One afternoon when his daughter Summer was small, Darren McCallum took the training wheels off her bike.<\/p>\n
The next morning, when the three-year-old dashed outside, he asked her where she was going.<\/p>\n
“She said, ‘I’m going outside to ride my wobbly bike,'” McCallum tells ABC Arts.<\/p>\n
Tickled by the phrase, McCallum stored it away, thinking it could work in a story.<\/p>\n
McCallum, a painter by trade who lives in Darwin, says he has always been interested in storytelling.<\/p>\n
“I used to tell stories to my brothers and sisters growing up \u2026 and then when I had my own kids I continued to tell stories.”<\/p>\n
When he decided to try his hand at writing a book for young readers, he immediately knew what the title would be: The Wobbly Bike.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Wobbly Bike is set in the tropical Top End. (Supplied: Walker Books)<\/p>\n
Summer, who is now 15, provided the inspiration for the book’s central character, a tenacious little girl who is learning to ride a bike.<\/p>\n
Summer’s older sister, Jazzie, now 18, appears in the book, too, as one of the kids cheering the girl on.<\/p>\n
The story is about perseverance and kindness.<\/p>\n
“The message is all about trying your personal best, not giving up, that you’ll get there in the end, and for everyone else to be kind, inclusive and encouraging,” McCallum says.<\/p>\n
The Wobbly Bike, with illustrations by Craig Smith, is one of the winners at the 2025 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Awards, taking home the prize for Book of the Year: Early Childhood.<\/p>\n
Full list of winners:<\/p>\n
Book of the Year: Older Readers
I’m Not Really Here by Gary Lonesborough<\/p>\n
Book of the Year: Younger Readers
Laughter is the Best Ending by Maryam Master<\/p>\n
Book of the Year: Early Childhood
The Wobbly Bike by Darren McCallum<\/p>\n
Picture Book of the Year
The Truck Cat by Deborah Frenkel, illustrated by Danny Snell<\/p>\n
Eve Pownall Award
Always Was, Always Will Be by Aunty Fay Muir and Sue Lawson<\/p>\n
CBCA Award for New Illustrator
Sarah Capon for Grow Big, Little Seed<\/p>\n
Other winners include Gary Lonesborough’s coming-of-age queer romance, I’m Not Really Here, named Book of the Year for Older Readers; Laughter is the Best Ending by Maryam Master, which won Book of the Year for Younger Readers; and The Truck Cat, written by Deborah Frenkel and illustrated by Danny Snell, which took out Picture Book of the Year.<\/p>\n
The CBCA awards, established in 1946, are arguably Australia’s biggest for children’s literature. Past winners include Melinda Marchetta, Morris Gleitzman and Shaun Tan.<\/p>\n
McCallum never dreamed his debut children’s book would receive such an accolade.<\/p>\n
“It’s a real pinch-yourself moment,” he says.<\/p>\n
A shout out to grandparents<\/p>\n
It wasn’t easy getting published as a debut author living far from the centres of Sydney and Melbourne.<\/p>\n
A friend gave him some advice: “He said, ‘There’s no point keeping those manuscripts in the bottom drawer. Get them out there. Send them off. Keep trying,'” McCallum says.<\/p>\n
Much like The Wobbly Bike’s protagonist, that’s what he did. “I never gave up,” he says.<\/p>\n
“It is difficult, but you just have to keep trying.”<\/p>\n
His perseverance paid off.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A spread from The Wobbly Bike by Darren McCallum, who is a regular at Wild Words, a spoken word event held in Darwin. (Supplied: Walker Books)<\/p>\n
McCallum first met illustrator Smith at the Octopus Story Camp, a development program for Northern Territory authors and illustrators founded by Darwin author Johanna Bell and Erica Wagner, a publisher at Allen & Unwin who is married to Smith.<\/p>\n
Smith was interested in the fact that the girl’s caregivers in The Wobbly Bike are her grandparents.<\/p>\n
“My manuscript resonated with him \u2026 [Craig] is a grandparent, and he fondly remembers fixing up his grandkids’ bikes,” McCallum says.<\/p>\n
