Drum roll, please! It’s time to announce the results for Searchlight’s Best Children’s Picture Book Text 2023 competition. Like last year, we were bowled over by the quality of the writing and we thoroughly enjoyed reading all the entries. Huge congratulations to our longlistees for being the best of the best.
Guest judge Becky Bagnell of Lindsay Literary Agency had the task of narrowing this group further to the top 10 stories, including an overall winner. Every longlisted story sparkled in different ways, making the final selection exceptionally difficult.
But here are the long-awaited results:
Winner
Milo’s Secret Jar by Sarah Dollar
Shortlisted Entries
Adrian the Alien by Claire Lewis
George and Maxwell go to the Market by Charlotte Tulinius
I am a Volcano by Tracy Bullock
Mummy Bernard by Sue Newton
Tadpole, Tadpole, What Do You See? by Carol Jones
The Island of Shhh by Catherine Leung
The Tiger Feather by Victoria Gatehouse
What Sort of Dog is That? by Sharon Dalgleish
Zazzy Z The Last Letter by Helen Addyman
Well done to our final 10.
Becky Bagnell said this about Sarah Dollar’s winning entry: “After a lot of consideration I’ve decided that Milo’s Secret Jar was the one that I kept coming back to and couldn’t stop thinking about. It’s beautifully written with a strong and lyrical voice and tackles a subject that is quite unusual in picture books. I think this author has a lot of potential and so I’ll definitely be asking them to get in touch if they’re looking for representation!”
Congratulations as well to all our entrants. Thank you for being brave and allowing us to read your writing. It has been a pleasure and a privilege. Keep going!