James Reckitt Hull Children’s Book Award Shortlists 2025

The ‘must-read’ children’s books of the year have been announced as the shortlist for the 18th 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 in February (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:

• Clive Penguin - Hew Lewis Jones / Ben Sanders (Little Tiger)

• Everybody Toots! - Jonny Leighton / Mike Byrne (Buster Books)

• One Goose Two Moose - Kael Tudor / Nicola Slater (Scholastic)

• Who Ate Steve? - Susannah Lloyd / Kate Hindley (Nosy Crow)

• Zebracadabra! - Kes Gray / Fred Blunt (Hodder)

The KS2 Book Award Shortlist:

• The Secret of Golden Island - Natasha Farrant (Faber and Faber)
• The Cheat Book Vol. 1 - Ramzee (Hachette)
• The Clockwork Conspiracy - Sam Sedgman (Bloomsbury)
• The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts - Alex Bell (Faber and Faber)
• The Letter with the Golden Stamp - Onjali Q Rauf (Orion)

The KS3 Book Award Shortlist:

• I am Wolf - Alastair Chisholm (Nosy Crow)
• The Double Life of Ted Amos - Simon James Green (Scholastic)
• The Hidden Story of Estie Noor - Nadine Aisha Jassat (Orion)
• The Wrong Shoes - Tom Percival (Simon and Schuster)
• Tidemagic: The Many Faces of Ista Flit - Clare Harlow (Puffin)

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. 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.”

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.

Previous award winners have included Simon James Green, Ross Montgomery and Helen Rutter - a list of all our winners can be found here:

https://jreckittlibrarytrust.co.uk/projects/james-reckitt-hull-childrens-book-award

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