Libraries Sheffield: The Sheffield Children's Book Award

The Sheffield Children's Book Award is brought to you by Sheffield Libraries and is a celebration of our favourite children's books of the year! This Award is a way to share with you books that children will love to read, whilst also promoting inclusion, diversity and empathy in great stories.

Right about now we would ordinarily be counting up your votes for this year's shortlisted titles, readying for our ceremony in November, but like many things, Covid-19 has meant a change of plans. Don't fear, the book award is still happening, but we've moved it over to next year where we will hopefully have a bumper double, and most importantly safe, celebration of titles in 2021

However, we still have an exciting bunch of beautiful books that we want to promote and enjoy on this year's shortlist so for the next few weeks we'll be blogging about each category of shortlisted titles and giving you a closer look at each one.

Vote for your Favourite!

Why not read the books for yourself and let us know which is your favourite?

Get a closer look at each title in our Instagram Highlights

Then submit your vote via our online form.

Emerging Reads

Our third category is the Emerging Reads, Brilliant books to get children dipping their toes into their first attempts at reading. Still highly illustrated, but with more words designed to engage beginner readers.

The Missing Bookshop

Written by Katie Clapham

Illustrated by Kirsti Beautyman

Published by Stripes

Milly loves going to story time at her local bookshop. Mrs Minty is an encyclopaedia of books and knows the perfect story for every occasion ... tales of mischievous children and far away lands, magical beats and daring adventures. But the bookshop is old and creaky, just like Mrs Minty herself. And then one day Milly arrives to find the shop gone! What has happened to Mrs Minty and her irreplaceable bookshops?

A warm and uplifting tale about the importance of stories.

Watch the trailer for The Missing Bookshop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f06hEMPHluk

Level Up!

Written by Tom Nicoll

Illustrated by Anjan Sarker

Published by Stripes

Video game obsessed Flo gets more than she bargained for when she finds herself INSIDE her favourite game. Turns out, virtual reality isn't as much fun when it's not so virtual.

An engaging page turner for those getting to grips with reading.

The Paninis of Pompeii

Written by Andy Stanton

Illustrated by Sholto Walker

Published by Egmont

Welcome to the last days of Pompeii as you've NEVER imagined them before! Join fart-trader Caecilius, his wife, Vesuvius and their ten year old song, Filius, in a bizarre world of accidental gladiators, pizza-emitting volcanoes and the legendary Ma-wol-n-f.

Full of ludicrous characters, surreal escapades and outrageous word play - if you thought Mr Gum was weird, then get a load of the Ancient Pompeiians!

Watch Andy Stanton read from The Paninis of Pompeii.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQwjtRcwscU&t=21s