Childrens Book Council of Australia

Back in the 1970s, a non-alcoholic beverage was packaged to resemble bottle whiskey and was branded a Claytons. The marketing went like this, “the drink you have when you’re not having a drink”. So, like the original advertisement for Claytons, CBCA Vic’s Clayton’s Night was “the announcement night you had, when you didn’t have an announcement night”. It was the brainchild of Jo Goodman, a stalwart of CBCA Vic.

Originally CBCA Vic’s Clayton’s Night was held a month before the official CBCA Short List was announced, giving our guest speakers amply time to judge their favourite titles. However times have changed and the shortlisted books are now unveiled only one month after the Notable Books List is published.

Our guest judges are asked to look at the entries from one of the five national categories: the three age-based categories – Older Readers, Younger Readers and Early Childhood – and the two general categories – Picture Book and Eve Pownall.

Their task is to pick their personal favourites and tell us why! They don’t have any correspondence with the official judges and their selections are strictly their own.

Each year, our guest judges are chosen from a variety of library and book-related occupations. This year’s event will be held on Tuesday, 20th March at Trinity Grammar School in Kew.

Our guest judges include
Marrisa Caluzzi, speaking about Picture Books
Kirsty Murray about non fiction
Sarah & Alex from The YA Room will tackle Older Readers
and Erin Wamala will give her take on Younger Readers

Gather your fellow book enthusiasts and join other like-minded individuals enjoying sumptuous food and lively discussions.

For information on how to book, please visit: https://vic.cbca.org.au/claytons-night or contact the office on [email protected]