Magic Beach by Alison Lester has won Guardian Australia’s poll to find Australia’s best children’s picture book of all time.
More than 100,000 votes were cast after polling opened on 27 January. Aside from the first day, when Possum Magic by Mem Fox and illustrator Julie Vivas took an early lead, Magic Beach was the most voted for book every other day of the count.
With the recurring line “at our beach, at our magic beach”, Lester’s rhyming picture book from 1990 follows the different adventures children can have on a day at the beach, through both the wonders of the natural environment and the power of imagination. It’s illustrated in Lester’s instantly recognisable watercolour style.
Lester was told about her win on Thursday, while at the very same beach in Walkerville South, Victoria, that inspired the picture book.
“That is fabulous news – and how amazing it is that I am at Magic Beach while you are telling me,” she said.
The former Australian children’s laureate thanked everyone who voted for her book, saying: “I think I owe a lot to my family and friends who were all in there voting for me as well … There was such a huge number of beautiful books, so I am very, very thrilled.”
Of all her books, Magic Beach has been translated into comparably few languages. “I think because it is a very Australian way that we go to the beach,” Lester said.
“It is incredible that people still love it, and that its won this poll,” she said, adding with a laugh: “I always thought it would be good to share a similar position with the tawny frogmouth” – the winner of last year’s Guardian Australia bird of the year poll.
Asked how she would celebrate her win, Lester said: “I’ll have to thank all the people first who stuck up for me, which is really nice. I’ll probably have a swim … I think that will be a nice way to celebrate.”
Lester offered to share her prize with her fellow authors. When told it was just the kudos, she said: “That is much easier to share!”
On the final day of voting, Magic Beach won with 2,557 votes, almost 800 votes ahead of Possum Magic, in second place with 1,782 votes.
Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and illustrator Judy Horacek, came in third with 1,609 votes, while Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French and illustrator Bruce Whatley came in fourth with 1,556.
My Shadow is Pink by Scott Stuart – a much-loved picture book published in 2020 and singled out last year by US president Donald Trump – had 1,436 votes, followed by Graeme Base’s intricately illustrated 1986 alphabet book Animalia, with 1,340 votes.
Room on Our Rock by husband-and-wife authors Kate and Jol Temple, received 1,290 votes, followed closely by the 1976 classic There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards and illustrator Deborah Niland, with 1,267 votes.
The 2022 picture book Come Over to My House, co-written by Sally Rippin and Eliza Hull and illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett, received 1,008 votes, with All the Ways to Be Smart by Davina Bell and illustrator Allison Colpoys following just six votes behind with 1,002.
Guardian readers initially voted in December to shape the top 50 best Australian children’s picture books list, four of which were authored by Lester: Kissed by the Moon, Are We There Yet?, Imagine and Magic Beach. “I would be happy to have one, but to have four seems to be a bit of a miracle,” Lester told the Guardian in January.
Roughly 15,000 votes were cast every single day, with the bottom five books knocked out of competition before the votes reset for the next round.
