Submissions

** Submissions for our 2026 Poetry Anthology with Fremantle Press have now closed. **

Young readers: send us your book reviews! 

If you would like to send us a book review: We are currently open for submissions of one-off book reviews by children (aged 12 and under).

Please read the following guidelines. 

Parents/guardians/teachers can email a child’s book reviews to our editor, Rebecca Newman, at editor[at]alphabetsoup.net.au (change the [at] for an @ sign). Please include the following information in your email:

  1. The parent’s full name and the statement ‘I give permission for my child _____’s work to be published online at Alphabet Soup’s website. A.I has not been used in the creation of this review.’
  2. The first name of the child reviewer, and their age, the state they live in (e.g. NSW/WA/VIC etc) and the country if not Australia.
  3. The book review, either attached as a Word document or pasted in the body of the email.
  4. Please don’t include any fancy formatting or text colours in your review.

If you prefer to post us your review in the mail, you can post it to:

Alphabet Soup, PO Box 3099, Broadway Nedlands WA 6009, AUSTRALIA.

Our editor will reply to your book review submission within 7 days.

NB: Emailing us a book review does not guarantee that it will be accepted for publication on Alphabet Soup’s website.

If your book review is accepted for publication on the blog, we will publish your first name, age, and state (and country, if outside Australia), unless you advise us otherwise.

As Alphabet Soup is a website for children in primary school we don’t usually publish reviews of Young Adult (YA/older teen) books. Reviews of picture books, nonfiction books, comics, magazines, graphic novels, junior fiction, chapter books, plays and poetry for children, and middle grade (books suited to readers aged 10+) are all welcomed! 

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Read some examples of book reviews on our blog

Shadowghast (review by Fergus, age 12)

What Snail Knows (review by Anwen, age 8)

The Last Light Horse (review by Gabriel, age 11)

Zoe, Max and the Bicycle Bus (review by Rory, age 9)

Tales of Wisdom and Wonder (review by Matilda, age 9)

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Information for teachers

If your class has written reviews of the same book, please send us a small selection of the best. (We are unable to publish 30 reviews of the same book.)

When you email us your students’ work, please:

  • state that you are the teacher and that you have parent/guardians’ permission for those students to have work published.
  • include each student’s first name, age and state (or country if outside Australia).
  • email submissions to editor[at]alphabetsoup.net.au or post to PO Box 3099, Broadway Nedlands WA 6009, AUSTRALIA.

We DO accept submissions of collaborative work – a single book review written by two or more children … or the whole class.

Thank you for encouraging your students’ passion for reading!
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