The SCBWI Australian Picture Book Illustrator Awards recognise the talent of published Australian children’s illustrators, in visual narrative for picture books and graphic novels from early childhood to young adult. The Award is managed by SCBWI Australia East and is funded by the Copyright Agency.
There are two categories – Established and Emerging Illustrator Awards for Australian Illustrators with prize money to assist an illustrator with the creation of a new visual narrative picture book or graphic novel.
Judging Criteria
Originality of the intended project
Creativity of the intended project
Artistic and literary merit of the applicant’s body of work (assessed on grounds of stylistic and thematic achievement as demonstrated by portfolio and support material)
Ability of applicant to create an excellent narrative with a significant visual component (as demonstrated by portfolio and support material) which may be textual and visual, or visual alone (wordless).
Our stupendous judges for 2025 are:
Clair Hume—Children’s Book Publisher at Thames & Hudson Australia
Victoria Selvaggio—Owner/Literary Agent at Storm Literary Agency
Erica Wagner—painter and collage artist, book publisher and creative consultant to storytellers
SCBWI is so excited to have such wonderful and hugely talented publishing professionals for this incredible award. So let’s get to the winners!
SCBWI Judges’ Report 2025 by Clair Hume, Victoria Selvaggio, Erica Wagner
General Comments
We were impressed by the standard of the entries and the quality of the proposed projects, which made the judging very challenging. During the assessment process we debated the criteria: originality, creativity, artistic and literary merit and the ability of the applicant to create an excellent narrative with a significant visual component. The artists on our shortlist demonstrated strengths in all these areas as well as a high degree of stylistic and thematic achievement. So, to help us make our final choices, we were guided by intuition and the projects that spoke to us, which we would be proud to represent, develop or publish, and which we felt would bring joy to children and families.
Established Illustrator Award
FIRST PRIZE: Jake Minton
The judges are delighted to award first prize to Jake Minton for ‘Rolling Rabbit’. With the engaging hook of the title, Jake portrays an energy-packed journey that touches on serious themes of compulsive behaviours, while sprinkling in humour that provides the needed balance. The simple text works beautifully in giving the narrative a fun rhythm to read aloud.
The story centres delight for children but has deeper layers of meaning waiting to be discovered. The themes of rushing, impulsiveness and accepting others for how they are will resonate with many and could spark wonderful conversations with children about what Rabbit might need to do – e.g. slow down and pay attention to his surroundings.
Jake’s stunning portfolio highlights his varied skills with a range of stylistic approaches across different children’s book formats, with Two Turtles showcasing dramatic and engaging visual components that rise to the challenge of a brilliant text. The judges were impressed by Jake’s motivation and authentic, self-aware approach to the next steps of story development and encourage him to experiment with his illustrative approach as he has outlined in his notes.
The judges look forward to seeing ‘Rolling Rabbit’ included among Jake’s already impressive publication list.
SECOND PRIZE: Kylie Howarth
The judges thoroughly enjoyed Kylie Howarth’s hilarious and charming ‘Rubber Chicken’ and were impressed by Kylie’s publishing history, confident folio and the careful and thorough thinking she is putting into this new project. The story feels original and very funny, and the characters’ behaviours are instantly recognisable and relatable. Kids would love this story with its humorous take on a popular and funny toy.
‘Rubber Chicken’ has excellent narrative and illustrative potential and the inherent humour, great pacing and sense of excitement would make this book great fun to read aloud. Rubber Chicken is an endearing character and the sample illustrations are appealing and full of life. It’s great to see Kylie’s intentions to explore textures and extend the range of her illustrations. Given the text’s compelling tension points, the judges suggest experimenting with a non-rhyming text. They would also love to see the main character have a stronger narrative arc, ideally allowing Rubber Chicken to solve his problem himself.
Finally, humour is selling well in Australian and US markets and the judges feel that with development this project has the potential to become a firm favourite at bedtime.
THIRD PRIZE: Jess McGeachin
The judges are pleased to award third place to Jess McGeachin for his sweet and inspired work ‘Letters for Ladybirds’. In the vein of The Jolly Postman, this sparkling idea of receiving letters from tiny garden creatures in their own languages is a fun and novel way to encourage readers to slow down and take notice of the small living things all around us.
Jess’s folio is impressive and highlights work reflecting his dedication to the craft of illustration. The judges are excited to see the evolution to a more analogue illustrative style. Jess has produced a wonderful range of books for children across fiction and non-fiction genres. While the outline for this project is intriguing and gives a clear idea of Jess’s vision for the work, the judges are eager to see how the interactions between the main character and the small creatures will be deciphered given the nature of their different languages.
‘Letters For Ladybirds’ includes both imagined and real elements with a novelty approach that will bring much enjoyment to child readers.
