The kids are alright for Perth author Sean E Avery whose book Frank’s Red Hat has been voted as the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Shadow Judging Picture Book of the Year for 2023.
A week after fellow Perth author Craig Silvey won the official CBCA Younger Readers award for his book Runt, the votes of thousands of children from around Australia in the CBCA Shadow Judging Awards have been tallied for their own winning books out of the CBCA Book of the Year Award Shortlist.
It is also a win for the CBCA, whose Shadow Judging program continues to grow, with more than 2000 young judges participating this year from more than 250 groups from every State and Territory in Australia, ranging from preschools, primary and secondary schools to council library groups run by grandparents.
“The Shadow Judging program, and the voting of winners by young people, provides a unique opportunity to hear clearly the voices of young Australian readers to better understand what stories resonate for them,” CBCA Shadow Judging national co-ordinator Jo Panckridge said.
“This is a program like no other in Australia. Their unique choices arise because the young reader is experiencing a different ‘emotional tug’ even as they discuss and judge using the literary criteria. This is what building a dynamic reading culture looks like.”
Avery said it meant a great deal to him to receive the children’s vote on this award, considering they were whom he was writing his books for, citing that for them to pick Frank Red’s Hat over the other 2023 CBCA shortlisted picture books was a true honour.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” he said.
“Not an easy task to pick a winner, so I’m just so humbled that the kids chose Frank — the judging standards for CBCA award-winning picture books are tough to live up to.
“I think Frank’s Red Hat is special for a few reasons. First, Frank is pretty cute to look at, who doesn’t love adorable animals wearing hats? Secondly, the little hat-wearing penguin embodies the spirit of the creative warrior — bravely making art and following passion in the face of overwhelming opposition from folk who simply don’t understand it.
“Deep down, I think we all wish to be this brave and Frank is a little reminder that: yes, you can be. Chase your dreams, kids and grownups. You won’t regret it.”
Avery, who also illustrates his books, gave a glimpse into his creative process and said that while words and pictures developed together when he made a picture book, he usually began with the words.
“I always write to cater to both kids and grownups — the more universal the humour, the better the shared experience of the read-aloud,” he said.
“Also, kids are really smart. They will understand more than they’re often given credit for, so I’m always keen to include humour or ideas that may be considered too advanced for the five to eight age recommendation of the picture book.
“Once I have words, I sketch to get an idea of the flow of pictures. Words are usually deleted in this process as I find clever ways to speak with pictures.”
In the case of Frank’s Red Hat, Avery went on a bit of an artistic journey experimenting with different papers, washes, pencils and crayons that were then scanned into his computer.
“Once I had all these textures in Photoshop, I cut the shapes I needed and arranged them to create the penguins, seals, icebergs etc,” he explained.
“I drew faces and shadows on the shapes after that. If you look closely, you can identify all the folded paper textures in the snow drifts and the brushstrokes in the water, which I think is really important to give it that warm, tactile feel of a traditionally handmade picture book.”