Aurealis Award for Best Children's Fiction (told primarily through pictures)
# Aurealis Award for Best Children's Fiction (told primarily through pictures)

The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and Conflux Inc to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers". To qualify, a work must have been first published by an Australian citizen or permanent resident between 1 January and 31 December of the current year; the presentation ceremony is held the following year. It has grown from a small function of around 20 people to a two-day event attended by over 200 people.

Since their creation in 1995, awards have been given in various categories of speculative fiction. Categories currently include science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative young adult fiction—with separate awards for novels and short fiction—collections, anthologies, illustrative works or graphic novels, children's books, and an award for excellence in speculative fiction. The awards have attracted the attention of publishers by setting down a benchmark in science fiction and fantasy. The continued sponsorship by publishers such as HarperCollins and Orbit has identified the award as an honour to be taken seriously.

The results are decided by a panel of judges from a list of submitted nominees; the long-list of nominees is reduced to a short-list of finalists. Ties can occur if the panel decides both entries show equal merit, however they are encouraged to choose a single winner. The judges are selected from a public application process by the Award's management team.

This article lists all the short-list nominees and winners in the best children's fiction (told primarily through pictures) category, as well as works that have received honourable mentions or have been highly commended. The best children's fiction (told primarily through pictures) award was created in 2001, as best children's short fiction, along with an award for children's long fiction. In 2008 the award was renamed "best children's illustrated work/picture book" and in 2010 was renamed again to "best children's fiction (told primarily through pictures)". Since 2001, hounarable mentions and high commendations have been awarded intermittently. Of the 20 winners, Kim Gamble is the only person to have won the award multiple times, with two wins. Anna Fienberg holds the record for most nominations with six, and Barbara Fienberg has the most nominations without winning, having been a losing finalist four times.

This award has been merged with that for best children's fiction (told primarily through words) into an award for best children's book.

## Aurealis Award for Best Children's Short Fiction

### Winners and Nominees

In the following table, the years correspond to the year of the book's eligibility; the ceremonies are always held the following year. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature" article. Entries with a blue background have won the award; those with a white background are the nominees on the short-list.

* Winners and joint winners  * Nominees on the shortlist

| Year | Author(s) | Short story | Publisher or publication |
| - | - | - | - |
| 2001 | Jackie French* | Café on Callisto | Koala |
| 2001 | Kim Caraher | Zip Zap | Random House Australia |
| 2001 | Claire Carmichael | Saving Aunt Alice | Random House Australia |
| 2001 | Christine Harris | Hairy Legs | Random House Australia |
| 2002 | Anna Fienberg* & Kim Gamble* | Tashi and the Haunted House | Allen & Unwin |
| 2002 | Terry Denton | The Golden Udder | Allen & Unwin |
| 2002 | Justin D'Ath | The Two Natalies | Reel Trouble, Spinouts Sapphire (Longman) |
| 2002 | Andrew Chapman | In the Blink of an Eye | Reel Trouble, Spinouts Sapphire (Longman) |
| 2002 | Gary Crew & Marc McBride | Old Ridley | Hodder |
| 2003 | Natalie Jane Prior* | Lily Quench and the Lighthouse of Skellig Mor | Hodder Headline Australia |
| 2003 | Duncan Ball | Emily Eyefinger and the Balloon Bandits | HarperCollins |
| 2003 | Roseanne Hawke | Wolfchild | Lothian |
| 2003 | Anna Fienberg & Barbara Fienberg | Tashi and the Royal Tombs | Allen & Unwin |
| 2003 | Natalie Jane Prior* | Lily Quench and the Magicians' Pyramid | Hodder Headline Australia |
| 2004 | Gary Crew* & Steven Wollman* | Beneath the Surface | Hodder |
| 2004 | Stephen Axelsen | The Very Messy Inspection | Random House |
| 2004 | Duncan Ball | Emily Eyefinger and the Ghost Ship | HarperCollins |
| 2004 | Anna Fienberg & Barbara Fienberg | There Once Was a Boy Named Tashi | Allen & Unwin |
| 2004 | Gregory Rogers | The Boy, The Bear, The Baron, The Bard | Allen & Unwin |
| 2005 | Stephen Axelsen* | Piccolo & Annabel 2: The Disastrous Party | Random House Australia |
| 2005 | Goldie Alexander | The Space Gypsies | The School Magazine 7 |
| 2005 | Stephen Axelsen | Piccolo & Annabel 3: The Stinky Cheese Gypsies | Random House Australia |
| 2005 | Gary Crew & Jeremy Geddes | The Mystery of Eilean Mor | Lothian |
| 2006 | Jane Godwin* | The True Story of Mary Who Wanted to Stand on Her Head | Allen & Unwin |
| 2006 | Margaret Wild* & Anne Spudvilas* | Woolvs in the Sitee | Penguin |
| 2006 | Victor Kelleher & Stephen Michael King | The Magic Violin | Penguin |
| 2007 | Marc McBride* | World of Monsters | Scholastic Australia |
| 2007 | Briony Stewart* | Kumiko and the Dragon | UQP |
| 2007 | Luke Edwards | Ock Von Fiend | Omnibus Books |
| 2007 | Anna Fienberg & Barbara Fienberg | Tashi and the Mixed Up Monster | Allen & Unwin |

