The BILBY Awards are children’s choice awards organised by the Queensland Branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia. The acronym stands for:

Books I Love Best Yearly

The BILBY Awards were instituted in 1990. Since then, the children of Queensland have been invited every year to nominate their favourite amongst the books they've read over the previous year. 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 current readership format was introduced, though the Early Readers category was first called the Picture Books category, then the Early Childhood category. See the list of previous winners.

There are now three readership categories:

·         Early Readers - for books for readers under 8 years old
Younger Readers – for books for readers between 8 and 12 years old
Older Readers – for books for readers over 12 years old.

In each category the award is for an individual book only, not for a book series. The winning books for the previous two years are also not eligible for the next year of awards. The books may be read in print, audio or digital format, or read aloud to children.

There are two phases in the BILBY Awards: NOMINATION then VOTING.

In the Nomination phase, children are invited to nominate their favourite individual book for their readership category which they have read in the previous 12 months. Nominations are to be made on-line through the dedicated nomination pages that will be provided. Please read the nomination conditions carefully.

Nominations are CLOSED!

The Short Lists have been announced!

This begins the Voting phase. Children are encouraged first to read all of the books in the short list for their readership category. This can be in print, audio or digital format, or as a read-aloud. Then children can vote for their favourite book from the short list using the dedicated on-line voting pages provided.

To vote for a book, click on the appropriate category.

Older Readers

Younger Readers

Early Readers

The closing date for voting in 2013 will be Friday 14 June.

The BILBY Awards winners will be announced on Monday 17 June.