We are excited to announce the results for the Best Children’s Illustrated Picture Book 2023 competition. With such an incredibly strong longlist to choose from our judge Caroline Wakeman, CEO of CWLA, had an almost impossible task to select the top 10 and an overall winner. All the longlisted stories are brilliant!

But here are the highly anticipated results:
Winner
Don’t Worry Wilby by Dannii Summerfield
Shortlisted Entries
How To Be Me by Amy Dodero and Anastasia Vârlan
Little Wolf by Hannah Siehoff
Molly: the Mackerel Who Wanted to be Better by Suzanne Dore
Pan’s Perfect Plan by Wendy Bowen
Puff Puff by Irene Omiunu
Squiggle’s Wriggle by Andy Malpica and Jonathan Sellars
Stinky Cyril by Jacqui King and Samantha LeDuc
The Go Away Rain Dance by Claire Lewis
The Paper Boat by Nikhil Kaimal and Yogesh Mahajan
Many congratulations to our final 10. We absolutely love these stories and look forward to including them in Searchlight’s agent/publisher pitch book. Congratulations to everyone who entered. We’ve been incredibly impressed by your ideas, illustrations and writing. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to read your work.