The shortlist for the Children’s Book Award 2024 has been announced. Owned and administered by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, the Children’s Book Award is the only national award voted for entirely by children from beginning to end.

The first ever winner of the Children’s Book Award was Mr Magnolia by Quentin Blake in 1981. Since then, the award has often been the first to recognise future stars of children’s fiction. Previous winners include Malory Blackman, Anthony Horowitz,  Patrick Ness, J. K. Rowling, Andy Stanton, Jacqueline Wilson and Michael Morpurgo, who has won four times.

Over the last twelve months, children in FCBG groups around the country have been reading and reviewing over 700 books to come up with a shortlist of ten titles across the three award categories: Books for Younger Children; Books for Younger Readers; and Books for Older Readers.

Children and young people nationwide are now invited to vote for the category winners and the Overall Winner of this year’s Children’s Book Award. Online voting will open on the FCBG website on March 25th and will close at 12 noon on Friday 18th May. Explore the resources provided to stimulate discussion about the shortlisted titles, including links to author interviews, creative activities and further reading suggestions.

Commenting on this year’s shortlist, Children’s Book Award Co-ordinator Sarah Stuffins said, ‘The Children’s Book Award is back and it’s always a pleasure to see what brilliant stories have been chosen. Children are a very demanding and exacting audience – books need to hook them into a story rightaway, and keep them turning the pages, right to the end! And it’s a testament to these wonderful books that they’ve all not just delighted their readers, but inspired them to vote.’

Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors and illustrators!

 

Books for Younger Children

Gigantic by Rob Biddulph (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

The Big Dreaming by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Daniel Egnéus (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)

The Fastest Tortoise in Town by Howard Calvert, illustrated by Karen Obuhanych (Walker Books)

The Princess and the (Greedy) Pea by Leigh Hodgkinson  (Walker Books)

 

Books for Younger Readers

Adventure Mice: Otter Chaos by Philip Reeve, illustrated by Sarah McIntyre (David Fickling Books)

Marv and the Killer Plants by Alex Falase-Koya, illustrated by Paula Bowles (Oxford Children’s Books)

Press Start! Game On, Super Rabbit Boy! by Thomas Flintham (Nosy Crow)

 

Books for Older Readers

Code Name Kingfisher by Liz Kessler (Simon & Schuster Children’s)

Deadlock by Simon Fox (Nosy Crow)

The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton (Otter-Barry Books)

The winners will be announced at a live-streamed award ceremony on Saturday 8th June 2024. Keep an eye out for our winner announcement!