Aurealis Award for Best Children's Fiction (told primarily through words)

The Aurealis Awards are presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and Conflux Inc to published works in order to "recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers". To qualify, a work must have been first published by an Australian citizen or permanent resident between 1 January and 31 December of the current year; the presentation ceremony is held the following year. It has grown from a small function of around 20 people to a two-day event attended by over 200 people.

Since their creation in 1995, awards have been given in various categories of speculative fiction. Categories currently include science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative young adult fiction—with separate awards for novels and short fiction—collections, anthologies, illustrative works or graphic novels, children's books, and an award for excellence in speculative fiction. The awards have attracted the attention of publishers by setting down a benchmark in science fiction and fantasy. The continued sponsorship by publishers such as HarperCollins and Orbit has identified the award as an honour to be taken seriously.

The results are decided by a panel of judges from a list of submitted nominees; the long-list of nominees is reduced to a short-list of finalists. Ties can occur if the panel decides both entries show equal merit, however they are encouraged to choose a single winner. The judges may declare a "no award" if there is unanimous agreement that none of the nominees are worthy. The judges are selected from a public application process by the Award's management team.

This article lists all the short-list nominees and winners in the best children's fiction (told primarily through words) category, as well as works that have received honourable mentions or have been highly commended. The best children's fiction (told primarily through words) award was created in 2001, as best children's long fiction, along with an award for children's short fiction. In 2008 the award was renamed "best children's novel" and in 2010 was renamed again to "best children's fiction (told primarily through words)". Since 2001, honourable mentions and high commendations have been awarded intermittently. Of the 11 winners, three people have won the award twice – Garth Nix, Lian Tanner and Gabrielle Wang. John Flanagan holds the record for most nominations with five.

This award has been merged with that for best children's fiction (told primarily through pictures) into an award for best children's book.

Winners and nominees
In the following table, the years correspond to the year of the book's eligibility; the ceremonies are always held the following year. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature" article. Entries with a blue background have won the award; those with a white background are the nominees on the short-list. If the short story was originally published in a book with other stories rather than by itself or in a magazine, the book title is included after the publisher's name.

Winners and joint winners

Nominees on the shortlist

Honourable mentions and highly commended novels
In the following table, the years correspond to the year of the book's eligibility; the ceremonies are always held the following year. Each year links to the corresponding "year in literature" article. Entries with a grey background have been noted as highly commended; those with a white background have received honourable mentions.

Highly commended

Honourable mentions