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Book Week: Eve Pownall Award for Information Books

Eve Pownall Award for Information

 

The Children's Book of the Year Award: Eve Pownall Award for Information Books was first presented in 1988, when the award was financed by Eve Pownall's family. Since 1993 it has been awarded annually by the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA).

The Award "will be made to outstanding books which have the prime intention of documenting factual material with consideration given to imaginative presentation, interpretation and variation of style. As general guidelines, the judges may consider the relative success of the book in balancing and harmonising the following elements:

  • style of language and presentation;
  • graphic excellence;
  • clarity, appropriateness and aesthetic appeal of illustration;
  • integration of text, graphics and illustration to engage interest and enhance understanding;
  • overall design of the book to facilitate the presentation of information;
  • accuracy with regard to the current state of knowledge."[1]

Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ugly Animals by Sami Bayly

Click on the Image of Sami Bayly. This will take you to her website to find out more about Sami.

 

Introduction

Sixty supposedly ‘ugly’ animals are included in this extraordinary text.

Sami Bayley seeks to celebrate the ugliest creatures in creation in her personal tribute to ‘the beauty in the ugliness’.

The Blurb reads:

Marvel as you enter the hidden world of ugly animals in this gallery of the animal kingdom’s most unusual and beauty-challenged species.

Featuring sixty breathtaking scientific illustrations and facts about the thorniest creatures the natural world has to offer, this compendium of the unusual celebrates the beauty in ugliness. From the naked mole rat to the goblin shark, the northern bald ibis to the ayeaye, the sarcastic fringehead to the blobfish, it’s time to let ugly shine!’

Sami Bayly has applied her extraordinary talents as a natural history illustrator, and her carefully researched writing to this topic, in a comprehensive text which will entertain, inform and inspire students to conduct further research into these and other creatures. She encourages readers to look closely at the wonders of nature and to really appreciate that beauty can be found even in the ugliest of animals.

Sami Bayly reads from The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ugly Animals.

Sami Bayly Illustrating Process.

The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Dangerous Animals by Sami Bayly

Dry to Dry: The Seasons of Kakadu by Pamela Freeman illustrated by Liz Anelli

Matthew Flinders - Adventures on Leaky Ships by Carole Wilkinson illustrated by Prue Pittock

Strangers on Country by David Hartley & Kirsty Murray illustrated by Dub Leffler

Azaria: A True History by Maree Coote

Hold On! Saving the Spotted Handfish by Gina M Newton illustrated by Rachel Tribout