Results – Best Children’s Picture Book Text 2024

Jane Mooney with Cyril the One-Eyed Monster

Jane always thought she’d be a writer when she grew up, but somehow ended up doing a degree in biology, became a computer programmer and then a business analyst. (What does a business analyst do? No-one knows!) Eventually she grew up and started writing again, first short stories and flash fiction, and then her first love…children’s fiction. Jane lives in West Yorkshire where she enjoys walking in the Pennine hills and watching the sun set.

Catherine Friess with Buggy Diner Mystery

Catherine Friess writes picture books, chapter books and middle-grade. Her stories have been longlisted and shortlisted in various WriteMentor competitions and two of her picture books are on the Searchlight Awards’ shortlist. As a parent and former primary school teacher, Catherine is passionate about sharing her joy of books and reading. She recommends a wide range of children’s books on her long-running book blog, ‘Story Snug’.

Catherine Friess with Garden Magic

Catherine Friess writes picture books, chapter books and middle-grade. Her stories have been longlisted and shortlisted in various WriteMentor competitions and two of her picture books are on the Searchlight Awards’ shortlist. As a parent and former primary school teacher, Catherine is passionate about sharing her joy of books and reading. She recommends a wide range of children’s books on her long-running book blog, ‘Story Snug’.

Libby Hartwell with The Rollaway Egg

Libby spent over 25 years reading picture books and chapter books daily to children in her class and now spends her time writing them. She splits her time between Buckinghamshire and The Netherlands, and it was the sights and sounds of The Hague that inspired this story. Libby’s stories have won both the I Am In Print/Little Tiger Picture Book Prize and the SCBWI Slush Pile Challenge. They have also been runner-up in the WriteMentor Chapter Book Award and shortlisted for the WriteMentor Picture Book and the Searchlight Best Chapter Book Awards. Libby is now on the lookout for an agent to champion her work.

Sue Newton with The Jiggy Piggy

When she was young, Sue decided she was going to be an actor, and a ‘story-writer’ and a teacher when she grew up. (There were no ‘ors’−she saw no reason why she couldn’t be all three). Fast forward a few years and Sue found herself teaching infants (well one out of three ain’t bad!) where her favourite lessons were art and creative writing. She now spends her days following her passion for picture books, writing in prose and rhyme, and also painting pet portraits. She is an active member of SCBWI and two amazing critique groups and last year she was excited to be selected for the Searchlight Awards shortlist and also the longlist of the WriteMentor Picture Book Awards. She no longer teaches, has given up on her dream of being the next Julie Walters and very much hopes to be a story-writer when she grows up.

Serafina Finnegan with The Storyteller

Serafina Finnegan is a children’s author and award-winning poet. Serafina was accepted into the 2025 Write/Submit/Support elite picture book writing program run by The Writing Barn. She is also a 2024 PBParty Finalist, a 2023 mentee of the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature, a two-time winner of the Raynor Wallace Award for Poetry, and an active member of SCBWI, 12×12, The Writing Barn, and the Virginia Writers Club. She writes moving, lyrical picture books which respect the complex inner lives of children. Her characters learn the power of cultural storytelling, the importance of generational memories, and find strengths they didn’t know they had.

Lou Piccolo with Tummy Mummy

Born in South Africa, but currently based in the French Alps, Lou Piccolo is a developmental editor and author of children’s literature, and a poet at heart. She owns Rhyme Made Easy(er)—a membership for rhymers to hone their skills−and is published in children’s magazines and poetry anthologies. Lou is currently working on a middle-grade verse novel, but you’ll often find her on the trails, with her two sons and Golden Retriever, making great memories she can then use to write good stories. Come on over to visit Lou and view her work at her online home at loupiccolo.com.

Sheena Garg with The Best Rangoli Ever

Sheena Garg is an emerging children’s writer passionate about bringing South Asian stories to young readers. She is beyond obsessed with children’s books and reads more picture books than her two little kids!

She won the Orange Beak opportunity in 2025, the Children’s Book North mentorship in 2024, and the 12×12 Challenge Diversity Scholarship in 2024. Her story The Best Rangoli Ever was shortlisted by WriteMentor in 2024, and she was selected for the HarperCollins Author Academy in 2023. Sheena is an active member of the South Asian KidLit community, where she hosts monthly webinars interviewing authors, publishers, and illustrators.

In 2021, frustrated by the lack of diverse picture books, Sheena began writing the stories she wished she could find for her daughter. Since then, she has self-published two books: Myra Plays Holi (English), embraced by The National Association of Religious Education (NATRE), and Gapagap (Hindi), serving the South Asian diaspora in the US, UK, and Australia. Sheena aspires to be traditionally published.

Penny Clarke with Little Mouse Yawns

An editor in a former life, Penny has spent nearly twenty years working with three-to-five-year-olds in different Early Years settings. She lives in Edinburgh, has two grown-up children and if she’s not working or writing, you’ll probably find her on her bike, up a climbing wall or in the sea.