Danielle Binks’ The Year the Maps Changed has been shortlisted in the nation’s richest literary award, the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards 2021!

Maps has been recognised in the Children’s literature category, and is the only debut novelist amongst fellow nominees.

Here are the judge’s comments

“This novel examines both the inevitable injustice, but also the wonderful kindness, emerging from the crises of world events. Against the backdrop of Kosova refugees being placed into a nearby ‘safe haven’, a young girl comes to terms with the moving-in of her adopted father’s girlfriend and instant expanded family… and her place in this newly mapped territory. Fred is both generous and inclusive, in ways that are instantly engaging in regard to the newcomers from abroad. As an eleven-year-old, she has to face her own judgement and ability to be ‘inclusive’ when the boundaries and maps of her home and heart are challenged.

Ultimately this book is a heart-warming neighbourhood story of how things can change for the better with community connection, care and kindness. Readers are reminded how small actions by one young person, and her policeman dad, can change the maps that divide us, and create new homelands for those who desperately need our support, understanding and empathy.”