Bea Fitzgerald and Pari Thomson shortlisted for £5k Waterstones Children’s Book Prize

Bea Fitzgerald, Ellan Rankin, Pari Thomson and Natalie Labarre have been shortlisted for the £5,000 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, which is voted for by booksellers.

Now in its 20th year, the award has helped launch the careers of authors and illustrators such as Katherine Rundell, Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Rob Biddulph.

The shortlists comprise 18 books across three categories, with six books vying within each category to be crowned category winner. Three category winners will then compete for the overall title of Waterstones Children’s Book Prize Winner 2024. The winner of each category will receive £2,000, with the overall winner receiving an extra £3,000.

In the illustrated books category, Labarre is in the running for Incredible Jobs You’ve (Probably) Never Heard Of (Nosy Crow), praised for being "highly original and filled with inventive detail". She’s up against Rankin’s The Secret Elephant (Hachette Children’s Group), which tells the story of a wartime "friendship" between a zookeeper and a baby elephant.

Other shortlisted in this category include The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish, written and illustrated by Chloe Savage (Walker Books), which is described as a "playful take on the non-fiction picture book trend", as well as Marcela Ferreira’s and Sally Agar’s contemporary fairy tale The Queen Next Door (Hachette Children’s Group). Kate Rolfe’s "heartwarming" Wolf and Bear is also shortlisted in this category (Pan Macmillan), alongside Andrew Sanders and Aysha Awwad’s "hilarious and memorable" Whose Dog Is This? (Pan Macmillan).

The Younger Readers category caters to various reading abilities, featuring books including Emily-Jane Clark’s "accessible" and "hilariously funny" book, The Beasts of Knobbly Bottom (Scholastic), and Lizzie Huxley-Jones’ Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend (Knights Of Media), which is described as a "contemporary magical adventure steeped in Welsh mythology". 

Also in the Younger Readers category, G M Linton’s "gently funny" My Name Is Sunshine Simpson (Usborne Publishing) is shortlisted this year, alongside Thomson’s "beautifully illustrated" magical-door adventure, Greenwild (Pan Macmillan). Beth Lincoln’s "brilliantly funny" murder mystery, The Swifts, is also vying for the prize (Penguin Random House Children’s), as is J J Arcanjo’s "fun-filled action mystery" Crookhaven (Hachette Children’s Books).

Real-world settings dominate the Books for Older Readers category, which the prize organisers said was a trend reflected in publisher submissions for the award. However, Bea Fitzgerald’s Girl, Goddess, Queen (Penguin Random House Children’s) represents the ongoing interest in mythology retellings. Alexandra Sheppard’s "uplifting and joyous" Friendship Never Ends (Knights Of Media) is also shortlisted in this category, alongside Nick Brooks’ "captivating" and "pacey" YA crime thriller Promise Boys (Pan Macmillan).

Mel Darbon’s What the World Doesn’t See (Usborne Publishing), billed as a "powerful novel about grief and disability", is also shortlisted in the category for Older Readers, alongside Ayaan Mohamud’s "lyrically written" You Think You Know Me (Usborne Publishing) and Kayvion Lewis’  "riotously fun action-adventure" Thieves’ Gambit (Simon & Schuster).

The winners will be announced at an evening ceremony on 21st March. In the event that the prize is awarded to a partnership, the prize money will be split equally between the joint winners.

“This year, as ever, our booksellers have chosen a stunning shortlist that is truly reflective of the vibrancy, creativity and genius to be found in children’s storytelling today: if this is the future of children’s writing, the next generation is in safe hands," said Bea Carvalho, head of books at Waterstones. "Whether holding up a mirror to the real world or conjuring fantastical realms, delving into history or mining our own times, these books are united by enormous heart and imagination, and show children’s publishing to be as inspiring as ever.”

Last year’s winner, The Cats We Meet Along the Way by Nadia Mikail (Guppy Books), became Waterstones’ April Children’s Book of the Month, achieving a 1,280% sales uplift across the Waterstones estate in the week after announcement.