WA Young Readers' Book Awards

WAYRBA, the Western Australian readers' choice awards, have announced the shortlists for the three categories of their awards: Picture Books, Younger Readers and Older Readers.

Titles are nominated by students through their school or local library and although there are a few criteria (publication in the past five years and a living author being the main ones) they don't necessarily have to be Australian. The West Australian author with the highest overall ranking, however, does receive recognition in the form of the Leila Hoffman Award. The late Leila Hoffman was the highly regarded teacher-librarian who established WAYRBA.

Now that the shortlists have been drawn up, over the next couple of school terms readers will read and vote on the listed books. Winners will be announced later in the year and the presentations are usually in November. Here are the shortlisted titles in each category.

* Australian author ** West Australian author

Picture Books

• *Jeannie Baker - Mirror
• *Graeme Base - Legend of the Golden Snail
• **Lucy Dann, illustrated by Kiefer Dann  - Loongie the Greedy Crocodile
• **Mark Greenwood,  illustrated by Frane Lessac - Ned Kelly and the Green Sash
• Anthony Horowitz - Point Blanc: the graphic novel
• **Ambelin Kwaymullina  - Caterpillar and Butterfly
• Andre Leblanc, illustrated by Barroux  - The Red Piano
• Lois Lowry, illustrated by  Bagram Ibatoulline - Crow Call
• *Jo Oliver - Tatiara
• Jake Parker - Missile Mouse the Star Crusher: Graphic novel
• Sara Pennypacker, illustrated by Yoko Tanaka - Sparrow Girl
• *Coral Tulloch - Sydney of the Antarctic
• *Gabrielle Wang, illustrated by Sally Rippin - Race for the Chinese Zodiac
• *Carole Wilkinson, illustrated by Sebastian Ciaffaglione - The Night We Made the Flag: a Eureka Story

Younger Readers

• *Patricia Bernard -  The Claw of the Dragon: the diary of Billy Shanghai
  
• *Isobelle Carmody -  The Red Wind
• *Charlie Carter -  Battle Boy: Aztec Attack
• *Kate Constable -  Cicada Summer
• *Justin D’Ath -  Tiger Trouble
• Narinder Dhami -  Hannah’s Secret
• *Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Terry Denton - Just Macbeth
• Dan Gutman -  Dr Brad has gone mad
• Jeff Kinney - Ugly Truth
• Jake Maddox [Anastasia Suen] -  Pit Crew Crunch
• Susannah McFarlane  -  Rocky Road
• *Richard Newsome -  The Billionaire’s Curse
• Sarah Prineas -  Magic Thief
• Leila Rasheed -  Sock Shocks Secrets
• *Stephanie Owen Reeder- Lost! A true tale from the bush
• Sue Reid - War Nurse: the diary of Kitty Langley
  
• *James Roy - Queasy Rider
• *Colin Thompson - Camelot
• Jean Ure - Ice Lolly
• Nick Ward -  Charlie Small: The Puppet Master's Prison
  
• Jacqueline Wilson - Cookie

Older Readers

• Cathy Cassidy -  Angel Cake 
• Brian Falkner  -  The Project 
• Becca Fitzpatrick  - Hush, Hush 
• *Morris Gleitzman  - Then 
• *Wendy Harmer -  I Lost My Mobile at the Mall 
• Rosemary Hayes -  Blue Eyed Aborigine
• *Nette Hilton -  The Innocents 
• Derek Landy -  Dark Days 
• *Melina Marchetta - The Piper’s Son 
• Andy McNab  -  Avenger 
• *Foz Meadows  -  Solace and Grief 
• *Chris Morphew -  The Phoenix Files – Arrival 
• Robert Muchamore - Brigands MC
• Patrick Ness -  Monsters of Men
• Christopher Paolini - Brisingr 
• Susan Beth Pfeffer -The Dead and the Gone 
• Rick Riordan - Heroes of Olympu: The Lost Hero 
• *Marion Roberts - Mostly Sunny with a chance of storms 
• Michael Scott - The magician 
• Charlotte Smith -  Dreaming of Dior 
• Alexa Young - Faketastic

Wherever possible I have linked to the websites of the Australian publisher or distributor of each title. This is a decision I have made as a general rule of thumb for this site. Many publishers' sites make this very easy to do. You know who you are, thank you. Others, who probably have no idea how unfriendly their websites are, might want to consider a revamp sooner rather than later. A small rant on behalf of consumers.