Awards Day 2014 - Save the date!

Awards Day 2014 will be held on the morning of Wednesday 12th of November at Newington College, 200 Stanmore Road Stanmore, 2048. 

Awards Day 2013

KOALA Awards Day 2013 from mthomson

The 2013 Awards Ceremony was held at The Old Boys Lecture Theatre in The Rae Centre at Newington College, Stanmore on Wednesday 30th October.

Fourteen schools attended the awards:

Austinmer Public School; Bringelly Public School; Helensburgh Public School; Holroyd High School; Holy Saviour School Geenacre; Holy Spirit College Bellambi; Middleton Grange Public School; Mount Annan Christian College; Newington Wyvern House; Newtown Public School; Old Guilford Public School; PLC Sydney Junior; Stanmore public School; The King’s School.

Bruce Whatley was our Illustrator in Residence, painting a beautiful illustration as we watched, which was taken home by one lucky school.

Bruce Whatley's artwork created during 2013 Awards Ceremony

Other authors and illustrators present were:

Felice Arena, Duncan Ball, Morris Gleitzman, Chris Morphew, Belinda Murrell, Oliver Phommavanh, and Emily Rodda.

Felice Arena was chosen as the KOALA Legend for 2013. He is a dedicated and prolific writer for young readers. His books are accessible, exciting and fun for kids. He writes series that just keep kids reading. His frequent visits to schools inspire even reluctant readers to give reading a go. And kids nominate his books as among their favourites. Felice Arena is a children's choice and a legend! Read the full citation and look back at earlier years on the Legends Page.

Category Winners and Honour Books:

Picture Books

WINNER: The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland (Scholastic)

HONOUR BOOKS: Ella Kazoo Will Not Brush Her Hair by Lee Fox and Cathy Wilcox (Lothian) AND The Little Refugee by Anh & Suzanne Do and Bruce Whatley (Allen & Unwin)

Fiction for Younger readers

WINNER: The Golden Door by Emily Rodda (Scholastic Omnibus)

HONOUR BOOKS: Alice-Miranda Shows the Way by Jacqueline Harvey (Random House) AND Pizza Cake by Morris Gleitzman (Penguin)

Fiction for Older readers

WINNER: 26-Storey Treehouse by Andy griffiths & Terry Denton (Macmillan)

HONOUR BOOKS: The Forgotten Pearl by Belinda Murrell (Random House) AND Thai-Riffic! by Oliver Phommavanh (Penguin)

Fiction for years 7 to 9

WINNER: The Phoenix Files: Contact by Chris Morphew (Hardie Grant)

HONOUR BOOKS: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (Pan Macmillan) AND After by Morris Gleitzman (Penguin)

Not all of our award winning author and illustrators were able to be present on the day, but we did have video greetings from Nick Bland in the Northern Territory, Andy Griffiths who it seems was stuck in an anti-gravity machine, and Terry Denton from his garden studio in Melbourne. 

2012 Awards Day Celebration!

The 2012 Awards Day was held on Tuesday 13 November at Lend Lease Darling Quarter Theatre (Terrace 3, 1-25 Harbour St, Sydney), home of Monkey Baa Theatre Company.

Students, teachers and librarians from 12 schools joined Andy Griffiths, Duncan Ball, Sarah Davis,

Deborah Abela, Oliver Phommavanh, Moya Simons, Gabrielle Lord, Ursula Dubosarsky, Kim Gamble, 

David Legge, Frances Watts, Chris Morphew, Jacqueline Harvey and Belinda Murrell to celebrate the annoucement of the 2012 awards. 

The 2012 winners and honour books list can be downloaded here.

AWARDS DAY 2011

AWARDS DAY 2011

More than 300 students, teachers, authors, illustrators, publishers and other friends of KOALA celebrated the 25th annual Awards Day at the fabulous Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre on 26th October.

To put us in a party mood each school was asked to make a party hat for one of the authors or illustrators attending. You should have seen the wonderful and very elaborate creations that the recipients had to model. It was great fun! (Austinmer Public School posted some great pictures, as did Thirroul Public School.)

