Lincoln Children’s Books scores hat-trick on Klaus Flugge longlist

Lincoln First Editions, launched by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books in 2017 to publish debut picture books, has three titles on this year’s Klaus Flugge Prize longlist.

The Klaus Flugge Prize is awarded annually to the illustrator of a debut picture book and Sarah Finan, Alina Surnaite and Cindy Wume, whose respective titles Erick the Lone Wolf, I Love You Bunny and The Best Sound in the World are longlisted, are all published on the Lincoln First Editions list.

Other illustrators in the running are John Bond for Mini Rabbit Not Lost (HarperCollins Children’s Books), Jessica Love for Julian is a Mermaid (Walker Books) and Poonam Mistry for You’re Safe With Me (Lantana Publishing).

This year's longlist features 20 books, chosen from more than 50 submissions.

Julia Eccleshare, chair of the judging panel, said: “We are delighted that the Klaus Flugge Prize continues to attract more and more entries and feel that our longlist is very strong.  The books on it reflect the huge and changing range of subjects, themes and concepts that can be explored through picture books... Once again the list of illustrators is international, proof that illustration is a universal language.”

The shortlist will be announced on 15th May by illustrator Anthony Browne, one of this year’s judges, and the winner will be revealed on 11th September.

The 2019 Klaus Flugge Prize longlist in full:

The Long Island by Drew Beckmeyer (Chronicle Books)

Mini Rabbit Not Lost by John Bond (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

The Extraordinary Gardner by Sam Boughton (Tate)

Looking After William by Eve Coy (Andersen Press)

The Ink House by Rory Dobner (Laurence King)

Cycle City by Alison Farrell (Chronicle Books)

Erik the Lone Wolf by Sarah Finan (Lincoln Children’s Books)

The King Who Banned the Dark by Emily Haworth-Booth (Pavilion Children’s Books)

Maybe the Moon by Frances Ives (LOM Art)

I Can Fly by Fifi Kuo (Boxer Books)

Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love (Walker Books)

Say Hi to Hedgehogs by Jane McGuinness (Walker Books)

You’re Safe with Me by Poonam Mistry (Lantana Publishing)

The Red Dread by Tom Morgan-Jones (Barrington Stoke)

The Story of Tantrum O’Furrily by Mark Nicholas, written by Cressida Cowell (Hodder Children’s Books)

The Buildings that Made London by Josie Shenoy (Bloomsbury)

I Love You Bunny by Alina Surnaite (Lincoln Children’s Books)

The Wardrobe Monster by Bryony Thomson (Old Barn Books)

Red and the City by Marie Voigt (Oxford University Press)

The Best Sound in the World by Cindy Wume (Lincoln Children’s Books)