Oscar's Book Prize 2017: final shortlist revealed

Judges for the children's book prize include Strictly Come Dancing presenter Claudia Winkleman 
Book prize judge: Claudia Winkleman
Daniel Hambury
Katie Law @jkatielaw18 April 2017

Overcoming our deepest fears, daring to be different and the pen being mightier than the sword are among the themes of the five books shortlisted for Oscar’s Book Prize 2017.

Strictly Come Dancing presenter Claudia Winkleman, one of our judges this year, declared herself in love with a mouse called Leo, from The Knight Who Wouldn’t Fight, an engaging story about the power of reading.

“A beautiful story and incredibly easy to read. Even the title hooked me in,” she said.

With our other judges — Cathy Rentzenbrink, books editor of the Bookseller magazine and author of the forthcoming A Manual For Heartache; Dan Mucha, director of books at Amazon; and Oscar’s parents, Viveka Alvestrand and Evening Standard columnist James Ashton — Ms Winkleman enjoyed a lively hour and a half choosing the final five. It was a tough call as everyone debated whether a tiger in a garden might be more real than an extinct dodo, or if an oddly dressed dog was more captivating than a book-loving mouse or a can-do koala.

It has been a record year for admissions, with more than 70 entries from the publishers, from which a long list of 13 books were chosen, with help from the Eveline Day Nursery in Wimbledon. This was where book-loving Oscar, who was three and a half when he died of a heart condition in December 2012, was at school.

The most important considerations in our annual hunt for the best pre-school book of the year were not just the power of the story and its illustrations, but whether Oscar himself, to whom this prize is a tribute, would have enjoyed it.

The best books on happiness- in pictures

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The final five are Odd Dog Out by Rob Biddulph; Hello, Mr Dodo by Nicholas John Frith; The Knight Who Wouldn’t Fight by Helen Docherty and Thomas Docherty; The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright and Jim Field; and There’s A Tiger In The Garden by Lizzy Stewart. The winner will be announced on May 15, when Oscar’s Book Prize patron HRH Princess Beatrice will present the winner with the £5,000 prize, which is supported by Amazon and the National Literacy Trust.

To celebrate the announcement of the shortlist, the first 50 London nurseries or primary schools to email oscarsbookprize@standard.co.uk will receive a complimentary set of the five books

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