The Laugh Out Loud Book Awards 2023 - Past winners

Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book

Wee? It Wasn’t Me! by Clare Helen Welsh and Nicola O’Byrne

A funny story, all about wee, packed full of animal facts! The follow-up to the hilarious Poo! Is That You?

Lenny the lemur is on holiday in Alaska. He’s skipping across the snow, when he slips in a puddle. It’s wet, yellow and smelly… WEE! But whose wee could it be?

Lenny is on a quest to find out… Along the way, he meets various animals and learns all about their weeing habits! But the real question is: will he find that pesky puddle-piddler?

Learn about caribou, turtles, wolves and more in the piddle-tastic Wee? It Wasn’t Me! written by Clare Helen Welsh and illustrated by Nicola O’Byrne. Cleverly interweaving facts throughout, it also contains an information page at the back of the book, with a photo of each animal.

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 6-8-year-olds

A Monster Ate My Packed Lunch! by Pamela Butchart and Thomas Flintham

Hilarious, illustrated school-based antics where everything that happens leads to DRAMA and RUNNING AROUND and even some FAINTING! Izzy and her friends are on a school trip to a big lake. Gary Petrie is excited because the lodges where they’re staying have ROBES AND SLIPPERS! The lake is dark and deep and a bit scary. But it’s when they open their packed lunches that they know! There’s a MONSTER in the lake and it’s coming for their CRISPS!

Laugh-out-loud fun from Blue Peter Award winners Pamela Butchart and Thomas Flintham.

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-12-year-olds

The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh by Helen Rutter

Billy is an eleven-year-old boy with a big dream. He wants to be a stand-up comedian when he grows up: delivering pinpoint punch-lines and having audiences hang on his every hilarious word. A tough career for anyone, but surely impossible for Billy, who has a stammer. How will he find his voice, if his voice won’t let him speak?

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for Teens

Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth

When Aideen agrees to help ambitious class swot Maebh Kowalska deal with her crazy workload, she doesn’t expect to end up reluctantly pushing Maebh down the stairs. With this, Aideen becomes the school ‘fixer’: any problem a student has, Aideen will sort it out, from stealing confiscated mobiles to breaking into parties. All she asks for is a favour in return. But Aideen’s own life is a mess – her mam’s drinking again, her BFF Holly is avoiding her and she’s skipping school. Spending more time with the uptight (but annoyingly cute) Maebh and chatterbox Kavi, Aideen starts to wonder: can every problem be solved?

Best Laugh Out Loud Non-Fiction Book

Unleash Your Creative Monster: A Children’s Guide to Writing by Andy Jones and Olaf Falafel

In the pages of Unleash Your Creative Monster, budding writers will sink their teeth into story basics, essential writing tools and the hidden secrets of the wordsmith. Including top tips on finding inspiration, how to keep a story moving and beating writer’s block, this essential guide has everything you need to unleash your creative monster.

Best Laugh Out Loud Poetry Book

Yapping Away by Joshua Seigal and Sarah Horne

Joshua Seigal, winner of the 2020 Laugh Out Loud Book Awards (the only UK prize for funny children’s books voted for entirely by children), brings his raucous humour, creativity and wit to another brilliant collection of poems. Ideal for fans of Michael Rosen, this book will delight all young readers and fans of funny books.

From hilarious to heartfelt poems – and everything in between – this collection offers something for everyone. Discover the eight steps for having a successful tantrum, and why you should NEVER attend a Teddy Bear’s Picnic (you have been warned). Packed full of fun illustrations by Sarah Horne, and covering a range of imaginative topics, Yapping Away is the perfect follow-up to Joshua Seigal’s prize-winning collection I Bet I Can Make You Laugh.

Laugh Out Loud Illustrator of the Year

Dapo Adeola

Dapo Adeola is an award-winning illustrator and designer who creates characters and images that challenge expectations around race and gender in a fun and upbeat way. He is the co-creator and illustrator of bestselling picture book Look Up! – winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the number 1 debut picture book of 2019.

