Colfer and Thompson in line for Children’s Book Awards

Authors including Eoin Colfer, PJ Lynch, Lisa Thompson and Alex T Smith are shortlisted for this year’s Children’s Book Awards, which are the only national children’s book prizes voted for entirely by children.

Thompson’s The Light Jar (Scholastic) is shortlisted in the ‘Books for Older Readers’ category along with Armistice Runner by Tom Palmer (Barrington Stoke) and The Storm Keeper’s Island by Catherine Doyle (Bloomsbury).

Colfer and Lynch are in the running for ‘Books for Younger Readers’ award for The Dog Who Lost His Bark (Walker Books), as is Smith’s Mr Penguin and The Fortress of Secrets (Hodder Children’s Books) and Funny Kid Stand Up by Matt Stanton (HarperCollins Children’s Books).

Finally, four books are shortlisted for the ‘Books for Younger Children’ prize: Mixed by Arree Chung (Macmillan Children’s Books), The Last Chip: The Story of a Very Hungry Pigeon by Duncan Beedie (Templar), The Wondrous Dinosaurium by John Condon and Steve Brown (Maverick), and What Do You Do if Your house is a Zoo by John Kelly and Steph Laberis (Little Tiger Press).

Children can now vote for their favourite titles online and the category winners and one overall winner, who will be announced author of the best children’s book published in 2018, will be announced on 8th June.

Previous winners include JK Rowling, Patrick Ness, Andy Stanton and Malorie Blackman.