The entries have now been whittled down to the four books which will compete for the prize on 7 January.

They are Catherine Fisher's The Oracle, Michael Morpurgo's Private Peaceful, Jeanne Willis' Naked Without A Hat and David Almond's The Fire-Eaters.

The boom in kids' books is often put down to the success of Harry Potter.

JK Rowling's fifth Potter book Order Of The Phoenix could have been entered for the award, but her publishers Bloomsbury decided not to submit it, reports say.

Newsround's own Lizo Mzimba helped choose the finalists for the kids' book category.

Also joining him on the judging panel was Newsround Presspacker Jacquie

The winner will receive £5,000 and will then go on to compete against the winning writers in the awards' four other categories for a top prize of £25,000.