Children's Books Ireland Book of the Year Awards - the 2015 Shortlist

The shortlist for the The CBI Book of the Year Awards (formerly the Bisto Awards) was announced in March and the winners will be announced in June. Now in their 25th year, these awards are made annually by Children’s Books Ireland and are the leading annual children’s book awards in Ireland. The awards are open to authors and illustrators born or resident in Ireland and to books written in Irish or English.

Each year CBI assembles a panel of judges who have considerable expertise and interest in books for children, with young book club members or Junior Juries from around the country deciding the Children’s Choice Award.

Shortlist 2015:

Ten Books have been shortlisted for the 2015 CBI Book of the Year Awards:

When Mr Dog Bites by Brian Conaghan
Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan
Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton
Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers
The Apple Tart of Hope by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald
Daideo by Áine Ní Ghlinn
Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill
Haiku Más é do thoil é! by Gabriel Rosenstock illustrated by Brian Fitzgerald
Primperfect by Deirdre Sullivan
Beyond the Stars compiled by Sarah Webb

All titles are available from branches of Clare County Library.

Writing in an Arts & Books feature in The Irish Times, Sat, May 2nd children’s books commentator, Robert Dunbar thought it a pity that this year’s selection included just 10 titles and not 12: "The decision about how many titles appear is taken by the judges and can vary from year to year. If this year the total had been 12, as distinct from 10, room might have been found for two books that must be counted among the year’s best, Kim Hood’s Finding A Voice (O’Brien Press) and Susan Maxwell’s Good Red Herring (Little Island)". Clare author Kim Hood, whose Finding a Voice was nominated for the inaugural Young Adult Book Prize, was one of Clare County Library’s guest authors during Teen Week in March 2015.