This year’s shortlists for the Booktrust Early Years Awards are out. This is one of the awards I always follow, particularly the Best Emerging Illustrator Award, which is often spot on to highlight new talent (last year Katie Cleminson won it with Box of Tricks, before that it was Tim Hopgood, Emily Gravett, and Catherine Rayner)

The Best Book for babies under one-year-old:

Goodnight Buster ~ Rod Campbell (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Happy Snappy (Mr Croc) ~ Jo Lodge (Hodder Children’s Books)
Hop a Little, Jump a Little ~ Annie Kubler (Child’s Play International Ltd)
I Love My Mummy ~ Giles Andreae, illus. Emma Dodd (Orchard Books)
That’s Not My Tiger ~ Fiona Watt, illus. Rachel Wells (Usborne)
Who’s in the Garden? ~ Phillis Gershator, illus. Jill McDonald (Barefoot Books)




The Best Picture Book for children up to five-years-old:
Ernest ~ Catherine Rayner (Macmillan Children’s Books)
The Fox in the Dark ~ Alison Green, illus. Deborah Allwright (Alison Green Books)
Jeremiah Jellyfish Flies High ~ John Fardell (Andersen Press)
The Night Iceberg ~ Helen Stephens (Alison Green Books)
One Smart Fish ~ Chris Wormell (Jonathan Cape)
Sing a Song of Bottoms ~ Jeanne Willis, illus. Adam Stower (Puffin Books)




Best Emerging Illustrator for children up to five-years-old:
Birdsong ~ Ellie Sandall (Egmont)
The Django ~ Levi Pinfold (Templar)
Dogs Don’t Do Ballet ~ Anna Kemp, illus. by Sara Ogilvie (Simon and Schuster)
Jack Frost ~ Kazuno Kohara (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Jeremiah Jellyfish Flies High ~ John Fardell (Andersen Press)
The Talent Show ~ Jo Hodgkinson (Andersen Press)

I have added links to those that I have already reviewed on here. I have not reviewed Sing a Sing of Bottoms and Dogs Don’t Do Ballet yet but they are both two firm favourites in our house, particularly the latter one which is fantastic to read aloud. My nearly eight year-old son absolutely loves it, despite obviously despising anything to do with ballet!