The Alligator’s Mouth Award, created by The Alligator’s Mouth children’s bookshop and The Bright Agency, celebrates the best books for 6-8-year-olds. Now in its sixth year, it has longlisted ten books which champions authors and illustrators of highly illustrated children’s fiction.
The full longlist for The Alligator’s Mouth Award 2024:
- Adventuremice: Otter Chaos by Philip Reeve & Sarah McIntyre (David Fickling Books)
- Bear and Bird: The Picnic and Other Stories written & illustrated by Jarvis (Walker Books)
- Bibi and the Box of Fairy Tales written by Vivian French, illustrated by Amy Grimes (Zephyr)
- Blanksy the Street Cat written by Gavin Puckett, illustrated by Allen Fatimaharan (Faber)
- Huxley and Flapjack: Race to the Rescue written by Alan MacDonald, illustrated by Francesca Gambatesa (Little Tiger)
- Izzy the Inventor and the Unexpected Unicorn written by Zanna Davidson, illustrated by Elissa Elwick (Usborne Publishing)
- Kate on the Case: The Headline Hoax written & illustrated by Hannah Peck (Bonnier Books)
- Man-Man and the Tree of Memories written by Yaba Badoe, illustrated by Joelle Avelino, (Zephyr)
- Princess Minna: The Best Princess written by Kirsty Applebaum, illustrated by Sahar Haghgoo (Nosy Crow)
- Tiny, the Secret Adventurer written by Aisha Bushby, illustrated by Kübra Teber (Usborne Publishing)
The judging panel this year included Librarian and Bookseller Zoey Dixon alongside last year’s winner Elys Dolan. They are joined by award winning author/illustrator Sam Usher; Founder of BooksForTopics Alison Leach; and co-owners of The Alligator’s Mouth children’s bookshop, Margaret Wallace-Jones and Tony West.
Books wholesaler Gardners returns as an official partner of the award and are offering independent bookshops across the UK up to 50% discount on all ten longlisted titles from the 6th March 2024 until the 31st July 2024.
The award is also working with Coram Beanstalk, the UK’s first and longest serving children’s national reading charity to run a competition that gives readers the opportunity to win the longlisted books for their school library.
The shortlist will be announced in May 2024. The winner will be announced at the award party in June 2024.
Image Courtesy: The Alligator’s Mouth
