UCLan announces shortlist for inaugural STEAM book prize

Chicken House has four titles shortlisted for the inaugural STEAM prize for books that highlight the importance of STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, arts, maths).

The £1,000 prize, run by UCLan Publishing with The British Interplanetary Society, comprises four categories - Early Years, Information, Middle Grade and YA. Two of the books in the YA category are published by Chicken House (The Fandom by Anna Day and The Secret Deep by Lindsay Galvin), as are two that are up for the Middle Grade award (Battle of the Beetles by MG Leonard and Below Zero by Dan Smith).

“The aim of the prize is to highlight the importance of STEAM subjects and praise the publishing industry and authors for championing them,” said publishing executive Hazel Holmes. “By providing children with engaging, fun, and exciting literature, they’ll hopefully be inspired to take an interest in STEAM further into their education.

“We have had a wealth of submissions from many different publishers and we’d like to sincerely thank them for supporting the prize in its first year.  The shortlist reflects a wide range of subjects from engineering to fan fiction and we’re confident we have shortlists that will inspire and encourage a passion for STEAM subjects in young people.”

Also shortlisted for the middle grade prize are Al's Awesome Science: Splash Down by Jane Clarke and James Brown (Five Quills) and The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day by Christopher Edge (Nosy Crow), and the other books in the running for the YA prize are: The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James (Walker Books), The Electrical Venus by Julie Mayhew (Hot Key Books), Jinxed by Amy McCulloch (Simon & Schuster) and White Rabbit, Red Wolf by Tom Pollock (Walker Books).

In the Information category the shortlisted books are: Ocean Emporium by Susie Brooks and Dawn Cooper (Red Shed), Saving Species by Jess French (Wren & Rook), Corpse Talk: Ground-Breaking Scientists by Adam and Lisa Murphy (David Fickling Books), How Does A Lighthouse Work? by Roman Belyaev BSmall and Planet Awesome by Stacy McAnulty & David Litchfield (Faber Children’s)

Finally, the books in the Early Years shortlist are: Do not Lick this Book by Idan Ben-Berak (Allen and Unwin), How the Borks Became by Jonathan Emmet and Elys Dolan (Otter Barry Books), Tiny Little Rocket by David Fickling and Richard Collingridge (David Fickling Books), Izzy Gizmo by Pip Jones and Sara Ogilvie (Simon & Schuster) and Space Tortoise by Ross Montgomery (Faber and Faber).

The shortlist will be judged by a panel of scientists and book industry professionals and the winners will be announced at UCLan’s Lancashire Science Festival in June 2019. Each category winner will get a trophy and one overall winner will receive a £1,000 cheque.

There will also be a ‘Your Choice’ prize given to the book with the most votes from schools.