Every year, the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) awards the Australian Book of the Year from six short-listed titles for the Older Reader category (12 – 18 years). This year the CBCA is running a program for 'shadow judges' - a group to read, review and discuss all six books and ultimately decide, as a collective, which book should be deemed Book of the Year.

We have nine wonderful students who have volunteered to form St Pat’s CBCA Reading Group – Ava M, Lillian J, and Simra B from Year 9, Vienne S and Cailtin R from Year 10, and Abbey C, Yukiko W, Georgina K, and Charley L from Year 11.

The group, facilitated by Mrs Robertson, will read all six books between May and August and then decide on the winning book based on the actual criteria applied by the CBCA judging panel. So far, the reading group has finished Tiger Daughter by Rebecca Lim and currently reading Terciel and Elinor by Garth Nix. The other four books include Girls’ in Boys Cars by Felicity Castagna, How to Repaint a Life by Steven Herrick, Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn and The Boy from the Mish by Gary Lonesborough.

The initiative is a great opportunity for students to analyse novels from a different perspective, read outside their usual genres and experience what it’s like to be on a book judging panel. We look forward to seeing who the group declares as their winning title in late August.

The College Library