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Quirky Kid’s The Best of Friends® was shortlisted and received a commendation at the 2015 Educational Publishing Awards Australia, adding national publishing recognition to the program’s early development.
The Educational Publishing Awards Australia are run by the Australian Publishers Association and recognise learning resources across primary, secondary and tertiary education.
The Australian Publishers Association describes the EPAAs as awards celebrating excellence and innovation in educational publishing, with resources assessed by a judging panel across teaching areas and education levels.
Recognition for social and emotional learning
The Best of Friends® was developed by Quirky Kid as a structured social and emotional learning program for children, drawing on child psychology practice and designed for use in schools and clinics.
The 2015 recognition followed Quirky Kid’s win at the same awards a year earlier, when Power Up! won the 2014 Primary Student Resource award for Arts, Science and Humanities.
Part of a growing publishing track record
The 2015 shortlist placed The Best of Friends® within Australia’s professional educational publishing sector at a time when Quirky Kid was expanding resources originally developed through psychology practice into structured programs for wider use.
The awards ceremony was held at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre on 17 September 2015. Contemporary Books+Publishing reporting confirms the date and that the awards were presented by the Australian Publishers Association.
Recognition that continued internationally
The Best of Friends® went on to receive further publishing and professional recognition. In 2016 it was shortlisted for a London Book Fair International Excellence Award and for Speech Pathology Australia’s Book of the Year Awards, while Quirky Kid won the Australian Book Industry Innovation Award.
Read about Quirky Kid’s 2016 Australian Book Industry Innovation Award.
The 2015 EPAA recognition remains an early marker of the program’s transition from a clinic-developed resource into a recognised Australian educational publishing initiative.
