Returning to her old school for her daughter's parent teacher interview, author Rebecca Lim had what she describes as a brain snap.
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The teacher presented a "personally tailored" year seven booklist featuring Playing Beatie Bow, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and The Getting of Wisdom - the very same classics Lim read at the school more than 30 years ago.
"There's all these other authors out there now, who have far more diverse viewpoints... the fact we're still pushing the same things to kids after all these years is a little bit dispiriting," she told AAP.
Lim's daughter told her to do something about it, and the resulting book Tiger Daughter has now won the Book of the Year award for older readers at the Children's Book Council of Australia awards announced Friday.
"Utter amazement has probably been the feeling throughout all this because I just wasn't expecting to win it... there's some pretty dark topics in there," she said.
Tiger Daughter tells the story of Chinese only child Wen, who feels she is a disappointment to her parents.
But when a friend retreats into his shell after something happens to his mother, she tries to rescue him, and in the process helps everyone around her.
The book, which Lim's two daughters helped illustrate, explores culturally-based domestic violence and also sneaks in a critique of Confucianist philosophy.
But Lim is better known for her genre fiction, having written 21 books, which she readily admits - unusually for an author - are of varying quality.
"This particular book is quite different because it really was me just focusing my rage on a particular issue that hadn't been solved yet," she said.
She would like Tiger Daughter, which is aimed at upper grades and young adults, to elicit empathy and an understanding of difference.
Lim is currently working on a historical novel, and juggles her writing with a legal job in banking.
"People have seen me in the school car park with a pack of toilet rolls and my laptop balanced on top trying to finish something... I basically work if my eyes are open."
Ultimately Lim wants young writers to value their own backgrounds and experiences, so that a broader spectrum of stories can be published for Australian children.
"I always say to them, get in there with your story and put it out there because it's just as valuable as everybody else's. If you don't do it, no one's ever gonna do it."
CBCA Book Week runs from August 20-26.
2022 Book of the Year Award Winners
* Book of the Year: Older Readers - "Tiger Daughter" by Rebecca Lim.
* Book of the Year: Younger Readers - "A Glasshouse of Stars" by Shirley Marr.
* Book of the Year: Early Childhood - "Jetty Jumping" by Andrea Rowe, illustrated by Hannah Sommerville.
* Picture Book of the Year - "Iceberg" by Claire Saxby, illustrated by Jess Racklyeft.
* Eve Pownall Award - "Still Alive, Notes from Australia's Immigration Detention system" by Safdar Ahmed.
* CBCA Award for New Illustrator - "The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name" visual storytelling by Michelle Pereira.
Australian Associated Press
