Puffin and Bloomsbury strike twice on Oscar’s Book Prize shortlist

Penguin Random House division Puffin and Bloomsbury both have two titles shortlisted for this year’s £5,000 Oscar’s Book Prize.

Puffin's How to be a Lion by Ed Vere and Almost Anything by Sophy Henn, are shortlisted along Bloomsbury Children’s Books’ Ruby's Worry by Tom Percival and Baby’s First Bank Heist by Jim Whalley and Stephen Collins. Also in the running is The Way Home for Wolf by Rachel Bright and Jim Field (Orchard Books).

The prize, now in its sixth year, was created in honour of Oscar Ashton who passed away at the age of three and a half from an undetected heart condition, and recognises the best literature published for the under-5s.

This year’s shortlist was selected from a record of 117 entries and the winner will be chosen by a panel of judges, children’s laureate Lauren Child, Oscar’s parents James Ashton and Viveka Alvestrand, and Amazon’s UK director of books Brigitte Ricou-Bellan.

Ricou-Bellan said: “Congratulations to all those shortlisted. As always, it was a delight to read through such a wonderful set of books. This year, the selection was specifically rich and interesting, with diverse characters, themes and beautiful illustrations. These are a set of books that can spark the joy of reading in any child and engage their parents.”

The winner will be announced 9th May at a party hosted by the May Fair Hotel in central London.