Picture Book of the Year

This award celebrates the creativity and craft involved in producing books for younger children in which illustration plays a key and dominant part. The winning entry will surprise and delight, combining pictures with words to create an engaging tale that lends itself to being read aloud.

Shortlist 2026

Baxter's View

Author & illustrator Kerri Cunningham

Fox & Ink Books

Don't Trust Fish!

Neil Sharpson

Illustrator - Dan Santat

Andersen Press

The Best Jollof Rice Ever!

Author & illustrator - Onyinye Iwu

Otter-Barry Books

The Forever Bear

Lu Fraser

Illustrator - Pippa Curnick

Bloomsbury Children's Books

There's A Shark In My Pants!

Michelle Harrison

Illustrator - David Tazzyman

Simon & Schuster Children's Books

Tiger, Don't Worry!

Daishu Ma

Post Wave Children's Books