The search begins for the winner of this year's Bolton Children's Fiction Award 2025 with the shortlist having been announced.

In line with tradition it will be the readers who will vote for the book they believe is most deserving of the title.

The award now in its 20th year and is organised by Bolton School and attracts some of the biggest names in children's fiction to the town.

A spokesman for Bolton School library said: ‘We hope that this year’s shortlist will stretch pupils’ reading experiences and introduce them to new authors and genres.’

There will be a Book Award Day celebration of the books and reading at Bolton School in April.

Readers will then have their say by voting for their favourite book and the winning title will be announced at the end of the Summer term in an online event.

READ MORE: Lily Bailey wins Bolton Children’s Fiction Award 2024

Bolton Children's Book Award 2024 celebration of reading event

The three shortlisted books are:

•‘The Final Year’ by Matt Goodfellow

•‘The Secrets of the Snakestone’ by Piu Das Gupta

•‘My Brilliant plan to fix everything’ by Ben Davis

The spokesman added: ‘While all quite distinct titles, they do have common themes running through them – determination, resilience and maintaining a sense of humour when life is challenging. We hope that everyone reading them will enjoy them as much as we have.’

‘The Final Year’ is the first time that a verse novel has been put forward for the award.

Children's author Lily Bailey's book, 'When I See Blue', won the prize last year.

Young people from across Bolton will vote for their favourite book.