Oscar's Book Prize

Oscar’s Book Prize is an annual prize for the best picture book of the year for young children. As of 2021, the Prize awards the winner(s) £10,000. The prize is awarded in memory of Oscar Ashton and runs in partnership with Amazon, supported by the Evening Standard. Oscar Ashton was three-and-a-half when he died from an undetected heart condition in December 2012. He collapsed on the journey home to London after a pre-Christmas trip to see his grandparents.

We wrestled with how to commemorate him. By launching Oscar’s Book Prize, a hunt for the best pre-school book of the year, we aimed to celebrate a child’s love for magical stories. They are the books that our son rifled through eagerly and helped to foster his vivid imagination. Now in its twelfth year, Oscar’s Book Prize it will continue to reward the brilliant creativity of early-years literature and highlight the importance of reading with children.

2025 Winner

Bookseller blurb: When Stella makes a new friend and doesn't need her imaginary friend, Arlo, anymore, can he find his own path? One night, Arlo comes for Stella. Soon, he becomes her very best friend and they do everything together, just the two of them. But when Stella meets Sid, the boy who moves in next door, everything changes. Poor Arlo feels forgotten. Perhaps Stella doesn’t need him any more. Maybe it’s time Arlo finds a friend of his own who will be with him always.

OBP judge Smriti Halls said: “It’s a tenderly, beautifully spun story which I just loved. We go on quite a journey in this book, but we come out at the other end feeling uplifted.”

See other books by Polly Noakes here.

Shortlist for Oscar’s Book Prize 2025

• All You Need to Know About Dogs by Fred Blunt (Happy Yak)
• Gina Kaminski Rescues the Giant by Craig Barr-Green and Francis Martin (Little Tiger)
• Hank Goes Honk by Maudie Powell-Tuck and Duncan Beedie (Little Tiger)
• Just the Two of Us by Polly Noakes (Andersen Press)
• Terrible Horses by Raymond Antrobus and Ken Wilson-Max (Walker)
• There’s a Tiger on the Train by Mariesa Dulak and Rebecca Cobb (Faber)

Here are some previous winners - you can see the full list here.

The Storm Whale 2014 Winner

How to be a lion 2019 Winner

2020 Winner

2021 Winner

2024 Winner

One of the books on the 2024 shortlist was this one:

The Hare-Shaped Hole

Here is the 2023 short list:

• Billy and the Pirates by Nadia Shireen (Penguin Random House – Children’s Puffin)
• Can I Play? by Nicola Kinnear (Alison Green – Scholastic)
• Frank and Bert by Chris Naylor Ballesteros (Nosy Crow)
• Teapot Trouble: A Duck and Tiny Horse Adventure by Morag Hood (Two Hoots)
• The Gecko and the Echo by Rachel Bright and Jim Field (Hachette Children’s Group – Orchard)
• The Boy with Flowers in His Hair by Jarvis (Walker Books)