And what a line-up of authors and illustrators were there. Bob Graham, Andy Griffiths, and Robyn Bavati flew in from Melbourne. Pat Flynn came down from Queensland to join local favourites Deb Abela, Duncan Ball, Rod Clement, Ursula Dubosarsky, Anna Fienberg, Kim Gamble, Catherine Jinks, Belinda Murrell, Oliver Phommavanh, Lisa Shanahan and Richard Tulloch in supporting KOALA.

Students from Austinmer Public School, St Mary's Primary School, Georges Hall, Thirroul Public School, Middleton Grange Public School, St Joseph's Primary School Moorebank, Holy Spirit College, Corrimal, Llandilo Public School, Wollondilly Anglican College, Fairfield Public School, The Oaks Public School, Holy Cross Primary, Glenwood, Mt Annan Christian College, Bringelly Public School, Ingleburn North Public School, Newtown Public School and St Jerome's Primary Punchbowl had the chance to meet the authors and illustrators and get their autographs.

The winners were announced and Andy Griffiths was there to collect a record 11th KOALA Award, this time in the Younger Readers category for The Very Bad Book. The audience loved him! Andy is a great supporter of KOALA, regularly making the trip up from Melbourne to join us. Thanks Andy!

Other winners were Mr Chicken goes to Paris by Leigh Hobbs (Picture Book), Book of Lies by James Moloney (Older Readers) and Girl Underground by Morris Gleitzman (Fiction Years 7-9).

Our newest KOALA Legend was announced and Bob Graham was genuinely surprised and delighted with the honour. It was so wonderful that he could join us for this announcement.

4F for Freaks by Leigh Hobbs which has been shortlisted five times was added to the KOALA Hall of Fame.

If you weren't at the 2011 KOALA Awards Day you missed a great day. Look out for details of the 2012 event and try to be there!

Awards Day 2010

AWARDS DAY 2010

KOALA awards day took place this year at Fairfield Public school - 27/10/10. What a fabulous day! With 11 schools and 7 authors & illustrators attending the awards day. It was a hot  festive day, especially for all the children who waited eagerly for the announcement of the winners. Mylee Joseph, from the State Library of NSW, one of the special guests commented that the cheers and whistles that followed the announcement of winners were like that of spectators at a football match or a pop concert - it was amazing to see the kids reacting this way to .....authors. We were fortunate to have some of the category winners present to receive their awards in person – Emily Rodda (who attended on crutches) Colin Thompson and Sarah Davis.
Other authors & illustrators who attended were Duncan Ball, Aleesha Darlison, Lisa Shanahan, & Moya Simons.  

Fairfield Public School's - Dance group performed.

Narelle Adams performed a koala skit - which was fantastic (see below)

Fairfield Public library staff performed "Its a book" by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook Press, 2010)

In between the performances, all the authors and illustrators shared a scary experience with the audience. After the awards were announced and presented, there was autograph signing and the chance to meet the authors and illustrators.

For the kids from LLandila Public, a highlight was winning an original Sarah Davis illustration, which she drew on the stage during the ceremony. All students (around 180), attending the awards received a book thanks to the generosity of publishers.

KOALA Rap by Narelle Adams

Everybody clap
Everybody clap

 Reading rocks
And books rule
And Aussie books are really cool

 I’m Indigo info and I’m here to say
Something important to you today
Go to the library, pick up a book,
Open it up and take a look

 Colin, Mike, Graeme and Emily
Are some authors you should read
Bob, Margaret, Jackie and Mem
Lots of books can be found by them

Reading rocks
And books rule
And Aussie books are really cool

Andy, Felice and Leigh are funny
They make you laugh down to your tummy
Barbara and Anna, Pat and Deb
Write great books to read in bed

Paul, Morris, Garth and John
Reading books by them you can’t go wrong
Moya, Lisa and Matthew
Create great stories just for you

Reading rocks
And books rule
And Aussie books are really cool

It’s not just stories that make books great
But the pictures inside that are first rate
Craig, Sarah, Andrew and Terry
Stephen Michael, Tom, Lisa and Mark
Give the stories lots of class

Reading rocks
And books rule
And Aussie books are really cool

AWARDS DAY 2009

On Tuesday 27th October 250 children, their teachers, 16 favourite authors and illustrators and s few stray librarians meet at the Parramatta Town Hall for the 2009 KOALA Awards.

Bellow are a few photographs that where tweeted by the Western Sydney Youth Literature Officer.