Photograph: Lauren Hurley/PA
Michael Morpurgo and Waterstones prize winner David Solomons are among the authors battling it out to be crowned for the children’s category of the Independent Bookshop Week book award. They’re joined by Patrick Ness, also in the running for this year’s CILIP Carnegie medal, and Chris Riddell, a Kate Greenaway award nominee, who are just a few standout names in a category crowded with literary heavyweights.
Vying for the picture books prize is the legendary Mog author Judith Kerr, and Nick Sharratt for his collection of illustrated poems Vikings in the Supermarket. Both the children’s and picture books categories will be judged by a panel comprising of authors, booksellers and journalists, and all of the shortlisted titles will feature in a special Best New Children’s Books supplement that will run in the Guardian on the first day of Independent Booksellers Week on 18 June.
If you want to check out the nominated books before the winner is announced on Friday 17 June, here is the full shortlist of authors and their titles.
The children’s category shortlist
Following on from Sally Nicholls’s win in 2015 with An Island of Our Own, the 2016 children’s category sees some familiar faces, such as 2010 and 2007 winner Michael Morpurgo. The nominations are fantasy heavy and featuring dragons, zombies and superheroes, but which will be victorious in the battle of the books?
1. Goth Girl and the Wuthering Fright by Chris Riddell (Macmillan Children’s Books) - read our review here
2. How to Fight a Dragon’s Fury by Cressida Cowell (Hodder Children’s Books) - read our review here
3. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness (Walker Books) - read our review here
4. The Astounding Broccoli Boy by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Macmillan Children’s Books) - read our review here
5. Pugs of the Frozen North by Phillip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre (Oxford University Press) - read our review here
6. My Brother is a Superhero by David Solomons (Nosy Crow) - read our review here
7. The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair by Lara Williamson (Usborne Publishing) - read the first chapter here
8. Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo (Usborne Publishing) - read our review here
9. Whistling in the Dark by Shirley Hughes (Walker Books) - read our review here
10. One by Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury) - read our review here
11. The Person Controller by David Baddiel (HarperCollins)
12. Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Welford (HarperCollins) - read our review here
The picture book category shortlist
This year’s picture book category shortlist follows last year’s theme of furry friends, with Petr Horacek’s The Mouse Who Reached the Sky in the running again, following his 2015 nomination with The Mouse Who Ate the Moon. The Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson has also been selected with another fantastically funny story, What the Ladybird Heard Next, illustrated by Lydia Monks.
Here is the full list of the titles nominated in the picture books category.
1. What the Ladybird Heard Next by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks (Macmillan Children’s books) - read our review of this book and other family favourites here
2. GRRRRR! by Rob Biddulph (HarperCollins) - read Rob’s guide on how to draw a GRRRRR!
3. Mog and Barnaby by Judith Kerr (HarperCollins) - read about Judith’s new book here
4. Tree by Patricia Hegarty and Britta Teckentrup (Little Tiger Kids) - here’s Britta’s beautiful step-by-step guide to making an autumnal owl collage
5. Stanley the Amazing Knitting Cat by Emily MacKenzie (Bloomsbury Children’s Books) - find out how to draw a woolly wonder with Emily here!
6. The Bear Who Went Boo by David Walliams and Tony Ross (HarperCollins) - read about this David’s new release here
7. The Mouse who Reached the Sky by Petr Horacek (Walker Books)
8. Vikings in the Supermarket by Nick Sharratt (David Fickling Books) - read one of his poems from the book here
9. Warning! This Book May Contain Rabbits! by Tim Warnes (Little Tiger Press)
10. I’m a Girl by Yasmeen Ismail (Bloomsbury Children’s Books) - Yasmin shares some photographs and illustrations from her childhood here
11. The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books)
12. Grandad’s Island by Benji Davies (Simon & Schuster) - Benji has also been nominated for the Kate Greenaway medal
The winner of the IBW Book Award 2016 will be announced on Friday 17 June 2016. The Guardian’s children’s book site will be reporting on the winners – so watch this space!
To celebrate its 10th birthday, on the first day of IBW voting will open for the Book Association’s ‘Best of the Best’ book award, to find the best books in the children’s category from the previous 10 winners of the prize. A judging panel of five children will decide the winner.
Meanwhile, keep your reviews of the shortlisted books coming into children.books@theguardian.com. If you are under 18 and not a member, join here.
