CBCA 2010 Winner for Young Adult Category

The winner 

of the coveted 

Children's Book Council of Australia Best Book of the Year:

Jarvis 24 by David Matzenthen

So far, Marc E. Jarvis has lost a white football boot, a school tie and a best friend.

But there's more in store for him when he completes Work Experience at a local car yard – where his world is truly rocked, shocked and shaken.

Then Marc meets Electra.

And nothing will ever be the same again . . .

A story of true friends, crazed coaches, shooting stars, and loves lost and found.

And the Two Honour Books:

A Small Free Kiss in The Dark - Glenda Millard

 Two young boys, an old tramp, a beautiful teenage dancer, and the girl's baby--ragtag survivors of a sudden war--form a fragile family, hiding out in the ruins of an amusement park. As they scavenge for good, diapers, and baby formula, they must stay out of sight of vicious gangs and lawless soldiers. At first they rely on Billy, the only adult in the group. But as civil life deteriorates, Billy starts to fall apart. Skip, who is barely into his teens, must take over and lead them on a search for sanctuary. This complex and haunting exploration of life on the edge and what it takes to triumph over adversity is a story about the indomitable nature of hope.

The Winds of Heaven - Judith Clarke

 Clementine thinks her cousin Fan is everything that she could never be: beautiful, imaginative, wild. The girls promise to be best friends and sisters after the summer is over, but Clementine’s life in the city is different from Fan’s life in dusty Lake Conapaira. And Fan is looking for something, though neither she nor Clementine understands what it is.                        

Printz Honor Winner Judith Clarke delivers a compassionate, compelling novel with the story of a friendship between two young women, and of the small tragedies that tear them apart from each other, and from themselves. 

Other three on the short-list which missed out:

• Stolen - Lucy Christopher
• Liar - Justine Labalestier
• Loving Richard Feynman - Penny Tangey 

And go here to read the winners and honour books in all the other categories. (Glenda Millard also has an honour book in the Children's Picture Book of the Year) And Lisa Shanahan wins Early Childhood Book of the Year - but I kinda wish she would write another YA, as I loved loved loved her YA title My Big Birkett.

And yay for National Book Week which starts next week. All sort of cool and funky things happening in libraries and book shops and schools all around Australia.

Sorry to all my international readers who I may bore with all these Aussie YA loving posts :)