One Careless Night
Shortlist year:
2020
Shortlist category:
Children's literature
Published by:
Black Dog Books an imprint of Walker Books
About the book
Where the mist swallows mountains and winds whisper through ancient trees, a mother and her pup run wild and free. They hunt, but they are also hunted. Carted away. Sold for bounty. And then, one careless night … The last thylacine is gone.
The beautiful but heartbreaking story of Australia's last thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), which died in captivity.
About the author
Christina Booth
Author and illustrator Christina Booth works from her bush studio in Tasmania, Australia. Trained as a teacher and painter, she loves that she makes up stories and colours for a living. Christina started her literary career illustrating for great Australian authors such as Max Fatchen, Colin Thiele, Christobel Mattingley and Jackie French. Many of Christina's previous books are award-winning, including the Environment Award, CBCA Honour Book and CBCA Notables.
Judges’ comments
'One Careless Night' is an extraordinary picture book that speaks to the endangerment endemic we face in Australia. It welcomes young readers to empathise with a thylacine as it is captured and neglected in captivity, confronting us to consider our own actions.
Goose-bump inducing poetic prose throughout prompts the reader to lament the loss of the great Tasmanian Tiger. Accompanying the text are intentionally monochromatic illustrations that carefully interlace foregrounded ferns with crow feathers, distancing the audience from the thylacine and welcoming us into a very real world of fear and loss. The exquisite cover sees the thylacine exit stage right on the front, without re-appearing on the rear cover; instead she is replaced with a wash of darkened textures and we are made hauntingly aware that 'the last thylacine is gone'.
'One Careless Night' is the deeply moving call to action we need in an age of extinction in our nation.
