Eve Pownall Award for Information Books (1993-)
Subcategory of Children's Book Council of Australia Awards CBCA Book of the Year Awards
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Notes

  • 1988, 1993 -

    The 1988 Award was funded by Eve Pownall's family. No further awards were made until 1993 when it was funded by the Children's Book Council of Australia. The winner, honour books and shortlisted works are indexed on AustLit for this Award.

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2024

winner y separately published work icon Country Town Isolde Martyn , Robyn Ridgeway , Louise Hogan (illustrator), Abbotsford : Ford Street , 2023 22444434 2023 single work picture book information book children's

'Explore an Australian country town through time.

'Drawing on the experiences of many real towns, Country Town tells the history of a fictional inland Australian town in pictures. From a First Nations people's camp by a river crossing through to the present day, and with many major Australian history themes woven in, this picture book makes a wonderful classroom asset and a great starting point for discussions on the past.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Year: 2023

winner y separately published work icon Deep : Dive into Hidden Worlds Jess McGeachin , Jess McGeachin (illustrator), London : Welbeck , 2022 25851773 2022 single work information book children's

'A book that explores the places hardest to reach, from the molten depths of our planet to the frigid depths of outer space. Linking seemingly diverse subject matter, it invites the reader to explore worlds hidden from view.

'What hidden worlds lie beneath your feet? Or in the deepest parts of the ocean, where not even sunlight can reach? Come on a journey to meet glowing deep-sea creatures, zombie-making fungi and the trillions of tiny workers that live inside your own body. But be warned, things can get a little strange in the deep...

'Deep is an illustrated non-fiction book that explores the places hardest to reach, from the molten depths of our planet to the frigid depths of outer space. Linking seemingly diverse subject matter, it invites the reader to explore worlds hidden from view.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

winner y separately published work icon Deep : Dive into Hidden Worlds Jess McGeachin , Jess McGeachin (illustrator), London : Welbeck , 2022 25851773 2022 single work information book children's

'A book that explores the places hardest to reach, from the molten depths of our planet to the frigid depths of outer space. Linking seemingly diverse subject matter, it invites the reader to explore worlds hidden from view.

'What hidden worlds lie beneath your feet? Or in the deepest parts of the ocean, where not even sunlight can reach? Come on a journey to meet glowing deep-sea creatures, zombie-making fungi and the trillions of tiny workers that live inside your own body. But be warned, things can get a little strange in the deep...

'Deep is an illustrated non-fiction book that explores the places hardest to reach, from the molten depths of our planet to the frigid depths of outer space. Linking seemingly diverse subject matter, it invites the reader to explore worlds hidden from view.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Shadow Judging Book of the Year Awards

Year: 2022

winner y separately published work icon Still Alive : Notes from Australia's Immigration Detention System Safdar Ahmed , Safdar Ahmed (illustrator), Ventnor : Twelve Panels Press , 2021 22579311 2021 single work graphic novel

'In early 2011, Safdar Ahmed visited Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Centre for the first time. He brought pencils and sketchbooks into the centre and started drawing with the people detained there. Their stories are told in this book.

'Interweaving journalism, history and autobiography, Still Alive is an intensely personal indictment of Australia’s refugee detention policies and procedures. It is also a searching reflection on the redemptive power of art. And death metal.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

winner (Shadowers' Choice Award) y separately published work icon The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Peculiar Pairs in Nature Sami Bayly , Sami Bayly (illustrator), Sydney : Lothian , 2021 23162836 2021 single work picture book information book children's

'Discover 60 of the most peculiar pairs in nature and learn how plant and animal species rely on each other for their survival. Another fresh take on the animal kingdom from bestselling author and illustrator, Sami Bayly.

'Come along for another fresh take on the animal kingdom from bestselling author and illustrator, Sami Bayly.

'Discover 60 of the most peculiar pairs in nature and learn how plant and animal species rely on each other for their survival.

'Whether it be a rare tick living in the fur of a pygmy possum, a stick insect feasting and hiding out amongst the Melaleuca or a handfish laying its eggs on a sea squirt, incredible natural relationships deserve to be explored and celebrated. Investigating all types of relationships, from symbiotic to parasitic, this is an eye-opening guide to the natural world.

'Many species steer clear of those who are different, but the animals and plants in this book have evolved to form relationships with some of the most unlikely partners, and they couldn't live without them.

'This gorgeous hardcover book is illustrated in exquisite detail by award-winning author and illustrator, Sami Bayly. The perfect companion to The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Ugly Animals and The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dangerous Animals.'

Source : publisher's blurb

Year: 2021

winner y separately published work icon Dry To Dry : The Seasons Of Kakadu Pamela Freeman , Liz Anelli (illustrator), Melbourne : Walker Books Australia , 2020 19557156 2020 single work picture book children's

'This Nature Storybook follow-up to the award-winning Desert Lake is a stunningly illustrated and extraordinary story of the yearly weather cycle and attendant changing wildlife of Kakadu National Park, from the Dry to the Wet to the Dry again.

'In the tropical wetlands and escarpments of Kakadu National Park, the seasons move from dry to wet to dry again. Those seasons have shaped the astonishing variety of plants, animals, birds, insects ... migratory birds by the thousands, grasshoppers and owls, lizards and turtles, fruit bats and spear grass. And, gliding past them all in the rivers and waterholes, the long, sinuous shapes of crocodiles ...'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

Year: 2020

winner y separately published work icon Young Dark Emu Bruce Pascoe , Broome : Magabala Books , 2019 15601694 2019 single work prose children's fiction children's

'Bruce Pascoe has collected a swathe of literary awards for Dark Emu and now he has brought together the research and compelling first person accounts in a book for younger readers. Using the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, Bruce Pascoe compellingly argues for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He allows the reader to see Australia as it was before Europeans arrived – a land of cultivated farming areas, productive fisheries, permanent homes, and an understanding of the environment and its natural resources that supported thriving villages across the continent. Young Dark Emu - A Truer History asks young readers to consider a different version of Australia’s history pre-European colonisation.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Works About this Award

SA's Pictures of Success Deborah Bogle , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 17 August 2014; (p. 29)
Paranoid Prizing : Mapping Australia’s Eve Pownall Award for Information Books, 2001–2010 Erica Hateley , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Bookbird , January vol. 51 no. 1 2013; (p. 41-50)
'Each year, the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) administers a number of Book of the Year Awards, including the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books. The books chosen by the CBCA constitute a contemporary canon of Australian children's literature, and serve to both shape and reflect current educational policies and practices as well as young Australians' sense of themselves and their nation. This paper reads a selection of award-winning Australian non-fiction children's literature in the context of colonialism, curriculum, military myths, and Aboriginal perspectives on national history and identity.'
X