Events and Activities

Celebrate the announcement of the CBCA Book of the Year ®Award Winner and Honour books at our BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS event.

This year's event will be live streamed from The State Library of NSW.

The highlight of this event is the Shadow Judging student reviews, Collide book trailer winners and of course the winner and honour books from the 2026 shortlist! ​​​

Collide! is a competition challenging students to create a unique and original book trailer featuring a book from the CBCA Notables list. 

By introducing students to the best of Australian Literature, teachers can improve student literacy skills whilst producing a unique and original book trailer. Entries close on July 27th. 

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CBCA Sun Project/Shadow Judging aims to engage students to 'shadow judge' the CBCA Book of the Year Shortlist alongside our esteemed judging panel. Special funding was obtained in 2026 to produce a podcast where student voices from the Older and Younger Reader categories were invited to connect and discuss the shortlisted books with the authors. Check it out on the National CBCA website. Registrations for this year's Shadow Judging open on Tuesday February 24th. 

This year we will be reintroducing THE MAURICE SAXBY LECTURE. Maurice Saxby was the first national president of the Children's Book Council of Australia in 1958 and served as a judge for the CBCA Book of the Year awards. He was affectionately referred to as "the Godfather of Australian Children's Literature." In 2026 the lecture will be held in conjunction with The Lady Cutler award on Saturday November 14th. We are excited to announce that Tristan Bancks, well known and highly regarded children's author and staunch supporter of the CBCA, will be our guest speaker.

The Lady Cutler Award is a bi-ennial award, administered by the CBCA NSW Branch, for Distinguished Service to Children’s Literature. Previous winners and information about the award can be found here. The award will be presented to the winner on Saturday November 14th at the Writing NSW centre.

Nominations are now CLOSED for the Lady Cutler Award 2026

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This year CBCA NSW Branch Inc and SLANSW (School Library Association NSW) are excited to be trialing a NSW Readers Cup competition. It will mirror the QLD and ACT competitions with regional heats and a State Final. We have completed all our regional heats and teams are now eagerly reading and waiting for our State Final. This will be held on September 22nd at Stanton Public Library. For more information please visit our Website.

A monthly magazine highlighting our author and illustrator creatives and linked to what's happening now in Australian books and writing. Featuring guest illustrators, there is a bounty of information for kids and those who work with kids. View current and past issues here 

Memberships renew in the first months of the year. Watch out for the email with the link to Hello Club for renewing. New members always welcome. Look at our events calendar and book early for our upcoming events​​​.