S&S and Macmillan Children's bag two each on Oscar's Book Prize shortlist

Simon & Schuster and Macmillan Children’s Books have two titles apiece on the six-strong Oscar’s Book Prize shortlist.

The £10,000 prize, an annual award in search of the best book for under-fives, this year features stories with animals and themes of new-found friendships and important life lessons. 

Macmillan Children’s Books is represented with The Pet: Cautionary Tales for Children and Grown-ups by Catherine Emmett and David Tazzyman, featuring a "hilarious" gorilla, and The Fire Fox by Alexandra Page and Stef Murphy (Two Hoots), which centres on an Arctic fox.

In the running for Simon & Schuster are two titles by Steve Small: The Duck Who Didn’t Like Water and I’m Sticking With You Too, co-created with Smriti Halls.

Barbara Throws a Wobbler by Nadia Shireen (Puffin) and Maybe… by Chris Haughton (Walker Books) are also nominated.

The titles were selected by a judging panel including singer-songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor and her mother, Janet Ellis, an author and former "Blue Peter" presenter. The pair were joined by award-winning illustrator Chris Riddell and rapper, actor, comedian and children’s author Ben Bailey Smith, alongside Amazon’s UK books country manager Lisa De Meyer and prize co-founder Viveka Alvestrand. 

The winner will be announced by Princess Beatrice, the award’s patron, at a ceremony on 17th May in central London.

“Helping select the shortlist for this year’s Oscar’s Book Prize was a real privilege; such an exciting variety of stories and characters that were as brilliantly funny as they were meaningful, and all beautifully illustrated," Bailey Smith said. "It is these sorts of books which stand the test of time and become literary favourites that are passed down the generations. I’m certain all children would love to read all six."

De Meyer added: “It’s been a pleasure for Amazon to once again help celebrate and support Oscar’s Book Prize. We have read some incredible stories and are extremely proud of the chosen shortlist. I think all the judging panel agree that it was great to see such a range of characters and storylines from authors submitting to the prize for the first time through to returning entrants with Smriti Halls and Steve Small.”  

The award, now in its ninth year, is supported by Amazon, the National Literacy Trust and the Evening Standard. It was set up by James Ashton and Viveka Alvestrand to celebrate stories for children in memory of their son Oscar, who was three-and-a-half when he died from an undiagnosed heart condition in December 2012.