The 2023 Leila St John Award for distinguished services to children’s literature in Victoria is presented to Suzanne Thwaites
Suzanne worked as a school librarian for many years. She was a past Judge for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards at the time when all categories were read and critiqued by the individual. She was a winner of the Dromkeen Medal in 2000, which was created to recognise someone working in an Australian library setting in recognition of the important role they play in introducing young people to literature and encouraging an enjoyment and love of reading.
Suzanne continued this ethos when she retired. When her grandchildren started primary school she discovered there was not a librarian at the school, so she took it upon herself to undertake care of the library. No mean feat. She catalogued all the books and enlisted the support of another parent with repairing and covering books.She built up the library. Suzanne mentored the teachers when they brought groups into the library on professional ways of working with groups, providing selected books that would best meet the students needs with their learning related to topics being discussed. She provided suggestions of books best suited for specific groups. She has been doing this for the past eight years and the school now asks her to make a selective list of books for the library, recognizing her expertise and knowledge of literature and the students that attend the school.
Suzanne worked tirelessly on the voluntary committee of the Maurice Saxby Membership Program for emerging Children’s and Young Adult authors and illustrators for nearly 15 years, up to 2023, when the program concluded. That work consisted of untold hours of planning meetings, doing a huge share of the manuscript assessment and reporting of the 100+ subscriptions that were received in each year of the program – in which Suzanne’s excellent and thorough reports were invaluable; escorting the four mentees to numerous appointments and visits, such as to the SLV children’s collection curators, the Little Bookroom bookshop, the Wheeler Centre, the Melbourne Writers Festival and Books Illustrated; as well as co-hosting meetings with individual established authors and illustrators with the mentees. Alongside all that, she and her husband David generously offered their house as the venue for, and hosted and catered for the program’s final event – a cocktail party attended by the current and past mentees, some of the authors and publishers they had visited, and the mentorship committee, which provided each program with a perfectly fitting, enjoyable and memorable finale.
The CBCA Shadow Judging program has also had the benefit of Suzanne’s mentoring of a network of young readers, who dive deeply into the Shortlist and express their opinions and share their responses as judges ‘shadowing’ the current CBCA Judges. They use the same criteria to reflect on literary values and to champion their choices. Within their groups they collaborate and develop their own creative response to a chosen book and share this with the community. Suzanne’s experience as a past judge supports this well.
Suzanne Thwaites exemplifies the spirit of the Leila St John Award through her unwavering commitment to children’s literature, her mentoring initiatives, and her tireless efforts to instil a love for reading in young hearts. She is undoubtedly deserving of this esteemed recognition for her outstanding services to Children’s Literature in Victoria.