The Bilby Awards are Queensland's children's choice awards. They are run by the Children's Book Council of Australia (Queensland Branch). They aim to foster participation in reading while increasing enjoyment of literature.

The BILBY Awards run in two phases.

Phase One: At the beginning of each year, students in Queensland schools are asked to nominate their favourite books. They are not limited in any way, books can be Australian or overseas releases. Nominations must be sent to CBCA (Qld) via qld@cbca.org.au by 25 May, 2012.  Books can be nominated in the following categories: Older Readers – books for 12 to 18 year olds, Younger Readers – books for 9 to 11 year olds and Early Readers – books for 8 year olds and younger

 Phase Two: Once the students have nominated their favourite titles, shortlists are developed from the nominations. The Short Lists will be announced on our website on 9 July 2012.  The Short Lists cover the three levels of reading maturity. Students are then asked to read a recommended number of three titles from the list, and to vote for their favourite. Reading is not mandatory. Students may have titles read aloud to them.  Votes must be emailed to qld@cbca.org.au between 9 July and 21 September 2012.

Once the final votes have been counted, presentations are made to the winning authors at the Award. Usually representatives of the winners' publishers accept the awards on their behalf.  Details of the Awards Announcement, which will take place in October/November 2012, will be released closer to the date.

(Note: Prior to 1997 there were three categories for primary students - Read Alone, Read Aloud and Read Australian and one category for Secondary.  In 1997 the new format was introduced.)