Teaching Units: CBCA Shortlist 2015

Every year, PETAA creates quality units of work on all primary-age books that are shortlisted for the prestigious Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards. These units are created by literacy experts, using evidence-based pedagogies and are designed with a busy classroom teacher in mind. They incorporate highlighted examples for close reading activities, as well as word recognition, phonic knowledge and spelling, plus a plethora of ways to use the book with your students for speaking, writing and creating. All activities are linked to the Australian Curriculum: English.

Book of the Year: Younger Readers

 Boy running and house in mist at night on cover
Two Wolves
Tristan Bancks
Years 5–7 

The Cleo Stories: The Necklace and The Present

A girl up a tree and one below on book cover

Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood
Years 1–2 Unit

Bleakboy and Hunter Stand out in the Rain

The book title and a whale on the cover

Stephen Herrick
Years 5–7 Unit

The Simple Things

Drawing of a boy fishing on a pier on cover

Bill Condon and Beth Norling
Years 3–4 Unit

Figgy in the World

Illustration with a girl and a goat and pathways on the cover

Tamsan Janu
Years 3–5 Unit

Withering-by-Sea

A girl on a pier with iron lattice work on cover

Judith Rossel
Years 4–6 Unit

Book of the Year: Early Childhood

Pig the Pug

Perplexed pug dog on book cover

Aaron Blabey
Years F–2 Unit

Scary Night

Night scene with a pig and bats on cover

Lesley Gibbes and Stephen Michael King
Years F–2 Unit

Go to Sleep, Jessie!

Go to Sleep Jessie cover

Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood
Years F–2 Unit

Snail and Turtle are Friends

A snail riding on a turtl on the book cover

Stephen Michael King
Years F–2
Unit

Noni the Pony goes to the Beach


Pony and dog frolicking inthe waves on the cover

Alison Lester
Years F–2
Unit

A House of Her Own

A house on a tree top reached by a spiral of steps on the cover

Jenny Hughes and Jonathon Bentley
Years F–2 Unit

Picture Book of the Year

The Duck and the Darklings

Duck with a candle on its head on the cover

Stephen Michael King and Glenda Millard
Years 4–5 Unit

My two Blankets

Girls beneath a shared umbrella on the cover

Freya Blackwood and Irina Kobald
Years 2–3
Unit

Rivertime


Man and girl in a boat on a river on the cover

Trace Balla
Year 4 
Unit

One Minute’s Silence

Book cover with an ANZAC and Turkish soldiers faces close

Michael Camilleri and David Metzenthen
Years 5–6
Unit

The Stone Lion

Angry Stone Line on a plinth bearing the book title on the cover

Ritva Voutila and Margaret Wild
Years 5–6 Unit

Fire

Sulphur crested cockatoo escaping flames on cover

Bruce Whatley and Jackie French
Years 4–5
Unit

Eve Pownall Award for Information Books

A-Z of Convicts in Van Diemen's Land

Soldiers, settlers, Aboriginal people and convicts on the cover

Simon Banard
Years 4–5 Unit

Mary's Australia: How Mary Mackillop Changed Australia

A photogrpah of Mary Mackillop and illustration on cover

Pamela Freeman
Years 5–6 Unit

Emu


In your face emu on cover

Claire Saxby and Graham Byrne
Years 2–3
Unit

Tea and Sugar Christmas

Girl holding a gift and a steam train arriving on cover

Jane Jolley and Robert Ingpen
Years 3–4 Unit

Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia

Tiled montage of portraits and images on cover

Demet Divaroren and Amra Pajalic (eds)
Allen & Unwin

Audacity: Stories of Heroic Australians in Wartime

A soldier carrying a wounded comrade on cover

Carlie Walker and Brett Hatherly
Years 5–6 Unit

Book of The Year: Older Readers

Are You Seeing Me?

Graphical cover featuring a car and octopus tentacles

Darren Groth
Years 7–8 Unit

Nona & Me

Watercolour colour blocks and faint images of girls on the cover

Clare Atkins
Black Inc

The Minnow

Painting of undersea images on cover

Diana Sweeney
Text publishing

The Intruder

Girl on a fence on book cover

Christine Bongers
Years 7–8 Unit

The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl

Cartoon cover with Cinamon girl

Melissa Keil
Hardie Grant

The Protected

Graphic sillhouetes in cover

Claire Zorn
UQP

Crichton Award for New Illustrators

The Lost Girl

A girl and footsteps behind her walking in the desert by a tree

Leanne Tobin and Ambelin Kwaymullina
Years 1–3
Unit

One Minute's Silence

Cover depicting Turkish and Australian soldiers

Michael Camilleri and David Metzenthen
Years 5–6
Unit

Little Dog and the Christmas Wish


Dog mounting the steps of a terrace house lit at night time

Robin Cowcher and Corinne Fenton
Years F–1 Unit

Meet Douglas Mawson


Cover with sketch of balaclava-wearing Maswon

Snip Green and Mike Dumbleton
Years 5–6 Unit

Rivertime


Man and girl in a boat on a river on the cover

Trace Balla
Year 4 Unit

Kick with My Left Foot

Cartoon of a kid kicking a football with his dog watching

Karen Briggs and Paul Seden
Years F–2 Unit

The 2015 PETAA Teachers’ Guide to the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards


About the Writers of the units of work      |      Acknowledgments and credits       |      2015 CBCA Guide Terms and conditions

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