1995 Award Prize for Older Readers

Mongrel

by David Rish
Angus & Robertson

The well written, pacey, believable story of an angry sixth grade girl who feels dumped by her mother when sent to live with her grandfather in the country. Through caring for an abandoned dog, and nurtured by an accepting and down to earth grandfather and local community, she finds a focus beyond herself. When she discovers the truth about her father’s absence she comes to accept the reality of her family relationships.

Commended

The First Book of Samuel

by Ursula Dubosarsky
Puffin

This story is a stylishly written modern day parallel to the Judeo-Christian Scriptures’ book of the same name. The memories of the Holocaust resurface on Samuel’s twelfth birthday which, like his beloved grandfather Elias’ twelfth birthday, proves to be a crucial day for the family. An interesting, blended family is described in a non-judgmental and multidimensional manner. We were particularly impressed by the depth of development of adult characters, unusual in a children’s book.

Queen Kat, Carmel and St. Jude get a Life

by Maureen McCarthy
Puffin

The story of three adolescent girls in their first year of university. Each girl goes through a year of personal struggles and varied experience and finds a sense of self, separate from her family. A highly readable and realistic portrayal of emerging adulthood which teenagers will relate to and learn from. It was unclear, however, how future family relationships would be resolved.

Swashbuckler

by James Moloney
University of Queensland Press

Swashbuckler tells the story of two boys with absent fathers; one father is dying of cancer and the other is a gambler. The reader learns how hard it is to admit being angry with a dying person and how hard it is to trust a parent who has reduced the family to poverty and then abandoned it.

Inaugural Picture Book Award Winner - 1995

The Man Who Loved Boxes

by Stephen Michael King
Scholastic

The Man who loved Boxes has a simple and engaging text and the illustrations are painted with equal clarity and warmth. The man’s love for his son is demonstrated through playing together and building play objects out of boxes.

Picture Books Commended

Grandpa and Ah Gong

by Morag Loh, illustrated by Xiangyi Mo
Hyland House

A child with Malaysian-Chinese and Australian-Anglo grandfathers compares and contrasts their differences and observes as they find similarities, particularly in the special fun they share with their grandchild.