Shortlists announced for the Nero Book Awards
The Nero Book Awards today announce its category shortlists for 2024, recognising the best books from the last 12 months. This is the second year of the awards, which consider Children’s Fiction alongside fiction and non-fiction for adults.
The Children’s Fiction Award Shortlist is:
Bird Boy by Catherine Bruton (Nosy Crow)
Read our interview with Catherine Bruton
How to Survive a Horror Movie by Scarlett Dunmore (Little Tiger)
Read our interview with Scarlett Dunmore
The Twelve by Liz Hyder, illustrated by Tom De Freston (Pushkin Children’s Books)
Read our interview with Liz Hyder
Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Tim Miller (Walker Books)
Read our interview with Patrick Ness
Gerry Ford, Founder and CEO of Caffè Nero, commented, ‘Our goal is to inspire writers to write, readers to read and everyone to live a richer life through ideas and storytelling.’
This year’s judges for the Children’s Fiction Award are Patrice Lawrence, Leanne Fridd, Owner, Bookbugs and Dragontales bookshop and 
Sarah Webb, Children’s festival programmer and reviewer.
Launched in 2023, and run as not-for-profit, the Nero Book Awards’ mission is to help readers of all ages and interests to recognise great writers and to discover outstanding books from the past year through recommendation.
The category winners will be announced on Tuesday 14th January 2025 and of those, one book will be selected as the overall winner – The Nero Gold Prize, Book of the Year – by a final panel of judges and announced at a ceremony on 5th March 2025.
To be eligible for the 2024 Nero Book Awards, books must have been first published in English in the UK or Ireland between the 1st of December 2023 and 30th of November 2024. At the time of entry, authors must have been alive and resident in the UK or Ireland for the past three years. Each of the category winners receives £5,000, with the overall Nero Gold Prize – Book of the Year winner receiving an additional £30,000.
IBC
