The Sound Of The Dark highly commended at ABDA 2020

We congratulate designer Tony Palmer for winning the Australian Book Designers Award 2020 for Running With The Horses in the prestigious Children’s Fiction Book category last night. 

Our Early Harvest publication The Sound Of The Dark came in second, with book designer Regine Abos being highly commended for her work. A big congratulations to Regine for this remarkable achievement.

It was a privilege for our book to stand head-to-head with Running With The Horses (publisher Penguin Books), The Brilliant Ideas of Lily Green (publisher Hardie Grant Egmont) and The Dog Runner (publisher Allen & Unwin).

It was the first time in the Award’s 68-year history that a book conceptualised, edited and produced by children was nominated for the award in this category. 

Book designer Regine Abos received her design brief directly from a panel of young editors (ages 11 and 12) on what the 144-page book should look like – creepy and hair-raising but not gory and terrifying.

The Sound of the Dark is a richly-illustrated collection of ‘creepy horror’ stories by children for children and was produced as a part of Early Harvest 2019, a program we run for upper-primary students where we give them an in-depth experience of the publishing process. The young editors publish a collection of stories written by children under the mentorship of publishing professionals.

As with all our programs, Early Harvest is underpinned by the value that children should be a part of the decision-making process of creative works that impact them. When we do that, we enhance the value of the creative work. 

Regine Abos has been a part of the program since 2015. She first mentors the students on what makes for good book design, and then designs the book based on the brief given by them. 

Regine says that she has always found the Early Harvest editors to have a clear sense of what would appeal to middle-grade readers. She says: ‘I have learnt that children at that age are more sophisticated in their thinking and mindset that we realise. They really know what they need and want.

I was really impressed by the editors [of The Sound Of The Dark]. Based on our discussion, they gave a very clear design brief to me. The theme of the book was ‘creepy horror’ and they explained how this was a specific kind of horror, different from gory horror or spooky horror. They knew what tone of voice and typography they wanted.’ 

The nomination validates our programming value that when directed respectfully children’s ideas can enhance and inform the work we adults do! 

The Early Harvest 2020 program is already underway. Early Harvest 2019 was made possible by the generous support of Gandel Philanthropy and Besen Family Foundation.

Buy The Sound of the Dark and previous Early Harvest publications. 

Listen to Regine and young editor Raei discuss the design of The Sound Of The Dark on ABC Radio Afternoons.