thinking about contemporary events. Solid research, accessible presentation and an appealing style make this a standout contribution to the description of Australian colonial history.

Don’t confine your reading or purchases solely to the winning books: Diary of a Wombat will bring pleasure and delight, as will the exuberant Too Loud Lily. As well as the fine Honour Books named in each category, put the potent Njunul the Sun before your adolescents, and recommend to younger ones the quirky and original The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley. John Nicholson’s The Mighty Murray is a mighty read for any age. Another important book is the CBCA ‘Notable Australian Children’s Books’ report, an invaluable, annotated list of eighty-eight fine books that didn’t make the final cut.

The Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards 2003:

Book of the Year: Older Readers – The Messenger, Markus Zusak (Pan)

Book of the Year: Younger Readers – Rain May and Captain Daniel, Catherine Bateson (UQP)

Book of the Year: Early Childhood – A Year on Our Farm, Penny Matthews, illus. Andrew McLean (Scholastic) Picture Book of the Year – In Flanders Fields, Norman Jorgensen, illus. Brian Harrison-Lever (FACP) Eve Pownall Award for Information Books – Iron in the Blood: Convicts and Commandants in Colonial Australia, Alan Tucker (Scholastic)