The Astounding Broccoli Boy heads up nominees for Blue Peter Book Awards

See which six children’s books made the shortlist for this year’s awards

The shortlist for the celebrated Blue Peter Book Awards, which are managed by children’s reading charity BookTrust, has been announced, celebrating the best authors, most creative illustrators and the greatest reads for children.

This year’s nominees are:

Best Story
 The Astounding Broccoli Boy written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce and illustrated by Steven Lenton
 The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair written by Lara Williamson
 The Nowhere Emporium written by Ross MacKenzie

Best Book with Facts
 The Epic Book of Epicness written and illustrated by Adam Frost
 The Silly Book of Weird and Wacky Words written by Andy Seed and illustrated by Scott Garrett
 FactFeed written by Penny Arlon

The judges for this year are TV presenter Angellica Bell, National Literacy Trust Programme Manager, Jim Sells, winner of the Blue Peter Best Story 2015, Pamela Butchart and Blue Peter editor Ewan Vinnicombe has a non-voting chair.

The winners will be decided by more than 200 schoolchildren from ten schools across the UK, who will read the shortlisted books and vote for their favourites in each category. The two winning books will be announced on the Blue Peter programme scheduled for World Book Day on 3 March 2016 and will be announced by Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell.

Previous winners include Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell (2014), Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers (2006) and Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo (2005)

Keep up-to-date with the Awards at booktrust.org.uk and on Twitter by following @Booktrust and #BPBA