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KOALA - Kids Own Australian Literature Awards Inc. (ABN 16 125 206 435)
KOALA are annual awards made by young readers in NSW to the Australian books they have most enjoyed reading during that year.
Children are invited to nominate their favourite Australian book; a shortlist of 30 titles (10 picture books, 10 titles for younger readers and 10 titles for older readers) is drawn up from the nominations. Childrn then vote for their favourite shortlisted title. Winners are announced at a special Awards Day in the four categories: Picture Book, Younger Readers, Older Readers and the Years 7-9 category.
KOALA is a non-profit organisation run by volunteers (teacher/librarians, public librarians, teachers, publishers and other supporters of children’s literature).
KOALA AIMS TO:
- Promote and encourage the enjoyment and appreciation of Australian literature for children and young adults.
- Involve young readers in NSW in the process of selecting the most popular books.
- Assist in developing the Readers' critical appreciation skills.
- Give recognition to Australian authors and illustrators.
BENEFITS OF KOALA
- Gives students a voice regarding the books they love to read
- Promotes and encourages the enjoyment and appreciation of Australian literature
- Integrates EASILY into the primary school literature promotion program
- Involves students in the voting process, encouraging them to discuss and debate their views on good literature
- Supports other reading programs such as the Premiers Reading Challenge and MS Read-a-thon
- Provides students with the opportunity to meet their favourite authors and illustrators at the annual Awards Day
- Offers schools the chance to win original artwork and book prizes.
MEMBERSHIP
Schools, public libraries, organisations and individuals can become friends of KOALA
What do Friends receive?
Friends receive two KOALA Kits by post. Each kit contains easy- to-follow, step-by-step instructions for coordinating the program.
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- Nomination Kit contains a black & white poster to decorate and display, nomination form template, tally sheet, bookmark template, winners stickers for the previous years winning titles, complete list of previous winners and newsletter.
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- Voting Kit contains the shortlist of 30 titles, a full-colour shortlist poster designed by a well-known Australian illustrator, stickers to attach to shortlisted titles for easy identification, voting form template, tally sheet and newsletter.
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- An invitation for students to attend the Awards Day.
What does it cost?
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- EMAIL: $35 for email membership for schools and libraries: the KOALA Kit will be posted out but all other information will be emailed. $20 individual student with voting rights; $20 adult associate (no voting rights)
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- POST: $50 The KOALA Kit and all other information sent by post or fax.
Print out and complete the membership/tax invoice and mail to KOALA. PO Box 279 Annandale NSW 2038
COORDINATING KOALA
KOALA can be coordinated by a teacher-librarian, class teacher, library monitors, parent volunteer, public library staff.
Just 3 Easy steps
Become a Friend of KOALA and receive all you need to encourage children reading. There are just 3 easy steps in the KOALA program.
1 Nominate
Students nominate their favourite Australian book. Nominations from each school are tallied and results sent to the KOALA Council to create the KOALA Shortlist of 30 titles. For more information and downloadable material about the nomination process go to KOALA Coordinators.
2 Vote
Encourage students to read the books on the KOALA Shortlist and vote for their favourite title. Tally sheets the votes from your school or library and send to the KOALA Council. For more information and downloadable material about the voting process go to KOALA Coordinators.
3 Attend Awards Day or Announce the Winners
Members are invited to attend Awards Day to hear the winners announced. If you are not able to attend you will be informed of the winning titles by email or fax. Announce the winners at your school or library and celebrate. Click here for more information about the Awards Day.
HISTORY OF KOALA
- The KOALA Council was established in 1986 by representatives from the School Libraries Section and the Children’s and Youth Services Section of the Australian Library Association; the Children’s Book Council of Australia, NSW Branch; the Australian Reading Association; the English Teachers Association; the Primary English Teaching Association and the Australian Book Publishers Association with the aims of involving young Australian readers in a critical appreciation of Australian children’s literature.
- The inaugural KOALA Council was made up of teacher librarians, teachers, and children’s librarians from public libraries. The Award was a modified version of the West Australian Young Readers Book Award which was in turn based on the Georgia Children’s Book Award in America.
- The first KOALAs were awarded in 1987 to Possum Magic in the Infants/Primary category and Hating Alison Ashley in the secondary category. Both of these books have gone on to become Australian classics.
- In 1996 KOALA’s categories were renamed Junior Book and Senior Book and a third category, Picture Book, was introduced.
- In 1998 KOALA established a presence on the internet through the State Library of NSW but it was very limited. In 2000 Koala Books agreed to sponsor the KOALA website by hosting it on their site.
- In 2001, following discussions with other state-based children’s choice awards, the KOALA Council committed to moving towards creating a national children’s choice award in cooperation with other states.
- In 2002 YABBA (the Victorian children’s choice award) and KOALA amended their timelines and rules to allow for nominations to be pooled to create a common shortlist across the two states with a combined result to be announced.
- In 2003 COOL (the ACT children’s choice award) joined KOALA and YABBA to create a shared shortlist and timeline. An application for a grant to establish a national award was submitted to two sponsors but without success.
- In 2004 the KOALA, YABBA and COOL Awards continued to work together. A grant application was again unsuccessful.
- In 2005 SiteSuite: websites made easy, created a new interactive website for KOALA allowing the introduction of on-line voting. KOALA trialled first past the post voting to replace the star rating system.
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