Oscar’s Book Prize 2023: The Shortlist
Oscar’s Book Prize is an annual award searching for the best illustrated book for young children. The Prize, which is celebrating its tenth year, was set up by James Ashton and Viveka Alvestrand to celebrate magical stories for children in memory of their son Oscar, who was three-and-a-half when he died from an undiagnosed heart condition in December 2012.
This year’s shortlist was selected by a judging panel including Cressida Cowell, the former Children’s Laureate and author of the best-selling children’s book series How to Train Your Dragon; The British Book Awards ‘Illustrator of the Year 2022’ Dapo Adeola; and author and two-time winner of Oscar’s Book Prize, Benji Davies. Completing the panel is Lisa de Meyer, the UK Books Country Manager at Amazon.co.uk and the Prize co-founder, Viveka Alvestrand.
The winner will be announced by the award’s patron, Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice, at a ceremony on 9 May 2023 in central London.
The shortlist for Oscar’s Book Prize 2023 is as follows:
Ahoy there! It's time to sail the ocean blue with Billy and her trusty feline friend, as they embark on a noble seafaring adventure to escape Captain Howl in their third thrilling outing, filled with singing mermaids and sticky toffee eating sharks. Fortunately for our courageous twosome, they're no strangers to peril: they always have a trick (or treat) up their sleeves.
Grumpy George doesn’t want friends – until he meets a funny little seal called Pebble…
George the dog loves living alone on his island. He likes to do everything his own way, and friends would just ruin things, until one day he meets a cheerful little seal named Pebble, and she’s determined to be George’s friend, whether he likes it or not. Can this odd couple ever become friends?
Frank and Bert are the best of friends and they love to play hide and seek, but Bert the bear isn't quite as good at hiding as he thinks, and Frank always ends up winning.
Upon playing again, Frank has to decide between winning or making his friend happy and learns that friendship is always the true winner.
Something or someone is living inside Duck's teapot! Who are they? What do they want? How will we get them out? Never fear, for Tiny Horse is here!
Tiny Horse has a trampoline. She has a magnificent hat. She has a stick of celery. What more could anyone need to save the day?
David is the boy with flowers in his hair. He’s sweet and gentle, just like his petals. But when David’s flowers begin to fall – a single petal at first, then every last blossom – his best friend never leaves his side. And through kindness and creativity, he even finds a way to give David his colour back…
Goldy the gecko wants one thing: to be a star. But in the quest for stardom, Goldy loses perspective when a performance starts to go wrong, the little gecko discovers that friendship means so much more than fame. When you treat the world with love, then love will come echoing back.