The ASLA Diversity in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand Children’s Book Award is back for 2025 to celebrate and spotlight even more
underrepresented children’s book creators!
Following a hugely successful first year, The ASLA DANZ Award, previously The DANZ Award, is returning bigger and better in its quest to reward and celebrate diverse and ground-breaking children’s literature.
In 2023, more than 120 books were nominated by a variety of publishers, both big and small, or by the creators themselves, and then a group of over fifty enthusiastic young judges aged between six and sixteen from across both countries read and chose their favourites. Twenty-six of these titles made the inaugural longlist and from that, nine incredible books were shortlisted.
The 2024 winners were:
Picture Book: Come Over to my House, written Eliza Hull and Sally Rippin and
illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett and published by Hardie Grant
Chapter Book: Maku by Mayne Wyatt and published by Pan Macmillan
Middle Grade: The Wintrish Girl by Melanie La’Brooy and published by UQP.
The ASLA DANZ Award seeks books which push boundaries, challenge stereotypes, and celebrate diversity, including disability, culture, class, LGBTQI, race, and religion. The diversity portrayed in the book and under which the book is nominated must be relevant, obvious, and important to the story, but the story must be more than the diversity portrayed. The submitted work must be sensitively and authentically written without using offensive, inaccurate, harmful, and insensitive tropes and representation. The judging process will be thorough and critical in this regard.
For more information visit thedanzchildrensbookaward.com
Please know that DANZ reserves the right to merge categories if only a few nominations are received.
2025 AWARD KEY DATES (subject to change)
Judge applications ARE NOW OPEN and close on 26 August 2024
Book nominations ARE NOW OPEN and close on 26 August 2024
Judging will run from September to November 2024
Longlist will be announced in January 2025
Shortlist will be announced in March 2025
Winners will be crowned at the ASLA Conference in May 2025
