E: 17/09 Win one of the Wainwright Prize shortlists

Midnighter

National Book Tokens

url: https://www.nationalbooktokens.com/win/win-one-of-the-wainwright-prize-shortlists

This year's shortlists span six categories: Nature Writing, Conservation Writing, Illustrative Books, Children's Fiction, Children's Non-Fiction, and Children's Picture Books, celebrating outstanding storytelling for readers of all ages. This summer, we're delighted to give you the chance to win a shortlist of your choice!

The Prize winners will be announced at the Wainwright Prize ceremony on 17th September 2026.

Here are the shortlists in full:

Nature Writing

• Ancient: Reviving the Woods That Made Britain by Luke Barley
• Craftland by James Fox
• Ghosts of the Farm: Two Women's Journeys Through Time, Land and Community by Nicola Chester
• Love Is A Toad by Lucy Lapwing
• Stone Lands by Fiona Robertson
• The Cuckoo's Lea by Michael J. Warren
• The Genius of Trees by Harriet Rix

Conservation Writing

• Eat the Planet Well: How to fix our toxic food system - one meal at a time by Dave Goulson
• Every Last Fish: What Fish Do for Us and What We Do to Them by Rose George
• Green Crime: Inside the Minds of the People Destroying the Planet, and How to Stop Them by Dr Julia Shaw
• Neurodivergent, by Nature by Joe Harkness
• The Return of the Oystercatcher: Saving Birds to Save the Planet by Scott Weidensaul
• The Savage Landscape by Cal Flyn
• When the Forest Breathes by Suzanne Simard

Illustrative Books

• Freshwater: The View from Above and the Life Below by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, illustrated by Bill François
• Funga Obscura: Photo Journeys Among Fungi by Alison Pouliot
• In Botanical Time: The Extraordinary Lifespans of the World's Oldest Living Plants by Christopher Woods
• The Book of Birds by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane
• Waterlands: The Coastal Areas of West Sussex and Hampshire Borders by David Gilbey
• Wild Folk: Tales from the Stones by Jackie Morris and Tamsin Abbott

Children's Fiction

• Birdlands by Anthony McGowan
• Swanfall by Sophie Kirtley
• The Adventures of Portly the Otter: Untold Tales from the Wind in the Willows by M.G.Leonard, illustrated by Polly Dunbar
• The Danger of Small Things by Caryl Lewis
• The Green Kingdom by Cornelia Funke and Tammi Hartung, illustrated by Melissa Castrillón
• The Lone Husky by Hannah Gold
• Tree Thing by Piers Torday, illustrated by Matthew Taylor Wilson
• The Waters and the Wild by Eilish Fisher, illustrated by David Rooney

Children's Non-Fiction

• A Wild Child's Guide to Nature at Night by Dara McAnulty, illustrated by Barry Falls
• An Anthology of Remarkable Bugs by Jess French
• Choose Your Own Evolution! Go Extinct or Survive? You Decide! by Jules Howard, illustrated by Gordy Wright
• Letters From Wonderland by Josie George
• Otherlands: An illustrated journey through Earth's lost worlds by Thomas Halliday, illustrated by Gavin Scott
• Shapes of Nature by Ben Hoare
• The Cave Explorer by Kate Winter

Children's Picture Books

• A River Running Through You by Amy-Jane Beer, illustrated by Elin Manon
• The Night Creatures: Firefly by Robert Macfarlane and  Luke Adam Hawker
• Isla and the Sky by Greg Stobbs
• The Great Bear by Annie Booker
• The Summer Puppy by Jackie Morris and Cathy Fisher
• The Sun Thief by Alice Hemming and Nicola Slater
• The Whale that Sings in the Deep by Yuval Zommer
• Whale Song by Nicola Davies and Britta Teckentrup