Shortlists announced for Waterstones Children's Book Prize

Eighteen books in three categories will now compete for the overall prize

Each Waterstones Children's Book Prize category winner will get £2,000, and the overall winner will receive an additional £3,000.

'Within these shortlists are books containing great beauty, humour, intrigue, imagination and important things to say, but most crucially all are fantastically good reads,' said Waterstones MD James Daunt. 'Their diversity and quality, carrying with them the stamp of excellence as awarded by our expert booksellers, demonstrates that the world of children's books is as exciting and innovative as ever.'

The winners will be announced on 21 March.

The shortlists are:

Picture books
• Lunchtime, Rebecca Cobb (Macmillan Children's Books)
• Rabbityness, Jo Empson (Child's Play)
• Oh No George!, Chris Haughton (Walker)
• The Worst Princess, Anna Kemp & Sara Ogilvie (Simon & Schuster)
• The Journey Home, Frann Preston-Gannon (Pavilion Children's Books)
• Can You See Sassoon, by Sam Usher (Little Tiger Press)
 
Fiction 5-12
• The Wolf Princess, Cathryn Constable (Chicken House)
• Atticus Claw Breaks the Law, Jennifer Gray (Faber and Faber)
• Wonder, R.J. Palacio (Random House Children's Books)
• The Secret Hen House Theatre, Helen Peters (Nosy Crow)
• The Chronicles of Egg: Deadweather and Sunrise, Geoff Rodkey (Puffin)
• Barry Loser: I Am Not A Loser, Jim Smith (Egmont)
 
Teen
• Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (Random House Children's Books)
• Skin Deep, Laura Jarratt (Egmont)
• Insignia, S.J. Kincaid (Hot Key Books)
• Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury Children's)
• Ketchup Clouds, Annabel Pitcher (Indigo)
• Geekhood: Close Encounters of the Girl Kind, Andy Robb (Little Tiger Press)

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