The Children’s Book Council of Australia NT Branch held a fantastic Shortlist Brunch at the Novotel here in Darwin this morning. I’ve never been to anything like it before, but I thought their format was great. Each book on the shortlist was reviewed by a local; they could be a student, a teacher, a librarian or general community member.

I was nervous about hearing my own book reviewed, but luckily the St John’s High School student who reviewed it was very kind. She was a lovely, shy Aboriginal girl who braved standing up in front of the hundred or so people gathered, and said she’d enjoyed the book and recommended that other people read it. I wanted to go up to her afterwards to say thankyou, but unfortunately she had to leave slightly early so I didn’t get the chance. So, if you’re out there reading this, thankyou – I don’t think reviews get much better than that!

The key note speaker was Will Kostakis, who talked about having just spent a week up here in the NT working with school groups. He is possibly the author who does the most school visits per year – apparently he’s pretty much booked out! He also spoke about the theme of the CBCA Awards this year – “Books light up up our lives” – and how that related to him personally (Will had his first book published at the age of 19) and in his professional work (he told a great story about prompting a student to read the first book he’d read in five years).

All up, a really enjoyable morning, and a great pre-event to my trip down to chilly Melbourne for the awards announcement in a couple of weeks!