The shortlists for the English 4-11 Picture Book Awards have been announced. Established in 1995, the awards celebrate books where text and pictures work together to provide an engaging reading experience across four award categories:

• Fiction aged 4-7
• Non-Fiction aged 4-7
• Fiction aged 7-11
• Non-Fiction aged 7-11

In addition, one of the books submitted will be chosen as the recipient of the Margaret Mallett Award for Children’s Non-Fiction, a prize set up in 2017 to honour former Fellow of the English Association, book reviewer and passionate children’s book advocate Margaret Mallett.

Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors and illustrators!

Fiction 4-7 

Oh! Look, A Boat by Andrew J Ross (Flying Eye Books)

Who Ate Steve? by Susannah Lloyd, illustrated by Kate Hindley (Nosy Crow)

Colin’s Castle by Holly Swain (Farshore)

Troll by Frances Stickley, illustrated by Stefano Martinuz (Magic Cat Publishing)

 

Non-Fiction 4-7

My First Ocean Atlas by Catherine Ard, illustrated by Paul Daviz (Weldon Owen Children’s Books)

Mushrooms Know by Kallie George, illustrated by Sara Gillingham (Greystone Kids)

Family by Patricia Hegarty, illustrated by Britta Teckentrup (Little Tiger)

Time Runs Like a River by Emma Carlisle (Big Picture Press)

 

Fiction 7-11

Beenie the Bansheenie by Eoin Colfer, illustrated by Steve McCarthy (Walker Books)

Blitz: One Family’s War by Martin Impey (Harbour Moon Publishing)

The Magic Callaloo by Trish Cooke, illustrated by Sophie Bass (Walker Books)

 

Non-Fiction 7-11

Beasts from the Deep by Matt Ralphs, illustrated by Kaley McKean (Nosy Crow)

Ayo’s Adventure: Across the African Diaspora from Afro to Zulu by Ain Heath Drew, illustrated by Erin K Robinson (Barefoot Books)

Into the Volcano by Catherine Ard, illustrated by Wenjia Tang (Flying Eye Books)

Me and My Hair by Kimberley Kinloch, illustrated by Jessica Gibson and Sandra Becker Borrée (Usborne Publishing)

The winners of each category along with the winner of the Margaret Mallett Award 2025 will be announced on 28th April.

For more children’s book awards, click here.