For the 2022 Book of the Year, 2000 children were asked to judge the shortlisted books using the same criteria as the official judges, in an initiative called the Shadower's Awards.
With the winners announced on Friday, the kids emerged with a list completely different to their grown-up counterparts.
Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn was their pick as Book of the Year for Older Readers, Stellarphant by James Foley won Picture Book of the Year, and Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief by Katrina Nannestad was the favourite for younger readers.
"It's usually adults who judge but we need to judge books too because the adults' judging is different to the children's judging... children need to become more confident in their own opinions," said one of the judges, 10-year-old Dylan.
Does the result mean the annual Book of the Year Awards, run by the Children's Book Council of Australia since 1946, might have been getting it wrong all these years?
Not so, according to primary school teacher Heather Zubek, who ran one of 155 children's judging panels.
"They are choosing the books they like, they're still learning how to read more deeply... it will take a little bit of time to for them to understand what makes great literature," she told AAP.
The initiative is also a bid to ensure the book awards remain relevant, Ms Zubek said.
"They're saying to kids, we want to hear what you like, it's giving the kids agency and it's giving them a voice," she said.
At her Seven Seeds Reading Club in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, kids relished the opportunity to take part in the program, which also included a visit from author Nicki Greenberg.
"Reading books is brilliant, but discussing the books you have read is more enjoyable," Sylvia, one of the Seven Seeds judges said.
Book Week has over the years become a festival of fairs, author talks and costume parades across Australia, with literacy activities either side of the week itself.
"It's a time when books and literature and the kids who love them surpass the football players, it becomes like a footy final, it really takes over the school," Ms Zubek said.
The Shadower's Awards was funded nationally through a federal government grant following a two-year pilot program.
2022 CBCA SUN PROJECT: SHADOWERS' CHOICE AWARDS
* Book of the Year: Older Readers - Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn
* Book of the Year: Younger Readers - Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief by Katrina Nannestad
* Book of the Year: Early Childhood - Walk of the Whales by Nick Bland.
* Picture Book of the Year - Stellarphant by James Foley.
* Eve Pownall Award - The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Peculiar Pairs in Nature by Sami Bayly.
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