Ages 9-12 Shortlist – The Laugh Out Loud Book Awards 2026

Café Chaos: My Family Is Not a Piece of Cake by Catherine Wilkins and Katie Abey

Running a bustling café is Hope’s family’s dream – it’s just not hers! While Dad and Gran battle it out in the kitchen, Mum tries to balance the books while serving quiche to hordes of hungry pensioners. Meanwhile Hope’s dramatic sister Stacey is determined to turn all of life into a stage and her “wishes-he-was-on-Wall-Street” cousin Connor decides to buy novelty costumes to advertise the business. And then Auntie Rita rocks up…

Café Crumble is tipping straight into Café Chaos! Luckily for her family, Hope is there to save the day, though ideally this wouldn’t involve dressing up as a giant ice cream and dancing outside the school gates.

You’ll laugh (a lot), you’ll cry (with even more laughter), you’ll develop a strange yearning for caroons (whatever they are!). Welcome to Café Chaos!

Shipwrecked by Jenny Pearson and Nick East

Three kids face shipwrecks, survival and pirates in the latest adventure from bestselling and award-winning author Jenny Pearson.

Sebastian Sunrise and his two best friends, Lina and Etienne, are in a bit of trouble. They are stranded on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, after a rowing race went very, very wrong.

The friends have no idea how long they might have to stay on the island, so they make a plan. They will try to survive, look after the island’s baby turtles, and have fun, if they can.

But Sebastian’s life has never gone to plan, and they quickly face jellyfish stings, burnt bums and an out-of-control goat. But when a boat arrives, bringing pirates who want to hunt the island’s baby turtles, the friends face their greatest danger yet…

Cringe Club by Emily-Jane Clark and Wotto

Welcome to the group chat! It’s called Cringe Club because, as you might have guessed, it contains a cringe binge of EPIC proportions.

My name is Kennedy King and I have been FORCED to move to London by The Mother. I have just started Hellington High School (aka HELL HIGH). The only GOOD thing about moving is that The Mother has finally agreed to let me have my own phone (guilt present) so I can stay in touch with my best friends. Enter at your own risk (of cringe) and remember . . . what is said in Cringe Club, STAYS in Cringe Club.

Dead Yard: Seeds of Doom by P.J. Kilburn and Markia Jenai

Budding film-maker Jermaine is at his great-great uncle’s Dead Yard, a service for the deceased that lasts the entire night. There’s music, tons of people and lots of food, so when Jermaine spots a plate of patties – his favourite snack – he digs in immediately.But upon taking a bite he finds himself in big trouble.

Turns out that at a Dead Yard, a table is set up under a tent with food for the departed loved one. No one is allowed to eat from it before midnight, which is believed to be the time when the spirit passes through.

Jermaine wishes he knew that before 22:53! Now he’s got the angry spirit of his Uncle Carl in his life. ALL. THE. TIME. But that isn’t the only creepy happening in town. Kids are suffering from a mysterious illness that sounds A LOT like the Jamaican ghost tales his great gran has told him. With cursed cassava seeds in the house and a strange being lurking in the neighbourhood too, Jermaine and Carl will have to work together to keep the people they care about safe.