Blog

First of all, we’d like to extend a massive thank you to everyone who entered this year’s Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition. The standard of entries was incredibly high and our team of readers had a virtually IMPOSSIBLE task in whittling them down to the final eighteen. But we did it, and the wait is finally over! We’re incredibly proud of our longlist this year, which is beautifully diverse and full of sizzling potential! So, without further ado …

Big Man by Michael Lee Richardson
Crow by Julie Hayman
Fergus Goole and the Nowhere Nobodies by Tom Vaughn
Jack Dark and the Figment Hunters by Estella Shardlow & Hamish Davidson
Jelly by Clare Rees
Lost in the Depths by John Durant
Missy by Rowena Woods
Morgana Mage in the Robotic Age by Amy Bond
Pirating for Beginners by Beverley White
Sand’ary by Helen Parry-Hughes
Snow Egg by Rachel Davison
Storm House by Mark Hibbett
The Firestone of Avisriel by Alison Padley-Woods
The Furies by Victoria Richards
The Lion and the Unicorn by Trudi Tweedie
The Secret of the Scarlet Ribbon by Justin Strain
The Strange Case of the Prime Minister’s PLOP by Jenny Pearson
The Theory of Overlapping Elephants by Joanna Bradshaw

Huge congratulations to all our longlisted authors! Keep an eye out for our shortlist, due to be decided next month – we can’t wait to see which of these amazing titles reaches the next stage …