The session focussed on the CBCA Shortlist titles, discussing the titles as well as highlighting how the shortlist is representative of trends and preoccupations of the current reading landscape. Paul Macdonald owns the award-winning The Children's Bookshop which has been a Sydney literary institution since 1971. Paul has a Master of Education, working almost 20 years as a teacher of Upper Primary and Secondary. He has won numerous awards in teaching such as a Quality Teacher Award and The Premiers English Scholarship. Paul won the inaugural Maurice Saxby Award in 2012 for his contributions to raising the profile of teen fiction. Paul Macdonald also was the winner of the 2016 Lady Cutler award for services to children's literature and literacy in Australia. Paul not only manages The Children’s Bookshop Speakers’ Agency but is also a consultant working with numerous schools focusing on building reading cultures and he is currently completing his PhD focusing on Australian Young Adult literature. Paul is the author of the picture book The Hole Idea and has written several other academic texts.

1. 2021:The Short List and Beyond
Paul Macdonald
M Ed B Ed
The Children’s Bookshop
staff@thechildrensbookshop.com.au

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“Reading for pleasure is the most important way
to advance literacy attainment in children.”
National Literacy Trust UK
We read to
become better
writers.

3. 45 million words
In our lives, we may write….
We read to
become better
writers.

4. Reading Trends…
The Current Market
Diversity
Well-being Sustainability

5. Own Voices

8. Reflections
• Social Realism dominates
once again. Teens want
‘authentic’.
• Diversity rules.
• Rise of Neurodivergent
characters.
• All female creators
• Mature teen reads dominate.
Adults play significant roles
narratives.
• Two debuts. The ‘freshest’
category.

9. Reflections
• Growing sophistication?
• Social realism rules- only one
fantasy novel.
• Verse novels abound (The
Little Wave won last year)
• All female voices
• No debut voices
• Historical novels- to escape
the present?
• An indigenous voice.
• Aster’s Good, Right Things
reflects contemporary
concerns with well- being.

10. Aster's Good, Right Things
By Kate Gordon
Eleven-year-old Aster is a kid riddled with anxiety and
doubt, and tries to fix her world by doing one good, right
thing every day.
"I can’t let go of them – the good, right things—because
if I do I’ll turn into a cloud and I’ll float away, and a storm
will come and blow me to nothing."

11. Reflections
• Books are about connections.
• Anthropomorphism rules.
• Humour
• ‘The Power of the
Imagination’ is celebrated.
• Strong, quirky voices.
• No debut authors.
• Confusion over categories-
Early Childhood or
Picturebook?

12. Reflections
• Most diverse group.
• Books about
Conformity.
• Books about
Connection.
• Celebration of
Diversity.
• A banned book….
• Female creators.
• One debut.

13. Reflections
• Generally beautifully designed.
Non-fiction is increasingly
graphic based.
• Primary readership once again
reflected in the short listed
non-fiction books.
• Sustainability/ Nature
dominates.
• ‘A True History’
• An Indigenous representation.
• No debuts.
• Female creators dominate.

14. Reflections
• Such a diverse
group.
• Indigenous
representation.
• All female
illustrators.

15. New Books

16. Picturebooks

17. Junior Fiction/ Middle Grade

18. Young Adult
Y/A
Older Readers

19. Non Fiction

20. “Children who know adults who read for
pleasure take it for granted that
reading is a valuable and worthwhile activity”
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1991)
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21. Adults

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Paul Macdonald
M Ed B Ed
The Children’s Bookshop
staff@thechildrensbookshop.com.au