James Reckitt Hull Children’s Book Award Shortlists 2024

The ‘must-read’ children’s books of the year have been announced as the shortlist for the 17th James Reckitt Hull Children’s Book Award is released.

The awards aim to foster a love of reading by introducing young people to new writers and titles they might not normally pick up.

Children from schools around the city will once again be receiving a delivery of exciting newly published books and will also be given the opportunity to meet their authors in the coming months. It will be then up to the pupils to vote for their favourite story in National Storytelling Week (Picture Book Award) and at The Big Malarkey Festival in June, to decide who should be crowned the winners.

Separated into three age categories, the shortlists are as follows:

EYFS/KS1 Picture Book Award Shortlist:

• Skunk! Skedaddle! - Peter Bently / Laurie Stansfield (Andersen Press)
• Holey Moley - Bethan Clarke / Anders Frang (Little Tiger Books)
• Mavis the Bravest - Lu Fraser / Sarah Warburton (Simon & Schuster)
• When Cookie Crumbled - Michelle Robinson / Tom Knight (Scholastic) *WINNER*
• Dick the Delightful Duck - Kaye Umansky / Ben Mantle (Scholastic)

The KS2 Shortlist:

• Lost on Gibbon Island - Jess Butterworth (Orion)
• Finn Jones Was Here - Simon James Green (Scholastic)
• Jamie - L.D. Lapinski (Orion)
• Emba Oak and the Terrible Tomorrows - Jenny Moore (Maverick Books)
• Son of the Sea - Richard Pickard (Chicken House)

The KS3 Shortlist:

• Until the Road Ends - Phil Earle (Andersen Press)
  
• The Detention Detectives - Lis Jardine (Puffin)
• The House Trap - Emma Read (Chicken House)
• Valentine Crow and Mr Death - Jenni Spangler (Simon & Schuster)
• Quiet Storm - Kimberley Whittam (Usborne)

Michelle Alford, Director of Hull Libraries, explained:

“We are thrilled to start the New Year by announcing the shortlisted entries for the James Reckitt Hull Children’s Book Award”.

Over the course of last year, newly published titles, suitable for young people throughout the primary age range and into KS3, were read by Hull Libraries’ army of volunteers, who reviewed and scored each title. This information was then used to draw up the shortlist.

Michelle continued:

“We are delighted that this year we are able to bring the Book Awards to a wider audience, with children across the city able to join in with the challenge at their local library.

Creating life-long readers is integral to the work of Hull Libraries and Hull Schools’ Library Service, and this initiative goes such a long way to achieve this aim.”

For further information about the James Reckitt Hull Children's Book Award contact: [email protected]