Congratulations Katharine England OAM. Katharine was awarded this honour in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours for "services to literature". 
Katharine has not only been a long term member and supporter of The Children's Book Council of Australia (SA Branch), but has also held committee positions and acted as a a judge for the CBCA Book of The Year Awards, most recently in 2017-2018.

She is a regular contributor and reviewer of children's books for the Adelaide Advertiser, bringing children's literature into equal prominence with adult literature.

Monday 25 March 2019 - The night before the announcement of the CBCA BOTYA Shortlists. A sellout crowd of more than 70 people gathered in the Burnside Library over wine and food to explore the CBCA Notables list. 
Presenters identified their favourite books not from the perspective of the judges, but through their experience in  selecting books that children and young adults in schools and libraries relate to and want to read. 

Emma Phillips, 2019 judge in the Older Readers category, added the judges perspective, and Notables Books were available on sale on the night from Silver Sponsor Harry Hartogs. 
Becky Lucas from Gold Sponsor Becky's Literary Bookings provided the group with insights into accessing authors and illustrators for school and library visits and both new sponsors were presented with certificates acknowledging their support for CBCA(SA).

The winners have been announced!
​Congratulations to the students who were announced as winners of our Book Week art competition illustrating the 'Reading is my Secret Power' CBCA Book Week theme.

​Winner R-2 
Hao 
Trinity Gardens Primary School

​Winner Years 3-5
Emilia 
St Mary's College

​Winner Year 6/7
Cindy 
Hendon Primary School

A full house of nearly 60 teacher-librarians, teachers and school leaders gathered at Ardtornish Primary School ​on a Saturday morning to explore ways of improving literacy outcomes through literature based reading programs through the school library. 
Jane Moore, (teacher librarian and CBCA (SA) vice president) shared her strategies for successfully making sure students continually develop as readers after reaching decoding independence and are inspired to be “readers for life”?
 
Topics covered were

• Silent Sustained Reading- how does it work successfully?
• How do I make sure my students have a “just right” book?
• What records should students and teachers keep?
• What is a reading interview and how do I find time to do it?
• How can I make sure I am extending my students?
• Are genres important?
• How many books should my students read?
• How can I use my school library and teacher librarian, to support my reading program?
• What does a successful classroom library look like?
• How does reading fit into my whole literacy program?

​

For the second time we combined our AGM with an event showcasing the latest and best in children’s books. The concept clearly works as more than 60 people were present during the event at Trinity Gardens School.

Four of our 5 new sponsors not only gave us lively and interesting perspectives on what is new and hot in children’ s books but also had product available for attendees to view, purchase and ask questions about.

Dan McGuiness from Greenlight Comics introduced us to some of the best and newest graphic novels for schools from a huge range and introduced his monthly subscription plan tailored to school needs; Pat Pledger from ReadPlus not only demonstrated how to get the best out of the ReadPlus website (and provided attendees with a free one-week trial), but also showcased some outstanding new books for YA readers fresh onto the database; Linda Hanlan from Dymocks Adelaide introduced books for younger readers and picture books to wet our appetites and inspired us to visit her in store; and Anne Cameron from Scholastic Australia introduced us to the concept of Classroom Libraries where students are exposed to a minimum of 300 quality books that are diverse, organised, current in their classroom literacy program based on research by Donalyn Miller in her Game-changer book.

Our sponsors had many giveaways as well as donating books for a free raffle at the end of the night. 
Many connections were made for the future.

John Moore was awarded Life Membership of the CBCA(SA) Branch at the 2019 AGM for his services as a committee member over an extended period of time.
     John was an active member of the Branch from 1958 until his retirement in 2006 - nearly 50 years. He is still a member. 2019 marks his 60th year of membership.
     In his time John has filled the positions of Committee Member, Vice President, President and Treasurer. When the National Executive was based in South Australia, he was a National Committee Member and filled the position of National Treasurer twice.
     He also filled the role of archivist for the South Australian Branch, co-authored  the history of the South Australian Branch  for the book 'The Children's Book Council in Australia 1945-1980', and for a number of years ordered and posted out Book Week merchandise to schools, individuals and libraries. 
     John was one of those committee members who quietly supported the work, role and success of the CBCA in South Australia.
His daughter and granddaughter accepted the award on his behalf.

Our Mix and Mingle was a chance for the Committee to share our successes and plans with potential sponsors and organizations with similar objectives for our mutual benefit.

As part of our commitment to bringing children and books together, CBCA SA Branch hosted Stories by the Stables at Carrick Hill during the October holidays
More than 90 4-8 year olds joined us on the stable lawns for stories, songs and craft ideas.

We were thrilled to see this article about our 2017/ 2018 CBCA Book of the Year Award judge for the Older Readers category in the Adelaide Advertiser.