SpeakOut_Feb2014_electronic

Welcome to the all-new Speech Pathology Australia B O O K O F T H E Y E A R A W A R D S

AFTER 10 highly successful years of awarding Australian books that promote oral language development, Book of the Year has undergone a facelift. The revised categories and criteria include: • the brand new birth to 3 years age category; • revision of the category ages to birth to 3 years , 3 to 5 years , 5 to 8 years , 8 to 10 years and Indigenous Children (up to 10 years); stronger emphasis on illustration in oral language and literacy development. An enormous thank you goes to our dedicated expert review panel: Jo Burnell, Katherine Cooper, Sue McClandlish, Dr Roslyn Neilson, Dr Tanya Serry and Monique Thompson. We’re also very proud to announce that the Australia-wide Let’s Read Early Years Literacy Campaign will partner with us to present the birth to 3 years age category of SPA’s Book of the Year Awards 2014. It is an exciting step for the awards and will mean that many more families around Australia will be able to access quality oral language that promote children’s books. •

Call for Nominations Have your say in this year’s awards and nominate your favourite children’s books! We need your help putting together a long list of books that as a speech pathologist you feel promote oral language development and literacy skills in the five award categories. Each book should be exciting and stimulating, and needs to satisfy a list of eligibility criteria: • Written by an Australian author; • Readily available in Australia; • Must have been published in 2013 or 2014; • Retail for no more than $30; • Facilitates interaction and communication; • Appeals to a child; • The book must have quality graphics, design and production. Nomination forms are on the Book of the Year webpage.

Children’s Language & Literature Award: Call for Nominations Last year we were honoured to award Ursula Dubosarsky our Children’s Language and Literature Award. This award is our ‘Hall-of-Fame’ which recognises authors who have contributed significantly to children’s language and literature. The year before, it was Graeme Base. Previous winners include: Paul Jennings (2005), Colin Thiele (2006) and Mem Fox (2007), so the bar is set very high. This award isn’t presented each year, only when a stand-out candidate is nominated by a member. A nominated author needs to satisfy an extensive list of eligibility criteria: The author must be Australian or reside permanently in Australia; The author must have published a significant number of books for children over a 10 year period or more; Books written by this author would meet the eligibility criteria for SPA’s Book of the Year Awards. Nomination forms can be found on the Book of the Year webpage and must be received at National Office by 14 March . • • •

The deadline for nominations is 14 March, 2014 .

12 Speak Out February 2014

Speech Pathology Australia