Author Danielle Binks’ Six Summers of Tash & Leopold (Lothian Children’s Books) has been longlisted in the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award in 2025.

From the press release;

The Roderick attracts a very large field because it is open to any book, published in Australia, that deals with some aspect of Australian life.

The author of the winning book for 2025 will receive $50,000 in prize money and be presented with the silver H.T. Priestley Memorial Medal at a ceremony to be held in Townsville in September.

The prize is funded by the largest-ever bequest given to an Australian regional university, by Margaret and Colin Roderick. The Award is managed by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies at James Cook University (JCU). Colin Roderick was founding professor of English at JCU. The generosity of his wife, Margaret, who collaborated in his literary scholarship and reviewing, enabled a significant increase in prize money for the award last year, and into the future.

After more than eight months of reading, 200-plus books were whittled down to a longlist of ten – and Danielle’s being one of only two young adult novels included is a huge honour and achievement. The judges said of Tash & Leopold: “A young adult novel that follows two kids in the last year of primary school, the collapse of their friendship and its renewal. The story takes the reader into the multiple challenges and changes faced as they grow up. A good, compelling book with just enough of a happy ending.”

Heartiest of congratulations, and thanks to the judges and generosity of the Rodericks.