(Allen & Unwin, 2019)
To understand the importance of young people’s book awards and the role they play in advancing and promoting youth literature, the website for the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) will be reviewed.
What is the Importance of Book awards?
The aims of the CBCA awards are to “promote quality literature for young Australians; support and encourage a wide range of Australian writers and illustrators of children’s books and; celebrate contributions to Australian children’s literature” (CBCA, n.d.). The CBCA hopes that the “promotion and advocation for the sharing of quality literature for young people across Australia” will foster a love of reading in young people (CBCA, n.d.).
Review of the Website
The CBCA website effectively showcases information which helps achieve the organisations vision of “Creating a community that celebrates quality Australian literature for young people” which is accomplished through providing lists of previous winners, shortlisted nominations and notable mentions of the CBCA award (CBCA, n.d.). This promotion of quality literature has been shown to have positive impacts on children’s comprehension abilities, as the narratives featured are well structured which enhances children’s ability to comprehend and recall information (Hall & Williams, 2010, p. 301). Providing the names of literature which has been judged to be high in literary quality allows parents, librarians and schools to have lists of books which may improve their child’s reading abilities and become part of the community which celebrates Australian literature.
Another aim of this website is to give validity to the information presented on this website and the award itself. By presenting the reader with information which makes this website seem reliable, the reader will be able to believe that this children’s book award is prestigious and accurate. One way this is achieved is by CBCA listing information on every page which states the donors and benefactors of CBCA. Highlighting the benefactors of this award allows readers to know of potential bias in this award. Being open with this information shows that the funding for this award does not buy the award for books, highlighting the prestigiousness of the award.
This website is effective in presenting the information relating to goals and visions of the organisation and in giving validity to this award.
What Did I Learn?
This activity highlighted the role that children’s book awards play in the promotion and advocation of children’s literature. Before this activity I did not know the importance of book awards, so this activity allowed me to fill gaps in my knowledge. Book awards can recognise quality literary works and achievements in the field and can also improve the comprehension abilities of children, so the promotion and advocation of this literature is important in enhancing a child’s development (Hall & Williams, 2010, p. 301).
Book awards are useful to librarians as it gives lists of literature which are popular and can improve the comprehension abilities of children. Because of these benefits, librarians should use the literature nominated for awards such as the CBCA to develop collections and in children’s programs such as story time. In my own professional practice, I will now reference children’s book awards such as the CBCA when creating promotional activities and programs for youth. A specific example of this may be an Australian day exhibition for children’s literature. The CBCA would be excellent to reference for such an exhibition as this website provides lists of quality Australian children’s literature.
References
Allen & Unwin. (2019). CBCA book of the year awards 2019 notables. https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/news/1509-cbca-book-of-the-year-awards-2019
The Children’s Book Council of Australia. (n.d.). About the CBCA book award of the year awards. https://cbca.org.au/about-the-awards
The Children’s Book Council of Australia. (n.d.). About the Children’s Book Council of Australia. https://cbca.org.au/about
Hall, K. W., & Williams, L. M. (2010). First-grade teachers reading aloud Caldecott award-winning books to diverse 1st-Graders in urban classrooms. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 24(4), 298-314. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2010.510077