Over the past eight weeks, we at the Darley Anderson Children’s Book Agency have had a fantastic time reading all the entries to our Mega Middle-Grade Competition.  At a time when we are all in need of a little escapism, you have transported us to countless worlds and introduced us to many fabulous characters. We’ve been blown away by the sheer creativity and imagination on show, and would like to thank each and every writer who gave us a chance to consider their work.

The quality of the submissions has made this a very difficult decision and we would have loved to give every submission personal feedback. It’s always hard to pick when you have so many great entries to choose from but after some debating we have whittled it down to our final six! So, without further ado, here are the six shortlisted stories and their talented authors who are now in the running for an individual feedback session with our agents…

Astrid Greycloak Versus the Otherworlds by Chelsey Holness

Libby and the Parisian Puzzle by Jo Clarke

Mildred Pickles and the Evil, Alien Zombie-Dogs from Hell… Sort Of by Jim Lockwood

The Doll Twin by Janine Beacham

The House of Reina by Daisy Jervis

The Stealth Pigeon by Amanda Thomas

A big congratulations to our shortlisted authors!

We will now be considering the full manuscripts and will reveal our three winners on Thursday 11^th June.