The winners of this year’s Environment Award for Children’s Literature were announced at the Melbourne Writers Festival! This annual Award is organised by the Wilderness Society and encourages children to take an interest in nature and feel a sense of responsibility for the places we love and our unique wildlife.

This year, the Award included three categories.

Non-fiction

Atmospheric by Carole Wilkinson

Talking about the weather used to be small talk, now it’s the hottest topic on Earth. In Atmospheric, Carole Wilkinson cuts through the many voices raised around climate change to tell the story of our atmosphere, what is putting our climate at risk and what we can do about it.

Read our review here

Picture Fiction (joint winners)

Seagull by Danny Snell and Once I Heard a Little Wombat by Renée Treml

Danny Snell’s Seagull is the story of a seagull who gets caught in a tangle of fishing line on the beach. Through the help of many friends – Mullet, Pelican, Crab, and even a young boy – she is able to become free.

Renée Treml’s Once I Heard a Little Wombat is a gorgeous Australian take on a classic nursery rhyme. This one has lots of sounds for children to act along with and is perfect for reading aloud.

Fiction

The River and the Book by Alison Croggon

In Simbala’s village they have two treasures: the River and the Book. Simbala is a Keeper of the Book, the latest in a long line of women who can use it to find answers to the villagers’ questions. As developers begin to poison the River on which the villagers rely, the Book predicts change. But this does not come in the form that they expect – it is the sympathetic Westerner that comes to the village who inflicts the greatest damage of all.

Read our review here

Find out more about the Environment Award for Children’s Literature here.