The Costa Children’s Book Award shortlist is announced

This year's Costa Award category shortlists have been announced. Of course, the category closest to our hearts is the 2019 Costa Children’s Book Award. Here's the shortlist:

The category winners will be revealed on Monday 6th January 2020 and the overall Costa Book of the Year will be announced Tuesday 28th January 2020.

Have you read them all yet? Got some catching up to do? You can get all four shortlisted books in a special offer bundle for £30. Get reading, as we'll be sharing our thoughts on the shortlist and creating some polls to see who you think should win.

About the Costa Book Award

Launched in 1971, the Costa Book Awards is one of the UK's most prestigious and popular book prizes and celebrates the most enjoyable books of the year by writers resident in the UK and Ireland.

Uniquely, the prize has five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book – with one of the five winning books selected as the overall Costa Book of the year and each category is judged separately by a panel of three judges per category. The Costa Book of the Year is then chosen by a nine-member panel which includes representatives from the original panels who are joined by other well-known people who love reading.

Books are entered by publishers and entry for the Awards closes at the end of June each year. The author of the Costa Book of the Year receives a cheque for £30,000, presented at an awards ceremony at the end of January.

Books of the Year have included ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ by Mark Haddon, ‘Behind the Scenes at the Museum’ by Kate Atkinson and ‘The Amber Spyglass’ by Philip Pullman.

The judges for the Children's Book Award for 2019 will be:

  • Charlotte Eyre (Children’s Editor, The Bookseller) 
  • Bali Rai (Writer) 
  • Danny van Emden (Children’s Buyer and Deputy Manager, West End Lane Books)

Milton the Mighty by Emma Read

Milton was strolling home after a weekend away in the downstairs loo, when he heard the scream.

He froze. It was coming from the big house human, but it wasn’t an ordinary scream. It was an all-eight-leg wobbler, as his dad would’ve said.

Surely he’s not screaming like that at me?

And that is how we meet Milton the house spider. Utterly unterrifying and occasionally mistaken for a raisin, Milton discovers he’s been branded deadly. Alongside his buddies, big hairy Ralph and daddy-long-legs Audrey, he decides to clear his name. But to succeed, Milton must befriend his house human, Zoe. Is Milton mighty enough to achieve the impossible?

Fast-paced and fabulously funny, this arachnid adventure has it all. Quirky villains, a team of heroes, a girl who knows a lot more than her parent, and some lessons in social media and fake news. Milton the Mighty also contains some super spider facts at the end.  Perfect for newly independent readers and great for KS1/ lower KS2.

Milton the Mighty by Emma Read with illustrations by Alex G Griffiths. Available now from our online shop.

Lily and the Rockets – Rebecca Stevens

‘Whatever you decide to do,’ he used to say, ‘there’ll be people who’ll tell you not to, say it’ll be too hard, you won’t like it, it’s not for the likes of you. They’ll try and stop you, Lily-oh. But you mustn’t let them. Listen to me, girl. You Must Not Let Them!’

Lily and the Rockets – Rebecca Stevens

It’s 1917. Lily spends her days working in a munitions factory, her nights picking metal out of her hair, and her lunchtimes kicking a ball with her workmates. Together they form a football team, the Rockets, and a league soon follows.

But when the war ends, the girls lose both their jobs and their football. Not Lily. If her only chance of being a goalie is to play with the men, then that’s what she’ll do …

An empowering story about having the courage to be yourself and follow your dreams. Brilliant for 10+

We love the beautiful cover illustration by Harriet Taylor Seed.