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Judy Watson
The judges see much potential in Judy’s story ‘Even Alligators’ which features an eccentric family dealing with various wild animals settling down to live with them. The humour in this work is thoughtfully child-centred with much agency given to its sweet ukelele-playing protagonist. The visuals are full of mischievous animals and a plucky child trying to save their distracted family members from being eaten by carnivorous plants and boa constrictors.
Judy’s extensive and exquisite folio showcases a masterful illustrative skillset. The visual approaches she is experimenting with are exciting and with further story development, this project could be a standout.
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Jess Racklyeft
‘The Artist’ is an ambitious wordless picture book looking at the importance of making mistakes in creativity. The judges are pleased to highly commend this project. It is a unique and playful look at making art with a beautiful message of embracing the imperfect.
The focus of the story – of children reaching a certain age and becoming self-conscious about what they create – is well articulated in Jess’s support material and it is great to see a child at the centre of the action. The judges encourage Jess to experiment with prose and see if this opens other possibilities for this idea.
Jess’s publishing history is prolific and her backlist of books provides a stunning range of stories for children. With further story development, the judges can see ‘The Artist’ being an important book about creativity, connection and individual ways of expressing our experience of the world.
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Ross Morgan
The judges were intrigued by Ross Morgan’s ‘The Den’, a longer form, graphic novel style picture book about a solitary boy searching for animals in an abandoned house and discovering a family of foxes. Ross’s intention, that nature constantly reminds us that our world is a shared space, has strong emotional and dramatic potential and the artwork and ideas he presents are evocative and atmospheric. Ross’s connection to the abandoned house also gives an underlying strength and authenticity to this project.
While the text and the visual narrative need development and a stronger arc for the main character would be great to see, the judges were excited by the possibilities of this project. Ross’s folio contains many accomplished illustrations – his lovely colour sense and his exquisite paintings exhibit a consistent style and personality, and his published works show subtle characterisations and expressive body language. The judges understand that Ross is wishing to expand his illustrative repertoire to include less time-consuming techniques but note that the texture and detail of his painterly work really stands out.
We encourage Ross to further develop his own unique visual language for this project.
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Anna McGregor
The potential of Anna McGregor’s creativity intrigued the judges. ‘Octavius is an Artist’ will relate to children discovering self-acceptance and offers educational components with the judges’ recommending end matter to explore the ‘how’ of the book.
The judges love how Anna delves into the process of playing with mediums and ink jets. It is fascinating to read about her experiments photographing colours mixing with water in a fish tank and then using these images as part of the illustrations within the book. This inspired approach could add further conversational layers as to the ‘why’ one would experiment in this way.
Octavius is presented as an artist at birth and the judges wondered if the story might be stronger if it focused more on Octavius’s journey to becoming an artist through embracing his expressive colourful ink.
It’s easy for children and adults to be drawn to Anna’s strong personal style – her beautiful books demonstrate captivating scenes with an abundance of emotion. The judges agree that ‘Octavius is an Artist’ has the potential to be another stunning book to add to Anna’s impressive list of titles.
Emerging Illustrator Category
WINNER: Sarah Zweck
Our panel is thrilled to select Sarah Zweck as the winner of the Emerging Illustrator category. ‘The Best Day Ever’ is original, clever and humorous in the way it frames kids as grownups with a story of children doing their best to give their parents the time of their lives.
Sarah’s detailed notes, sample illustrations and well-imagined storyboard with a variety of perspectives allowed the judges to get a clear sense of her vision for this story. With creative development and some experimentation to strengthen the ending, ‘The Best Day Ever’ has the potential to become a delightful picture book with plenty of child appeal and potential for the illustrations to expand on the chaotic and humorous scenes.
Sarah has a beautifully bright palette that brings a contemporary sensibility to her classic style. Her folio reflects a strong grasp of composition, characterisation and design, showcasing delightful characters, incredible patterns and a clear understanding of scene and perspectives.
For an emerging author-illustrator the judges feel she shows great promise.
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Anke Noack
The judges are delighted to highly commend Anke Noack for ‘Kai and the Lightning Seeds’, an adventurous story that embraces the power of imagination. From a well-proposed outline to an engaging storyboard, the judges are impressed with Anke’s process and vision.
Clearly, much work went into this thoughtful submission with convincing support material and an exciting folio. The judges feel there is potential in Anke’s idea and suggest considering a stand-alone book instead of a series. The idea of an unknown Darkness and special lightning seeds as a portal to another world is engaging and the themes of sustainability and curiosity for the natural world are compelling. Anke’s visual style shows much promise to sit alongside the comparison works.
The judges wish Anke well with this ambitious project.
Congratulations to all the winners!
SCBWI Australia East would like to thank
the Copyright Agency for funding this Award.
