The Australian Women Writers Challenge has been going for ten years this year which is absolutely incredible and it has been an amazing challenge to participate in as it has allowed me a chance to read and discover some wonderful authors.
Not only have I read some great adult fiction, it’s allowed me to read some great YA authors, discover many great picture book authors, and being able to pick up books on a whim because they meet the criteria that I’ve ended up falling in love with.
I am sticking with my goal from last year to read 40 and review 35. I read enough last time but my reviewing failed so I’m aiming to meet that goal this year before upping my limit if I can. This also includes uploading them to the AWW website because I don’t know if I uploaded any of my reviews that I did do on there.
There’s never a better time to jump in on this challenge than right at the start but you can sign up at any time through the year all the way until the end of November. There are a lot smaller goals for those wanting a less daunting number than I have chosen or you can set your own depending what you’re after. The Australian Women Writers website has a host of resources and ideas if you’re looking for titles to get you started and there are a range of groups you can join to become part of the community.
This has been a strange year for my AWW Challenge – I read a lot of books but haven’t gotten around to reviewing that many yet. And I started strong but then had a small slump and then somehow have come back strong at the end. And while my number looks huge compared to what I usually achieve, I have come in big with picture books with them taking up almost half of my total. I don’t have any guilt about this however which is a surprise to no one more than myself because I know what kind of year I have had and know it is a pure miracle I have read anything at all so to be able to have such a phenomenal number is amazing. Plus I read a lot of CBCA and Christmas picture books which bumped up my numbers.
It’s the day before Christmas in Australia and Santa is in a tizz! So much to do — prezzies to wrap, the ute to check and eight ‘roos to choose. But not everything is going to plan. The helpers have gone and the ‘roos can’t be found! What will Santa do now?
Samantha Duck is getting ready for Christmas and her friend Sebastian thinks she’s silly. After all, he says, Christmas isn’t for animals. But Samantha knows that Christmas is for everyone and sets out to make sure that all the animals have a very quacky Christmas (and a tortoise new year) 
