Welsh-language Primary Age Shortlist
Ble Mae Boc? Ar Goll yn y Chwedlau – Huw Aaron (Y Lolfa)
10 illustrated double pages, with each spread offering a chance to find Boc, the little red dragon, who’s hiding in every picture. A uniquely Welsh twist on the Where’s Wally? books.
Mae’r Cyfan i Ti – Luned Aaron (Atebol)
A tender and sensitive bedtime story for a parent to present the wonders of the natural world to a child. We follow the whole day from dawn to dusk as we read about the wonderful world that awaits the child.
Sw Sara Mai – Casia Wiliam (Y Lolfa)
Welcome to the world of Sara Mai, where cleaning up elephant poo is a lot more appealing than going to school, and where it’s much easier to understand the behaviour of a bear from South Africa than the other girls in Year 5.
Welsh-language Secondary Age Shortlist
#helynt – Rebecca Roberts (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch)
Missing the bus to school can change your life… Rather than go home, Rachel decides to go on an adventure in the town of Rhyl (after all, the bailiffs have taken her father’s car), and she finds herself in a seaside nightclub. She feels safe there, a different experience to school where she is bullied because of her disability.
Llechi – Manon Steffan Ros (Y Lolfa)
Gwenno is dead – perfect, clever, beautiful Gwenno, who was popular with both swots and cool people. Her body was found in the slate mine, the police are everywhere around Bethesda, and everyone is looking for her.
Y Castell Siwgr – Angharad Tomos (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch)
Two girls on two continents. One lord with a thirst for profit. A heart-wrenching story about a slave girl, a maid, a ship and a castle, and about suffering beyond imagination.
English-language Shortlist
Where the Wilderness Lives – Jess Butterworth (Orion, 2020)
Cara lives on a houseboat with her mum, siblings. A fire destroys their houseboat one night, and while her mum is in hospital Cara looks after her siblings. The children leave the house they are temporarily living in to travel in their houseboat, and then on foot on a journey of survival across Welsh mountains in the snow to go to their dad.
The Short Knife – Elen Caldecott (Andersen Press, 2020)
A story set in 454, when the Romans had left and the Britons and Saxons were battling to take hold of different territories. We see Mai surviving in a dangerous world where just speaking her mother tongue could lead to her death, and where she comes to mistrust even the people she loves the most.
The Quilt gan Valériane Leblond (Y Lolfa, 2020)
A story about a little girl who lives with her parents on a farm near the coast in rural Wales, around the turn of the twentieth century. The family decide to emigrate to America. They sell their possessions but keep a black and red quilt hand-made by the mother.
All the shortlisted titles are available now from your local bookshop.