Queensland Judges - Children's Book of the Year Awards

Queensland Judges

For the 2024-2025 judging years, Qld has two judges

Lotte ten Hacken - Picture Book of the Year category

Lotte has been a primary school educator for almost 20 years. She has a Masters in Teacher Librarianship and has been a TL since 2016. She works as a sessional academic teaching Masters of Education and pre-service teachers at University of Queensland. Her passionate belief in the transformational power of picturebooks inspired her to pursue a doctorate and she is currently a PhD candidate at UQ. Her research focuses on using picturebooks to stimulate dialogue and foster children’s intercultural understanding and she is particularly interested in visual and critical literacy. Her favourite part of the year is Book Week and she especially enjoys having animated debates about the shortlisted book with her students (and anyone who will listen!). She is thrilled to contribute to the mission of the CBCA to celebrate and advocate for the value of stories through her role as a judge.

Tehani Croft - Older Readers Category

Tehani Croft is the Head of Library Services at a P-12 school west of Brisbane and a lifelong lover of books. She has been working in school libraries for almost two decades, has lectured in the librarianship field for several years, published articles in Access, ic3 and Connections, and has been a committee member for local ASLA and CBCA chapters. Tehani is passionate about school libraries and literature for young people, and has previously judged for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards, the WA Premier’s Book Awards and the Aurealis Awards.

Book of the Year

In 1946 the CBCA established annual book awards to promote children’s books of high literary and artistic quality. These awards are now the most influential and highly respected in Australia.

Children's Book Week®

Each year, schools and public libraries across Australia spend a week celebrating books, and Australian authors and illustrators. Teachers and librarians conduct activities relating to a theme to highlight the importance of reading.

Merchandise

The CBCA produces a range of promotional items, including stickers for publishers to place on winning and honour books, and support materials for teachers, teacher librarians and public librarians. The range is always changing and developing.

Members

As a member of the CBCA you will have access to a range of Member Only benefits including: discounts on CBCA Book Week merchandise, access to high resolution Book Week images, Shortlist annotations, branch specific activities and offers.

Donate to our Gift Fund

Throughout the year, we work in partnership with authors, illustrators, publishers and booksellers to bring literature into the hearts and minds of children. Your donation will help us continue this important work.

Reading Time

The CBCA has a strong commitment and a long history of reviewing Australian children’s books. For many of the seventy years CBCA has been in existence reviews were presented in our print journal Reading Time.