The Scottish Children’s Book Awards shortlist is announced today!

The Scottish Children’s Book Awards shortlist, celebrating the most popular children’s and young adult books by Scottish authors or illustrators, has been announced today.

Run by Scottish Book Trust with support from Creative Scotland, and voted for entirely by children, these are Scotland’s largest book awards, with a total prize fund of £12,000. Shortlisted authors and illustrators receive £500 per book, and the three winning books receive £3,000 each.

Here’s the shortlist in full:

Bookbug Readers (3-7 years)

Princess Penelope and the Runaway Kitten by Alison Murray (Nosy Crow)

Robot Rumpus by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Ross Collins (Andersen Press)

Lost for Words by Natalie Russell (Macmillan)

Younger Readers (8-11 years)

Precious and the Mystery of the Missing Lion by Alexander McCall Smith (Birlinn)

Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens by Alex McCall (Kelpies)

Pyrate’s Boy by E.B. Collin (Kelpies)

Older Readers (12-16 years)

Dark Spell by Gill Arbuthnott (Kelpies)

The Wall by William Sutcliffe (Bloomsbury)

Mosi’s War by Cathy MacPhail (Bloomsbury)

Over the next five months, children the length and breadth of Scotland will be reading the three shortlisted books in their age category and voting for their favourite. The three winning books will be announced at a special award ceremony on 4 March 2014.

This is the eighth year that Scottish Book Trust has been running the awards. Voting numbers have increased dramatically year on year, with over 38,000 children voting last year.