Photo: Gregg Dreise (third from left) accepts his Speech Pathology Australia 2017 Book of the Year award with fellow winners

Mad Magpie by Queensland-based Magabala author-illustrator, Gregg Dreise has won Speech Pathology Australia's 2017 Book of the Year Award in the Indigenous Children's category. 

The awards were presented on 2nd November at the State Library of Queensland.

Chosen from shortlists announced in July, the winning titles across all categories were:

• Birth to three years: Noisy Nature (Mandy A Kuhne, illus by Alex Kuhne, Mandy Pandy Books)
• Three to five years: Me and You (Deborah Kelly, illus by Karen Blair, Viking)
• Five to eight years: Somewhere Else (Gus Gordon, Viking)
• Eight to 10 years: Artie and the Grime Wave (Richard Roxburgh, A&U)
• Indigenous children: Mad Magpie (Gregg Dreise, Magabala)
  
  

Gregg said he was "extremely proud" to receive the award and help promote the work that speech pathologists do. "It is great that they encourage families to sit down and read with their children as early as possible. It allows children to learn sounds, and reading skills, but most importantly a passion to read," he said.

The Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards aim to ‘promote quality Australian books that help children get the best, most literate start in life’ and are judged on their ‘appeal to children, interactive quality and ability to assist speech pathologists and parents in communication and literacy development’. Each category is judged a panel of experts in oral language and literacy development.

Congratulations, Gregg on another fantastic accolade.