Former children’s laureate joins shortlists for prestigious children’s book prizes that ‘highlight the diversity and high quality’ in British work

A boy with his head in the clouds; a Kurdish refugee’s tale; helicopter heists, a dancer’s dreams, a mission to save Mars and more

Animal magic, little dinosaurs, dangerous strangers, death-flies and zombies, four lost girls who live wild in the woods and more

James and Lucy Catchpole are a husband-and-wife creative duo, who work in children’s publishing and write picture books that centre disabled characters.

One of the joys of reading books written for children is being transported back to one’s own childhood and the luxury of escaping to a world where good triumphs against the odds, characters g…