### Honourable mentions and highly commended short stories

In the following table, the years correspond to the year of the short story's eligibility; the ceremonies are always held the following year. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature" article. Entries with a grey background have been noted as highly commended; those with a white background have received honourable mentions.

* Highly commended  * Honourable mentions

| Year | Author | Work | Publisher |
| - | - | - | - |
| 2001 | Paul Collins | Movie World | HarperCollins (Longman) |
| 2001 | Andrew Whitmore | Ark of Dreams The Ark of Dreams | Black Dog Books |
| 2004 | John Marsden* | Roomful of Magic A Roomful of Magic | Pan Macmillan |

^ I Publisher names in parentheses indicate the imprint under which the book was published.

## Aurealis Award for Best Children's Illustrated Work/Picture Book

### 2008–2009

In the following table, the years correspond to the year of the book's eligibility; the ceremonies are always held the following year. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature" article. Entries with a blue background have won the award; those with a white background are the nominees on the short-list.

* Winners and joint winners  * Nominees on the shortlist

| Year | Author(s) | Illustrator(s) | Work | Publisher |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 2008 | Richard Harland* | Laura Peterson* | Escape!, Under Siege, Race to the Ruins, The Heavy Crown (The Wolf Kingdom series) | Omnibus Books |
| 2008 | Anna Fienberg & Barbara Fienberg | Kim Gamble | Tashi and the Phoenix | Allen & Unwin |
| 2008 | Ian Irvine | David Cornish | Thorn Castle, Giant's Lair, Black Crypt, Wizardry Crag (The Sorcerer's Tower series) | Omnibus Books |
| 2008 | Sally Morgan with Ezekiel, Ambelin and Blaze Kwaymullina | Adam Hill | Curly and the Fent | Random House Australia |
| 2008 | Richard Tulloch | Terry Denton | Twisted Tales | Random House Australia |
| 2009 | Pamela Freeman* | Kim Gamble* | Victor's Challenge | Walker Books Australia |
| 2009 | Graeme Base | Base, Graeme | Enigma | Penguin (Viking) |
| 2009 | Anna Fienberg | Kim Gamble | Tashi and the Golem | Allen & Unwin |
| 2009 | Dan McGuiness | McGuiness, Dan | Pilot and Huxley | Omnibus Books |
| 2009 | Gregory Rogers | Rogers, Gregory | The Hero of Little Street | Allen & Unwin |

^ I Publisher names in parentheses indicate the imprint under which the book was published.

## Aurealis Award for Best Children's Fiction (told primarily through pictures)

### 2010 onwards

In the following table, the years correspond to the year of the book's eligibility; the ceremonies are always held the following year. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature" article. Entries with a blue background have won the award; those with a white background are the nominees on the short-list.

* Winners and joint winners  * Nominees on the shortlist

| Year | Writer(s) | Illustrator(s) | Work | Publisher |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 2010 | Sonya Hartnett* | Lucia Masciullo* | The Boy and the Toy | Viking Press |
| 2010 | Isobelle Carmody | Anne Spudvilas | Night School | Viking Press |
| 2010 | Luke Davies | Inari Kiuru | Magpie | ABC Books |
| 2010 | Julie Hunt & Sue Moss | Gaye Chapman | Precious Little | Allen & Unwin |
| 2010 | David Richardson | Steven Hunt | The Cloudchasers | ABC Books |
| 2011 | Christopher Cheng* | Sarah Davis* | Sounds Spooky | Random House |
| 2011 | Aaron Blabey | Aaron Blabey | The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon | Viking Press |
| 2011 | Norman Jorgensen | James Foley | The Last Viking | Fremantle Press |
| 2011 | Tom Taylor | James Brouwer | The Deep: Here Be Dragons | Gestalt Publishing |
| 2011 | Margaret Wild | Andrew Yeo | Vampyre | Walker Books |
| 2012 | Graeme Base* | Graeme Base | Little Elephants | Viking Penguin |
| 2012 | Gary Crew | Ross Watkins | The Little Boy Who Grew into a Tree | Penguin Group Australia |
| 2012 | Gary Crew | Den Scheer | In the Beech Forest | Ford Street Publishing |
| 2012 | Mark Wilson | Mark Wilson | Inside the World of Tom Roberts | Lothian Children's Books |
