Discover Australia’s top 50 children’s picture books as nominated by Guardian readers

Australia’s best children’s picture books finalists have been released – read them now before the vote. Illustration: Daniel Gray-Barnett/The Guardian

Put in your library reservations, plump up your beanbag: Guardian Australia can now reveal the best Australian picture books poll shortlist.

Voting in the poll itself will open on 27 January at theguardian.com/bestpicturebook, which gives you a little under 50 days to read your way through these 50 nominees, the oldest of which was first published in 1973, and the newest in 2022.

As a reminder, our eligibility criteria for nominees was:

• Primarily intended to be read aloud to children who don’t yet read independently.

• Able to be read in a few minutes – a child’s picture book, rather than a graphic novel or illustrated chapter book.

• Written by an Australian (or someone we’ve claimed).

• Published in Australia.

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• 11 Words for Love by Randa Abdel-Fattah and Maxine Beneba Clarke

• All the Ways to Be Smart by Davina Bell and Allison Colpoys

• Animalia by Graeme Base

• Another Book About Bears by Laura and Philip Bunting

• Are We There Yet? by Alison Lester

• Be Careful, Xiao Xin! by Alice Pung and Sher Rill Ng

• Chip by Kylie Howarth

• Come Over to My House by Eliza Hull, Sally Rippin and Daniel Gray-Barnett

• Day Break by Amy McQuire and Matt Chun

• Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley

• Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles and Rod Clement

• Emergency! Emergency! Vehicles to the Rescue by Rhiân Williams and Tom Jellett

• Fox by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks

• Grace’s Mystery Seed by Juliet M Sampson and Karen Erasmus

• Greetings from Sandy Beach by Bob Graham

• Grug by Ted Prior

• Imagine by Alison Lester

• Jetty Jumping by Andrea Rowe and Hannah Sommerville

• John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat by Jenny Wagner and Ron Brooks

• Kissed by the Moon by Alison Lester

• Magic Beach by Alison Lester

• Mopoke by Philip Bunting

• Mr Chicken Goes to Paris by Leigh Hobbs

• Mr McGee by Pamela Allen

• My Country by Ezekiel Kwaymullina and Sally Morgan

• My Shadow is Pink by Scott Stuart

• Pig the Pug by Aaron Blabey

• Possum Magic by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas

• Room on Our Rock by Kate and Jol Temple and Terri Rose Baynton

• Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten by Bob Graham

• Sharon Keep your Hair on by Gillian Rubinstein and David Mackintosh

• Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury

• The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek by Jenny Wagner and Ron Brooks

• The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base

• The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan

• The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke and Van Thanh Rudd

• The Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan

• The Rainbow Serpent by Dick Roughsey

• The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland

• There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards and Deborah Niland

• This Small Blue Dot by Zeno Sworder

• Under the Love Umbrella by Davina Bell and Allison Colpoys

• Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek

• Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker

• Whistle Up the Chimney by Nan Hunt and Craig Smith

• White Sunday by Litea Fuata and Myo Yim

• Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen

• Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas

• Window by Jeannie Baker

• Wombat Stew by Marcia Vaughan and Pamela Lofts