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 litearature.

Join the 2008 program

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, except winners from the previous two years are not eligible. They are encouraged to nominate online, but paper nominations are also accepted.

 Phase Two: Once the students have nominated their favourite titles, shortlists are developed from the nominations. These lists cover 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.

Once the final votes have been counted, presentations are made to the winning authors at the Award Announcement for the following categories: Early Childhood, Younger Readers, Older Readers. Usually representatives of the winners' publishers accept the awards on their behalf.

(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.)