London born and bred but of Nigerian heritage, when he’s not busy cooking up new characters and adventures you can find Dapo running illustration and character design workshops with children or organising events to help highlight the possibilities of a career in illustration to underrepresented members of the Black diaspora.

Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book

101 Bums by Sam Harper and Chris Jevons

A laugh-out-loud silly rhyming picture book, featuring 101 different animal bums!

Bums in the jungle, bums in the town. Bums in the treetops, hanging upside down. Bums in the farmyard, bums in the park. Lots of teeny-tiny bums, glowing in the dark!

Featuring an array of animal bums – from little to large, and everything in between – this brilliantly silly picture book is sure to get children giggling.

Just follow the bouncy read-aloud rhyme, then get ready to join in with the jiggly wiggly dance finale!

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 6-8-year-olds

Cats React to Science Facts by Izzi Howell

Share in the wonderment of science with a crew of crazy cats and measure your amazement, awe and disgust alongside their furry feline faces!

Like every topic, science becomes more interesting when cats are involved. Cats React to Science Facts is an engaging and fun way to understand the world of science. It’s just purrfect! A vast cast of feline friends take us on a tour of the core areas of science from outer space and the human body, to forces and materials. Bitesize text, fun photos, diagrams, dollops of humour and a react-o-meter all help to make science memorable and fun to learn.

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-13-year-olds

The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates by Jenny Pearson and Rob Biddulph

The super funny, heart-warming adventure of three boys, one summer holiday, and a few miracles along the way, from breakout talent, Jenny Pearson, illustrated by award-winning Rob Biddulph.

Freddie Yates likes facts. Just not the one staring him in the face – that his secret plan is not, in fact, secret.

Because Freddie’s journey wasn’t meant to involve Big Trev and the onion-eating competition or the loo-exploding pear-and-potato turnovers. And Freddie definitely didn’t expect to end up, with his two best friends, on national television in a supergirl costume.

But journeys never take you where you think they will. And for Freddie, that fact might just have to be enough…

Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book

Ten Fat Sausages by Michelle Robinson and Tor Freeman

Ten fat sausages sizzling in the pan… decide to escape, if they can!

Come on a great escape through the kitchen as we follow each sausage that decides to make a run for it. Will they succeed or will the cat, blender, plug hole or fan prove their downfall?

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 6-8-year-olds

The World’s Worst Children 3 by David Walliams and Tony Ross

In The World’s Worst Children 3, Britain’s biggest-selling children’s author presents another ten horrendously hilarious stories about the absolute worst children ever. The characters are vividly brought to life in glorious, gruesome colour by the incredible Tony Ross. From ten-year-old Hank and his endless pranks, to Tandy and her titanic tantrums – this collection of The World’s Worst Children will delight young readers everywhere.

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-13-year-olds

I Bet I Can Make You Laugh by Joshua Seigal and Tim Wesson

Packed full of stupendously silly, fantastically funny and hysterically hilarious poems, this brilliant anthology is edited by exciting young poet, Joshua Seigal. Featuring a diverse range of contributors and some brand new poems from Joshua himself, this book is perfect for anyone who needs a giggle or a belly laugh!

Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book

Mr Bunny’s Chocolate Factory by Elys Dolan

Go behind the scenes of Mr Bunny’s chocolate factory! An irresistible look at the workings of Mr Bunny’s chocolate factory! Packed with cross-over humour to amuse kids and big kids too with artwork full of details for poring over time and time again. Still a new kid on the block, Elys Dolan has already been shortlisted for The Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal. The perfect picture book for Easter, but also with a great all-year round appeal.

