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Townsend and Syed up for Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards
Authors including Jessica Townsend, Matthew Syed and Ed Vere are in the running for this year’s Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards, held in partnership with BookTrust.
The awards are split into five categories and Townsend’s Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Hachette Children’s Books) is shortlisted for the fiction prize alongside Sky Song by Abi Elphinstone and The Nothing to See Here Hotel by Steven Butler and Steven Lenton, both published by Simon & Schuster.
Vere’s How to be a Lion (Penguin Random House) is up for the picture book award with Wildest Cowboy by Garth Jennings and Sara Ogilvie (Macmillan) and 100 Dogs by Michael Whaite (PRH), whilst You Are Awesome by Matthew Syed and Toby Triumph is shortlisted in the learning and development category against Fantastically Great Women Who Made History by Kate Pankhurst (Bloomsbury) and The Book of Comparisons by Clive Gifford and Paul Boston (Ivy Kids).
The two final categories are 'baby and toddler' and favourite characters, which was previously known as licensing. Shortlisted for the former are: Are You There Little Fox? by Sam Taplin and Emily Dove (Usborne), Norman’s New Shell by Paul Linnet and Sue Hendra (S&S) and My Magical Unicorn (Campbell/Macmillan), and for the latter: Big Stickers for Tiny Hands: PJ Masks (Pat-a-Cake), Peppa’s Magical Unicorn (Ladybird/PRH) and Pokémon 1001 Stickerbook (Orchard/Hachette Children’s Group).
All the category winners will receive a £1,000 prize and one will be crowned Sainsbury’s children’s book of the year.
Emma Brewster, senior books buyer for Sainsbury’s, said: “We’re thrilled to be in our fifth year of the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards. The volume and quality of nominations for this year’s categories have been the highest to date. It has been exciting to see all the newly published titles from the last year and the shortlist reflects the strength and diversity of children’s publishing today.”
Sainsbury’s will also bestow the title of Sainsbury’s Children’s Classic to any children’s book in publishing history; last year the honour was given to Roald Dahl’s Matilda (PRH).
The winners will be announced on 29th August.
