The CLI Library and Carey Inky Judges are pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 Carey Inky Awards! Thank you to all students who submitted their vote; the numbers were very close, so every vote counted. A special thanks from the Library to the Judges, students who together read a total of 20 titles to ensure the wider student population had some of the best books of 2020 to vote on.
Catch Me If I Fall, by Barry Jonsberg, is the 2021 Carey Inky Award winner – Australian title, and How It All Blew Up, by Arvin Ahmadi, is the 2021 Carey Inky Award winner – International title. Both titles have wide appeal and deal with important themes, although Catch Me If I Fall is suitable for ages 10+ and How It All Blew Up is recommended for mature Middle School students and above. You can read about these excellent books on the Carey Inky LibGuide or the Library Catalogue.
The Carey Inky Awards will be back in 2022, this time with a less intimidating total of 10 titles on the longlist. The benefits of participation, as always, include rich discussions, plentiful reading recommendations, new authors to discover, friendships to forge, and the joy of surrounding oneself with the people who love what you love. Some of our focusses in Inky meetings this year included discussions on the value of diversity and Own Voices in fiction, insight into the publishing industry, the difference and overlap between an enjoyable book and an important one, and what aspects of a book matter most to each of us as individual readers.
Students should keep an eye out for the call for expressions of interest to join as a 2022 Carey Inky Judge, as well as other new reading club initiatives.
Holiday reading
Over the holidays, we hope you continue to find books that fulfil and entertain you as readers and humans. We read to connect, to walk in another’s shoes, to learn and to understand. We read to imagine and to play, to dream and to explore. We read to revel in the possibilities of our language, and to stand in awe of the possibilities of our species. Readers are equipped with wisdom, courage, curiosity, thoughtfulness and knowledge. Reading fiction helps to build social acuity, emotional intelligence and empathy, skills which are always immensely valuable and never so much as in the 21st century.
So do keep up your reading over the Christmas period.
Exchange books as gifts, retreat during hot days to a cool shady spot with something light, talk with your gathered families about themes and lessons of recent reads, and ponder on characters whose traits you admire. Read on.
Linden Carroll
Library Technician
