Bluey, the Emmy-winning Australian children’s television series about a little blue heeler puppy and her family, has just added another award to its swag – in a far more traditional medium.
Bluey: The Beach, a board book based on the animated TV series and published by Penguin Random House Australia’s Puffin imprint, has become the first children’s picture book to be named book of the year at the Australian Book Industry awards.
The Abias are hosted by the Australian Publishers Association and judged by an academy of more than 250 publishing industry figures. They recognise success in Australian writing, publishing and bookselling, with an orientation towards business and sales.
The Bluey books line has been a sales machine for PRH, with books from the series being the second-, third- and fourth-biggest selling children’s books in Australia in 2019.
The Beach was the highest-selling Bluey title last year, shifting 129,516 copies in the two months after its release in November, and was second only to Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton’s The 117-Storey Treehouse, which sold 213,102 copies. Sales for The Beach now tally more than 200,000.
Though they traditionally feature a lavish dinner event, this year’s Abias ceremony was livestreamed on YouTube on Wednesday afternoon amid the coronavirus lockdown.
The 117-Storey Treehouse, Pan Macmillan’s own children’s literary juggernaut, was not overlooked, winning book of the year for younger children (ages seven to 12).
Behrouz Boochani has received another award for his book written from an Australian-run detention centre on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, No Friend But the Mountains – this time for the audiobook narrated by the Farsi translator Omid Tofighian and other high-profile Australians, including Benjamin Law, Isobelle Carmody, Janet Galbraith, Mathilda Imlah, Geoffrey Robertson, Richard Flanagan, Sarah Dale, Thomas Keneally and Yumi Stynes.
Boochani, who remains in New Zealand after travelling there for a literary festival in November, now adds the Abias’ audiobook of the year award to a long list of Australian literary accolades, including the Victorian premier’s literary prize, the NSW premier’s literary prize, the National Biography award, and last year’s Abia general nonfiction award, among others.
Helen Garner’s contribution to the books industry was recognised on Wednesday with the Lloyd O’Neil Hall of Fame award.
Allen & Unwin was named publisher of the year, as well as being responsible for a host of other prizewinning books, including Heather Rose’s novel Bruny, which won general fiction book of the year, while the prize for literary book of the year went to Charlotte Wood for The Weekend.
Kitty Flanagan won general nonfiction book of the year for her “anti-self-help” book, Kitty Flanagan’s 488 Rules for Life, while Clare Bowditch’s memoir, Your Own Kind of Girl, was awarded the Matt Richell award for new writer of the year.
The Indigenous press Magabala Books, Readings and the Sydney bookshop Kinokuniya also received industry awards.
There are seven titles so far in the Bluey series, with total sales about to exceed 1m. The latest in the series, Bluey: The Creek, debuted at No3 on the Australian bestseller lists just last week.
