We are delighted to announce the longlist for the Best Children’s Illustrated Picture Book competition. Many congratulations to everyone who entered. Illustrator/authors, we salute you, as it’s incredibly difficult to be skilled at both the illustrations and the text. For this competition we also received entries from illustrator and author pairs. It was wonderful to see people collaborating–some for the first time–learning from the experience and creating gorgeous picture books together.
The standard was high and many entries only missed out on being longlisted by a whisker. You are all so talented. Keep going. Keep illustrating and writing.
Best Children’s Illustrated Picture Book Longlist 2023
Don’t Worry Wilby
Emmie Finds Everything
Grace Takes the Lead
How Digby Earned His Wolfpack Name
How To Be Me
Little Wolf
Max
Molly: the Mackerel Who Wanted to be Better
O’win & the Moon
Pan’s Perfect Plan
Puff Puff
Squiggle’s Wriggle
Stinky Cyril
That Night
The Go Away Rain Dance
The Owl Who Wanted to Sing
The Paper Boat
Tyrano-ROAR-us Rex
What if you Would Catch the Sun?
Worm
Our highly regarded judge, CEO of CWLA Caroline Wakeman, will now read the longlisted entries and decide the top 10 stories, including an overall winner. Results will be published on 31st May.
If you’re one of our longlistees, feel free to shout from the rooftops but please don’t identify the title of your story on social media while judging continues. Best of luck!
Thank you all for sharing your marvellous stories with us. We hope to see your artwork and read your writing again soon.