Young voices are welcome here

The home of the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s
Shadow Judging Book of the Year Awards program

The Book of the Year Awards Shortlist has been announced!

Click here to see your 2025 Shadow Judging reading lists

2025 Shadow Judging Registrations are open!

Register here

Want to learn more about Shadow Judging? Watch our webinar!

Prospective facilitators can also read our program information document and facilitator guide for an overview of the program.

2024 Creative Responses

OverDrive is thrilled to again partner with the Shadow Judging Book of the Year program to provide a selection of digital versions of Shortlisted books to CBCA members. Students will have access to Sora to read digital versions of the available books and vote on which they would pick as their winners! Sora gives K-12 students one-tap access to ebooks, audiobooks, Read-Alongs, magazines and more on any device, at any time, using their school credentials.​ From assigned titles, to exportable notes and highlights, to personalised reading features and more, Sora’s dynamic features can help ignite a love for reading and learning.​

Read more about our exciting partnership with OverDrive here

The CBCA is delighted to again partner with StoryBox Library to provide Shadow Judges with access to digital copies of Shortlisted titles. StoryBox Library is a subscription-based educational website, created for children to view stories by local authors and illustrators, being read aloud by fantastic, predominantly Australian storytellers. Story Tools is a new story writing series that helps students in grades 3-6 master the mechanics of storytelling. StoryBox Hub is committed to showcasing the power of stories to children as tools to help us connect, engage, inspire and educate.

Learn more about StoryBox Hub here

Young voices create conversation

The CBCA Book of the Year Awards connect young people to great literature. During CBCA Children’s Book Week® we celebrate reading for pleasure and applaud our awarded books.

Our Sun Project: Shadow Judging is an exciting addition to our annual calendar. We invite young voices from groups across Australia to join the conversation about our annual Book of the Year Shortlist and choose their own winners.

Creating a group of ‘shadowers’ is a powerful way to connect young readers with the shortlisted books in a safe space where their opinions and responses can be heard.

Interested adults, classroom teachers, teacher librarians and public librarians are invited to take on the role of group facilitators to support these young voices in this exciting program.

Willeton SHS Shadow Judges meet with CBCA Older Readers judge Maria Alessandrino

What shadowers are saying …

I learnt so much about what it takes to be a judge and the judging criteria for books, which I might use for later books! I enjoyed filming and acting with everyone and I also liked all the planning and the making of our creative response!
Alexander G, St Joseph’s Rockdale, NSW
The Shadow Judging challenged us to look at books from a different perspective. It was fun working with the authors that came into school. It was a wonderful experience, and we learnt about how they write their books and what they have to think about when writing. It was really interesting to learn more about the books because authors know the back story of why they wrote the book but we don’t. It was good but difficult judging the books and reading different genres.
AnyaWestminster School, South Australia
The Shadow Judging experience was one of the best experiences in my life. Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief ended up being my favourite book. The experience taught me to never judge a book by its cover.
Jackson J St. John’s Catholic School, Richmond, Tasmania
Shadow judging was a wonderful way to read a wide range of books.
Maddie SCaringbah High School, NSW
We enjoyed doing the Shadow Judging Creative piece because we all played a part in putting it together.
Dinugi, Dora and Rachel Radford College, South Australia
We loved judging books, its hard sometimes but also fun! We learned heaps about judging criteria and the messages that the authors were trying to teach us. When we are older, we would like to be judges like you for the Children Book Awards. We are very grateful to be shadow judges! Hope we do it next year again!
Misha and Isabelle Exeter Primary School, Tasmania
I have been working with these guys since years now! With lots of hard work and timely communication they made sure they delivered the best to me. Highly recommended!
Jade K Kiama High School, NSW
It was an amazing learning experience and helped me to analyse books and think about them in depth.
Kiara NCaringbah High School, NSW
I think the Shadow Judging was an amazing experience and I’m so happy I did it. I got to read good books and meet an author.
Eamon G St. John’s Catholic School, Richmond, Tasmania

What is Shadow Judging?

Shadow Judging is an exciting addition to CBCA’s national annual calendar. We are inviting young voices from across Australia to join the conversation about the books on our annual CBCA Book of the Year Shortlist and choose their own winners.

Thank you to our supporters

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