CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT

A new read-aloud favourite, world-conquering doughnuts and a spirited feminist compendium

- Imogen Russell Williams

This year's standout works for children include joyous picture books, gloriously bizarre nonfiction and stories of courage, companionship and rapturous flight - testament to the human need for connection, justice and freedom.

In picture books, Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, the author-illustrator team behind We're Going on a Bear Hunt, collaborate again on the exuberant Oh Dear, Look What I Got!.

Oxenbury's joyfully expressive huddles of animal and human characters heighten the sense of mayhem in this bouncy, cumulative delight, boasting all the ingredients of a perennial read-aloud favourite.

Annie Booker's The Great Bear is a lyrical, haunting story of the polar bear spirit that protects the oceans, and the human greed that threatens their rich life.

This beautiful debut is both urgent and hopeful.