Thank you to the wonderful ASLA (Australian School Library Association) team for an inspirational, challenging and diverse program over the past two days. The focus on reading was powerful and reassuring. The Children's Choice Literature Awards are well placed as an appealing and effective way to get students reading and critically thinking about the texts they read. The KOALA team caught up with some familiar faces and connected with some new ones too.

We were also thrilled to meet and listen to two of our 2017 shortlisted authors, Tim Harris and Will Kostakis, who spoke about creative influences and representation in their writing. Hopefully we will see them again at Awards Day in November.