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Authors including Pat Barker, Afua Hirsch, Julia Donaldson and Britta Teckentrup are shortlisted for the Independent Bookshop Week (IBW) Book Awards, as voted for by independent booksellers.
The awards - now in their 13th year - span three different categories: adult, children’s and picture book. The adult shortlist features Barker’s feminist retelling of the Iliad, The Silence of the Girls (Penguin), and Hirsch’s exploration of racism in Britain, Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging (Vintage), along with titles by Tara Westover, Imogen Hermes Gowar and Stephen Fry.
In the children’s shortlist The Skylarks’ War by Hilary McKay (Macmillan Children’s Books), Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Orion Children’s Books) and No Ballet Shoes in Syria by Catherine Bruton (Nosy Crow) all feature, and in the picture book category the shortlist includes Girls Can Do Anything by Caryl Hart, illustrated by Ali Pye (Scholastic) and If All the World Were… by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Allison Colpoys (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books).
The winners will be chosen by a panel of booksellers, authors and influencers and announced on 14th June, the day before the official start of IBW (15th-22nd June), during which time many of the shortlisted authors, including Kes Gray, Emily Haworth-Booth and Catherine Bruton, will visit independent bookshops.
The shortlists in full:
ADULT:
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (Penguin)
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar (Vintage)
Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan (Square Peg)
Educated by Tara Westover (Windmill Books)
The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story by Christie Watson (Vintage)
Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry (Penguin)
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (Penguin)
Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees by Thor Hanson (Icon Books)
Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging by Afua Hirsch (Vintage)
Diversify: How to Challenge Inequality and Why We Should by June Sarpong (HQ)
CHILDREN’S:
The Skylarks’ War by Hilary McKay (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Moonrise by Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury)
The Steam Whistle Theatre Company by Vivian French (Walker Books)
The Storm Keeper’s Island by Catherine Doyle (Bloomsbury)
The Weight of a Thousand Feathers by Brian Conaghan (Bloomsbury)
The Train to Impossible Places by P.G. Bell, illustrated by Flavia Sorrentino (Usborne)
Our Castle by the Sea by Lucy Strange (Chicken House)
The Day I was Erased by Lisa Thompson (Scholastic)
The Clockwork Crow by Catherine Fisher (Firefly Press)
Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Orion Children’s Books)
The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf, illustrated by Pippa Curnick (Orion Children’s Books)
No Ballet Shoes in Syria by Catherine Bruton (Nosy Crow)
PICTURE BOOK:
Franklin’s Flying Bookshop by Jen Campbell illustrated by Katie Harnett (Thames & Hudson)
Under the Same Sky by Britta Teckentrup (Caterpillar Books)
The King Who Banned the Dark by Emily Haworth-Booth (Pavilion Children’s Books)
Ruby’s Worry by Tom Percival (Bloomsbury)
The Cook and The King by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by David Roberts (Macmillan Children’s Books)
The Girls by Lauren Ace, illustrated by Jenny Løvlie (Caterpillar Books)
Everybody’s Welcome by Patricia Hegarty, illustrated by Greg Abbott (Caterpillar Books)
Girls Can Do Anything by Caryl Hart, illustrated by Ali Pye (Scholastic)
You’re Called What?! by Kes Gray, illustrated by Nikki Dyson (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Little Bear’s Spring by Elli Woollard, illustrated by Briony May Smith (Macmillan Children’s Books)
If All the World Were… by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Allison Colpoys (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books)
All the Ways to be Smart by Davina Bell, illustrated by Allison Colpoys (Scribble)