I’ve been looking at the visitor statistics for Aussiereviews and noticed a rise in visitor numbers this week. Yesterday I had over 1000 page views. I wondered briefly why the sudden rise – then remembered that next week is Bookweek, and that the winners of the Children’s Book of the Year Awards will be announced on Friday. The lead up to this always increases the number of people searching for reviews, especially of the short listed books. Whilst I haven’t reviewed every book on the shortlist, I have reviewed most of them, so if you are searching for reviews of the shortlisted books, you can use the search function at Aussiereviews and read my comments.

I do enjoy the awards process. It’s always interesting to see which books from the previous year the judges have identified as best – and then, of course, to see the ultimate winners. If I was choosing the winners, I think I would choose:
Older readers – Don’t call me Ishmael!
Younger Readers – The tuckshop kid
Early childhood – Amy & Louis
Picture Book – The Arrival
Eve Pownall – Queenie: one elephant’s story

Of course, these are just gut instincts based on my reactions to the books I have read – and I confess I haven’t read them all. Nor have I used the judging criteria used by the judges. Still, I’ll enjoy comparing my results with the real awards on Friday.

In the meantime, good luck to all the nominees.