Author Sandy Bigna’s young adult fiction book, Little Bones, has been named the 2026 ACT Book of the Year, pipping seven other shortlisted novels for the honour.

Ms Bigna’s 256-page novel follows an 11-year-old named Bones, who is grieving the death of her brother a year earlier.

One night, Bones unintentionally wishes upon a full moon for a bird to be resurrected, and both Bones and the bird, known as Bird, form a close friendship.

However, when Bird asks for the wish to be undone, Bones grapples with the challenges of losing another friend/family member.

ACT judges said the book stood out for its tender, poetic and assured storytelling, while also praising it as a profound meditation on grief, friendship and healing that leaves a lasting emotional impression on readers.

As a born-and-bred Canberran, Ms Bigna said it was an honour to be shortlisted alongside other renowned authors, including Merlinda Bobis and Martin Thomas.

“To be announced the winner absolutely blew me away,” she said.

“I find myself sort of always leaning towards having Canberra as a setting for most of the stories I write. So to win an award which celebrates Canberra-based authors, I think, is especially meaningful, and the judge’s comments were so lovely.”

Ms Bigna said she wrote the book in verse to create a personal, emotional connection between the characters and readers.

She explained that the rhythmic storytelling style let her naturally explore the themes of grief and loss at the centre of the story.

“I have always loved poetry, and I grew up writing my own poetry as a teen,” she said.

“There are definitely challenges that come with writing in the style. You can’t have paragraph-long descriptions, so the challenge is in distilling information down from maybe two paragraphs to one sentence.

“But I do love writing in that really spare and lyrical way. It just seems to come easily to me.

“I grew up loving song lyrics and music. I’m of the era where you pull the cover of the CDs and cassette tapes, and they’d have all the song lyrics printed on the covers.

“I’d be reading the song lyrics, and just absolutely loved it. So I think verse novels have that same sort of musicality as song lyrics.”

While Ms Bigna said the success of Little Bones has blown her away, she is already working on the release of her next book.

“There is something in the pipeline. The University of Queensland Press has acquired my next book,” she said.

“It’s not related to Little Bones, but it will also be written as a verse novel and will also be for the same readership age between nine and 12 years old.

“It will still explore deeper themes of friendship, healing and loss in a new, unique way that’s a bit different to Little Bones.

“There will be a bit of danger, a bit of adventure and a bit of exploration into change. I’m really looking forward to getting that into the hands of young readers around the middle of next year.”

Little Bones is available in paperback and hardcover through bookstores, or digitally on Kindle.