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 6-8-year-olds

The Big, Fat, Totally Bonkers Diary of Pig by Emer Stamp

The fourth in the Pig series of chapter books in diary form – with Pig’s hilarious illustrations on every page. I is Pig. This is my diary and I doubts you will believe any of it. In fact, if you is the kind of farmer what finds it hard to believe unbelievable stuff, you should put it down RIGHT NOW. I wouldn’t blame you. If I was reading it I would be like, ‘Don’t be silly! Stuff like this would never happen to a pig, it’s totally impossible.’ But it’s not. Just ask Duck, or Cow, or Ki-Ki, or Rusty. They’d all tell you… It’s all 1,000% true and 10,000% BONKERS!

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-13-year-olds

Tom Gates: Epic Adventure (Kind Of)

The thirteenth (lucky for us!) title in the bestselling series, from the brilliantly talented Liz Pichon.

Having two sets of grandparents is turning out to be very good for me. The Wrinklies are keen on giving presents AND they’re planning a family outing which is going to be EPIC! Even Delia wants to come. (I can always ignore her.)

Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book

Oi Dog! by Kes & Claire Gray and Jim Field

Frog is changing the rules…Dogs no longer sit on frogs. Phew! Dogs now sit on logs – and everyone else is going to have to sit somewhere different too. Will cats want to sit on gnats? Will spiders like sitting on gliders? Will whales be happy to sit on nails? And, most importantly, where is FROG going to sit? The hilarious sequel to Oi, Frog! will have children rolling around with laughter.

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 6-8-year-olds

Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms by Jim Smith

When a bolt of lightning hit Colin Lamppost he was zapped millions of years into the future and turned into a half boy, half rat, half TV! With new superkeel powers and a real life sidekick in Not Bird, Future Ratboy was born. In this new adventure, can Future Ratboy and Not Bird save Shnozville from the bitey little insects that are turning everyone into zombies? Will they defeat the evil Mr X? And how will they ever find their way home?

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-13-year-olds

The Best Medicine by Christine Hamill

Philip is twelve years old and life is pretty good. He gets on with his mum and gets by pretty well at school – in spite of girl problems, teacher problems, bully problems and – er – poetry problems. Philip’s happy-go-lucky life is disrupted when his mother gets breast cancer. Bad enough that your mother is seriously ill – but could she not have developed a less embarrassing kind of cancer – toe cancer, maybe, or ear cancer? Philip’s attempts to cope with his situation are both hilarious and touching.

Laugh Out Loud Children’s PopJam Winner

My Gym Teacher is an Alien Overlord by David Solomons

Aliens disguised as gym teachers want to attack Earth. We need a hero! Instead, we’ve got Luke. (Uh-oh.) He’s equipped with a burning sense of injustice, a new pair of shoes and – well, that’s about it. Oh, and just to make things even worse, NOBODY believes his warnings. Can he save the planet in a risky pact with a super-villain? Can he prove he’s just as super as his awful brother, Zack? Can he even find his trainers…?

Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book

I Need a Wee! by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet

Oops. Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet’s worried puppet bear will make you laugh so hard you cross your legs. Even funnier and sweeter than Barry the Fish With Fingers. When you’re a little bear, there are lots of fun things you can do. You can ride a bike. Build a sandcastle. Or play with your friends. Trouble is, Alan the bear needs a wee. Boring! He forgets it for a while. But now he urgently needs a wee. Where’s the loo? Is there a queue? Uh-oh – he doesn’t want to get his cute little woolly legs wet!

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 6-8-year-olds

Badly Drawn Beth by Knife and Packer

So, I’m surrounded by crocodiles, holding a briefcase full of fish fingers, I’m wearing a swamp monster mask AND MISS PRIMULA IS ABOUT TO CALL MY PARENTS!

Meet Beth – and all of her fantastically crazy family and friends – and be prepared to laugh your socks off! A hilarious new diary series from the creators of Fleabag Monkeyface.

Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-13-year-olds

The Parent Agency by David Baddiel and Jim Field

A brilliantly funny, gripping novel – and the bestselling hardback children’s debut of 2014 – from a born storyteller, The Parent Agency is an epic wish-fulfilment adventure for every child – and for the child in everyone. “I wish I had better parents!” Barry said, a third time. And then suddenly the entire room started to shake…