Shortlist for the Children’s Book Award 2018

The Children’s Book Award 2018 shortlist has been announced. Among those shortlisted are this year’s Costa Children’s Book Award winner Katherine Rundell and previously shortlisted author illustrator Jan Fearnley.

Children nationwide are now invited to vote for their favourite of the ten shortlisted books. The deadline for online voting is 12.00 Friday 18th May. The category winners and the author of the best children’s book published in the 2017 nomination period will be announced at an awards ceremony which takes place in London Saturday 9th June 2018.

The Children’s Book Award is the only national award for children’s books that is voted for entirely by children. It is owned and coordinated by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups and is highly respected by teachers, parents and librarians. It has brought acclaim and strong sales to past winners such as J.K. Rowling, Patrick Ness, Andy Stanton, Malorie Blackman, Anthony Horowitz and Michael Morpurgo, who has won a record four times. The award has often been the first to recognise the future stars of children’s fiction and has the ability to turn popular authors into bestsellers.

The full shortlist for the Children’s Book Award 2018 is as follows:

Books for Younger Children

Edgar and the Sausage Inspector, written and illustrated by Jan Fearnley, published by Nosy Crow

Mrs Mole, I’m Home!, written and illustrated by Jarvis, published by Walker

The Secret of Black Rock, written and illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, published by Flying Eye Books

I Dare You, written and illustrated by Reece Wykes, published by Andersen Press

Books for Younger Readers

The Goldfish Boy, written by Lisa Thompson, published by Scholastic

The Explorer, written by Katherine Rundell, published by Bloomsbury

The Island at the End of Everything, written by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, published by Chicken House

Books for Older Readers

I Have No Secrets, written by Penny Joelson, published by Electric Monkey (Egmont)

Optimists Die First, written by Susin Nielsen, published by Andersen Press

Ink, written by Alice Broadway, published by Scholastic

Vote online here.

Julia Miller, Children’s Book Award Coordinator says ‘In this our charity’s 50th year, we are delighted by such an exciting and high-quality Top Ten. Selecting our Top Ten is the start of the countdown towards our winners for 2018. We congratulate all our Top Ten authors and can’t wait to find out who is the children’s choice this year.’