Recognising the best books from the last 12 months across Fiction, Non-Fiction, Debut Fiction and Children's Fiction, the Nero Boook Awards  have announced the category shortlists. 

The Nero Book Awards are run as not-for-profit by Caffè Nero, the independent, family-owned coffee house group. The Awards are run in partnership with The Bookseller Association and Brunel University London. The mission of The Nero Book Awards is to direct readers of all ages and interests towards outstanding books and writers. The book awards are a part of a long-standing programme by Caffè Nero to sponsor and encourage the arts and culture in its coffee houses and the communities in which it operates.

Award-winning authors, respected journalists, reputable booksellers and well-known industry professionals formed this year's panel of judges. The judges reviewed hundreds of books before deciding on the titles that make up the 2024 category shortlists.

In the Children’s Fiction category, topics range from heart-rending stories of human migration and healing to a megalomaniac pelican threatening to take over the world, with books for readers aged 8 to Young Adult. English teacher Catherine Bruton, based in Bath, makes the shortlist with Bird Boy (Nosy Crow), her novel about migration, conservation, healing and hope, as a grieving boy forms an unbreakable bond with an injured bird.

Edinburgh-based YA writer Scarlett Dunmore is nominated for How to Survive a Horror Movie (Little Tiger), which sees a teen horror movie unfold in a high school, as ghosts of former classmates demand that protagonist Charley solve their murders.

The Twelve by Liz Hyder (Pushkin Children’s Books), who lives in Shropshire and is a winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Older Readers, is steeped in ancient folklore as a young girl, Kit, must dive into the depths of her imagination to rescue her missing sister, Libby.

Completing the shortlist is US-born Patrick Ness, the two-time Carnegie Medal winner, best known as the author of the book that inspired the hit film, A Monster Calls. His madcap adventure, Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody (Walker Books), is also set in a school, as a group of misfit animal pupils must face down a threat from the school bully and wannabe supervillain, Pelicarnassus.

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