McCallum wanted to acknowledge the important role grandparents play in families today \u2014 particularly his own.<\/p>\n
“Our children have a great connection with their grandparents,” he says.<\/p>\n
Plus, he adds, “kids get away with a bit more with grandparents”.<\/p>\n
‘A full-circle moment’<\/p>\n
Maryam Master, an Iranian-born author, playwright and screenwriter, is no stranger to the CBCA Book of the Year Awards.<\/p>\n
Her first novel, Exit Through the Gift Shop, made the shortlist in 2022, while her second, No Words, was a CBCA Notable Book for Younger Readers the following year.<\/p>\n
And now her third novel, Laughter is the Best Ending, has earned a coveted gold CBCA Book of the Year sticker.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Laughter is the Best Ending also won the 2025 Russell Prize for Humour Writing for Young People. (Supplied: Pan Australia)<\/p>\n
“I remember being a kid and looking at those stickers on those books \u2014 I came here at the age of 10 and I didn’t speak a word of English,” she says.<\/p>\n
“Eventually, when I became interested in books, those were the books that I was drawn to because I knew that they would be good, so it’s an incredible full-circle moment for me to win a Book of the Year and have that lovely sticker put on the front of my book.”<\/p>\n
Laughter is the Best Ending follows Zee, a bookish 13-year-old, who is sent to a five-day camp by her parents in the hope she makes at least one friend.<\/p>\n
“She’s a bit of a loner, and her parents are worried about her because she would rather read books all day and watch documentaries,” Master says.<\/p>\n
Master admits that a five-day camp is not something she would have welcomed as a teen.<\/p>\n
“I hated camp \u2014 I hate the idea of camp,” she says emphatically.<\/p>\n
Zee might cut a solitary figure but she’s not lonely.<\/p>\n
“She’s sassy. She’s smart. She doesn’t need anybody. She doesn’t feel like she needs friends,” Master says.<\/p>\n
But, as it turns out, Zee does find an unlikely group of friends.<\/p>\n
“[They’re kids] she wouldn’t be normally drawn to, but when you’re thrown together in an environment like a camp, you form bonds of friendship,” she says.<\/p>\n
As well as friendship, the book is also about being a teenager in the digital age and having to navigate “the beast that is social media”.<\/p>\n
“On this camp, they’re unplugged. They’re forced to talk to each other and hang out and solve a mystery,” Master says.<\/p>\n
The most important audience<\/p>\n
Master has once again collaborated with Astrid Hicks, who illustrated her two previous books.<\/p>\n
“She’s such a talented artist, I love working with her,” Master says.<\/p>\n
“As I’m writing, I think about how she’s going to draw it, and I try to make her laugh, and she tries to make me laugh with her illustrations.<\/p>\n
“She gets me, and I get her \u2014 she’s so quirky, and her humour is so weird, just like mine.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Master has adapted four books by bestselling kids’ author David Walliams for the stage. (Supplied: Pan Australia\/Kate Williams Photography)<\/p>\n
Master has made a career of creating content for kids, including children’s television and stage adaptations of children’s literature.<\/p>\n
She has deep respect for her young audience.<\/p>\n
“They give you really honest feedback. They are enthusiastic, they’re open, they’re sharp, they’re bright,” she says.<\/p>\n
“I think they’re the most important people in society. I would not want to be writing for any other age group \u2014 it’s so crucial. It’s when they’re forming their ideas and their identity and figuring out who they are.”<\/p>\n
Finding new readers<\/p>\n
Master says her hope is her book will encourage kids to read rather than spending time on screens.<\/p>\n
She believes teacher-librarians play a critical role in increasing readership among kids.<\/p>\n
“When I was younger, I spent a lot of time in the library, and it was the librarians who put the right books into my hands.”<\/p>\n