Katharine England

Two of the year’s best books made real for children the plight of their Middle Eastern counterparts, traumatised by war, detained behind razor wire and haunted by the uncertainty of temporary protection visas. Rosanne Hawke did it with lyrical simplicity and sensitivity in Soraya the Storyteller (Lothian); and first-time novelist Alwyn Evans went into moving detail in Walk in My Shoes (Penguin). Joanne Horniman’s seventeen-year-old heroine wrote her way through less devastating rites of passage in Secret Scribbled Notebooks (Allen & Unwin), glorying in language and first love, and Alison Lester took her blessedly functional fictional family on an entrancing and appreciative picture book trip around Australia in Are We There Yet? (Viking).

Margaret Robson Kett

Two favourites for me: a first novel and a masterful picture book. The isolation of life in a post-apocalyptic Western Australia is drawn in The Fur (FACP), by young writer Nathan Hobby. Michael struggles to make sense of his relationships as he starts university in a state of imposed exile, planning an escape to Melbourne. In Jan Ormerod’s Lizzie Nonsense (Little Hare), Lizzie dwells in the bush with her family a century ago, but lives in her imagination: her bright spirit shines in a choked landscape of grey timber.

Stella Lees

Two books stand out for me. In Fly a Rebel Flag: The Battle at Eureka (black dog books), by Robyn Annear, the historic event that changed Australia is brought to life for young readers. In the clash of state versus the people, characters surge forward, debating and challenging each other. Eureka takes its proper place in the construction of democracy. John Nicholson’s The Incomparable Captain Cadell (Allen & Unwin), a biography of a great Murray riverboat captain, recalls an extraordinary life. Cadell was a charming bon vivant, a brilliant seaman, and a slaver and gun runner. Nicholson’s ironic eye sets just the right tone.

Pam Macintyre

My choice for the outstanding young adult publication is Margo Lanagan’s haunting and atmospheric collection of short stories Black Juice (Allen & Unwin), in which potent imagery and lyrical language resonate amid weird and wonderful settings and characters that include angels and elephants. Sonya Hartnett’s beautifully produced children’s book The Silver Donkey (Viking), with fine line illustrations by Anne Spudvilas, is set in World War I and is ostensibly about a young deserter and the three French children who find him. But the central characters are the gentle donkeys that feature in each of three stories that Lieutenant Shepard tells Marcelle, Coco and Pascal.

Robyn Sheahan-Bright

My reviews this year have singled out several favourites, including Martine Murray’s How to Make a Bird (Allen & Unwin) and Judith Clarke’s Kalpana’s Dream (Allen & Unwin), but for my love of short stories I must pay tribute to another extraordinary work: Margo Lanagan’s Black Juice (Allen & Unwin), a collection of powerful, haunting stories that create the most intriguingly unsettling worlds imaginable. Raw emotion is conveyed with alarming intensity in these vivid, often dystopian visions, described in a language that speaks to the heart in its strange reality. Some are brutal and horrifying; some are warm, tender and uplifting. The opening story, ‘Singing My Sister Down’, takes a lot of getting over.

Mike Shuttleworth

I am not quite sure how Steven Herrick’s By the River (Allen & Unwin) achieves its emotional punch with such simple language, but I’m grateful for it. In Kathryn Lomer’s The Spare Room (UQP), spare is the word. In this smart, elegant and moving story, a Japanese exchange student comes to stay with a Hobart family. The Legend of Kev the Plumber (Pan), by Scot Gardner: don’t let the promise of bathroom humour (as they say in the US) put you off Kev the Plumber. What else do you expect? This is a confident, entertaining and emotionally attuned read for older teenagers.

Ruth Starke

Young adult novels are crossing over, and my two favourites this year deserve a wide readership. Purple Hibiscus (HarperCollins) is a moving, memorable and different coming-of-age story, in which the oppression and tyranny of the domestic setting is a metaphor for Nigeria. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie enriches her story with the sights, smells and folk tales of her homeland, and peoples it with vivid characters. In Anne Provoost’s dramatic romance In the Shadow of the Ark (Hodder), Re Jana, daughter of the marshes, captures the heart of Ham, son of The Builder, and thus survives the deluge. This is an unputdownable read, stylishly translated by John Nieuwenhuizen. Sherryl Clark’s wonderful verse novel Farm Kid (Penguin), which conveys so much in so few words, was my favourite children’s title.