Speech Pathology Book of the Year Award winners connect children with fun language development

Speech Pathology Book of the Year Award winners are great titles

With so many books to choose from, it can be hard to find the ones that stand out for quality Australian content and language development. The short list and winners from the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year awards are a great place to find excellent books to share with your children from any age!    

The Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards promotes children’s books as wonderful tools to help children develop language and literacy skills.

The awards also:

• promote quality Australian children’s literature
• enhance awareness of the role speech pathologists play in language and literacy development; and
• encourage a love of reading.

The books are judged on their appeal to children, interactive quality and ability to assist speech pathologists and parents in communication and literacy development.

Winning books

The winning titles are entertaining and engaging and a great place to start when looking for a good book to read to your child. The books for younger readers have rhyming text. Many of the winning titles tackle social issues including bullying, acceptance and kindness. The winners in Speech Pathology Australia 2020 Book of the Year Awards are:

• Birth to 3 years: Meerkat Splash: written and illustrated by Aura Parker
• Three to 5 years: Charlie’s Shell: written and illustrated by Marina Zlatanova
• Five to 8 years: Goat on a Boat: written by Nick Dent and illustrated by Suzanne Houghton
• Eight to 10 years: The Little Wave: written by Pip Harry
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Authored Children’s Book Award: My Culture and Me: written and illustrated by Gregg Dreise.

For all the 2020 shortlisted titles visit the website.

Judges’ comments

To see what the judges loved about each book and why it won in its age category view the poster for the comments on each title.

Previous winners and more places to look for quality books 

Past winners of the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards include well known authors Mem Fox, Graeme Base, and Morris Gleitzman so they know what they're talking about. 

Visit the website to see more award-winning authors on the full list back to 2005.

The Previous shortlist is a great place to start if you are looking for a good book to read to your child.

Remember to always check in with your friendly local public library staff for assistance in selecting more language rich titles for your family.  

Visit the State Library First 5 Forever page for more ideas about supporting early literacy from birth.