The funny story of a boy who turns bright green, by the writer of the Olympic opening ceremony, is one of three contenders for the Blue Peter book award.
Frank Cottrell Boyce’s The Astounding Broccoli Boy, which tells of Rory Rooney who inexplicably turns astonishingly green while on a year 7 trip, is in the running for the Best story prize alongside The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair by Lara Williamson and The Nowhere Emporium by Ross MacKenzie.
The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair (read the first chapter) is the follow-up to A Boy Called Hope and is a story of new beginnings for a young boy, Becket, after the death of his mother. The Nowhere Emporium, which is also in the running for the Scottish children’s book award, tells of what happens when an orphan called Daniel stumbles across a magical store.
There are also three non-fiction books competing for the Best book with facts prize. Last year’s winners are in contention again - author and illustrator team Andy Seed and Scott Garrett, who won with The Silly Book of Side-Splitting Stuff, are in the running with The Silly Book of Weird and Wacky Words.
They are up against Penny Arlon’s Factfeed, a book of lists described as “great for reading on the loo” and The Epic Book of Epicness, written and illustrated by Adam Frost.
The shortlist has been picked by a team of grown-up judges but the winners will be decided by more than 200 schoolchildren from 10 schools across the UK, who will read the shortlisted books and vote for their favourites in each category. The two winning books will be announced on the Blue Peter programme scheduled for World Book Day on 3 March 2016 and will be announced by children’s laureate Chris Riddell.
