Aurealis Award for Best Children's Fiction (told primarily through words) facts for kids

The Aurealis Awards are special awards given out every year in Australia. They celebrate amazing Australian writers who create stories in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. These types of stories are called "speculative fiction" because they imagine things that aren't real, like magic or future technology.

To be considered for an award, a book must be written by an Australian citizen or someone living permanently in Australia. The book also needs to have been published between January 1 and December 31 of the year before the awards. The awards ceremony happens the next year. What started as a small gathering of about 20 people has grown into a big two-day event with over 200 attendees!

Since they began in 1995, the Aurealis Awards have recognized many different kinds of speculative fiction. There are awards for science fiction, fantasy, and horror. There are also special awards for young adult fiction, which means books for teens. These awards even have separate prizes for longer books (novels) and shorter stories. Other categories include collections of stories, anthologies (books with stories by different authors), graphic novels, and children's books. There's even an award for overall excellence in speculative fiction.

Publishers really pay attention to these awards. They see them as a way to show which science fiction and fantasy books are the best. Big publishers like HarperCollins and Orbit support the awards. This shows that winning an Aurealis Award is a serious honor for writers.

How the Winners Are Chosen

A group of judges decides who wins the awards. First, they get a long list of nominated books. Then, they narrow it down to a shorter list of finalists. Sometimes, if two books are equally good, the judges might pick both as winners. However, they usually try to choose just one winner. If the judges all agree that none of the nominated books are good enough, they can choose "no award" for that year. The judges themselves are chosen from people who apply for the job.

About This Award Category

This article focuses on the "best children's fiction (told primarily through words)" award. This means books for kids that are mostly stories, not pictures. This award started in 2001. Back then, it was called "best children's long fiction." There was also a separate award for children's short fiction.

In 2008, the award changed its name to "best children's novel." Then, in 2010, it was renamed again to "best children's fiction (told primarily through words)." Sometimes, books that don't win still get special mentions. These are called "honourable mentions" or "highly commended."

Some authors have won this award more than once. Garth Nix, Lian Tanner, and Gabrielle Wang have each won twice! John Flanagan has been nominated the most times, with five nominations. This award has now joined with the award for best children's fiction (told primarily through pictures). Together, they are now just one award: best children's book.

Winners and Nominees for Children's Fiction

This section lists all the books that were nominated and won the award. The years show when the book was published and eligible for the award. The award ceremony always happens the next year.

In the table below:   *   Winners and joint winners   *   Nominees on the shortlist

Honourable Mentions and Highly Commended Novels

Sometimes, books don't win the main award but are still recognized for being excellent. This section lists those books. The years show when the book was published.

In the table below:   *   Highly commended (meaning they were strongly praised)   *   Honourable mentions (meaning they were noted as worthy)