Blue Peter Book Awards 2013 - shortlist announced

From Roald Dahl's writing shed to a scientific house of horrors and some fishy business

The shortlist for this year's Blue Peter Book Award was announced today on Blue Peter.

The six books, which will now go to a children's vote to decide the overall winners, include a novel about a boy called Stan and his close encounters with fish; a biography of Roald Dahl by a former Children’s Laureate; Shirley Hughes’ first novel – a tale of daring set in Italy during World War II; a handbook for the grim and gruesome science of everyday life; the latest installment of inspiration (mostly) from Tom Gates; and a true-life account of the British Army’s first black officer, who also happened to be a brilliant footballer.  

The Blue Peter Book Awards 2013 shortlist is:

Best Story

• The Boy who Swam With Piranhas by David Almond, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers (Walker Books)
• Hero on a Bicycle by Shirley Hughes (Walker Books)
• Tom Gates – Genius Ideas (Mostly) by Liz Pichon (Scholastic)

Best Book with Facts

• Horrible Science: House of Horrors by Nick Arnold & Tony De Saulles (Scholastic)
• Walter Tull’s Scrapbook by Michaela Morgan (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books)
• Fantastic Mr Dahl by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Quentin Blake (Puffin)

Columnist and author of How to be a Woman Caitlin Moran is among the judges who have selected the six books for the shortlist. She comments:

When I look at the final six I just want to go back in and read them again. There’s something lovely about seeing them all fanned out – it looks like a little world. Books always to me look like doors into other worlds and there are six doors lined up there now and I want to go back through every single one and roam around in those worlds again.

The other judges are: children’s author of How to Train Your Dragon, Cressida Cowell; librarian extraordinaire Jake Hope; and Blue Peter Editor Tim Levell, who chairs the panel. They were looking for the best two fiction and non-fiction titles that would appeal to boys and girls, aged between 6 and 12.

Tim Levell, Editor of Blue Peter and Chair of Judges, comments of the shortlisted books:

They’re funny, kooky, spine-chilling and eye-opening. No matter how much or little kids like reading, there’s something here they’ll want to pick up and we hope it will get children excited and talking about the ones they want to win.

The shortlisted books will now be judged by more than 200 young Blue Peter viewers drawn from 10 schools across the UK, who will decide the winners of the Blue Peter Book of the Year 2013 in each of the two categories: Best Story and Best Book with Facts. The winners will be announced and awarded a Blue Peter trophy on a special edition of Blue Peter dedicated to children’s books on Thursday 7 March 2013, to coincide with World Book Day.

Find out more about the Blue Peter Book Awards

Read more about what our judges made of the six shortlisted books