The Wainwright Prize recognises the power of words to shape a greener future, celebrating the books that help us see the natural world, and our place within it, more clearly.
Take a look at these books shortlisted for the 2026 Children’s Fiction prize, now available to borrow with your library card.
Want more suggested books? Take a look at our recommendations.
The Waters and the Wild
Eilish Fisher and David Rooney
Rowan was raised in the desert. All she’s known is warmth and love – then her dad dies and everything changes. Now Rowan and her mum have moved from the hazy heat of the desert to the cold landscape of Ireland. Each of them hoping that living in the town Rowan’s Dad called home will bring them them closer to him.
But as soon as Rowan arrives, she knows something’s not right. Why is it so cold even in August? Why do lights turn on without warning or kettles boil with no one pressing a switch? Even more mysterious is The Wall. It surrounds the town, but no one can tell Rowan who built it or how long it’s stood, or why it’s forbidden to cross over to the other side.
So, when she spots a crack in the stone, Rowan can’t resist the temptation to explore. In the woods beyond, she discovers a strange horse whom she feels a connection with, a bond that brings the return of warmth and hope – but at what price?
The Green Kingdom
Cornelia Funke, Tammi Hartung and Melissa Castrillón
Twelve-year-old Caspia hates big cities, especially one as busy as New York. So she isn’t thrilled by the news that her parents are taking her to stay in Brooklyn.
But everything changes when Caspia discovers a bundle of letters, hidden in an old chest of drawers. Each letter contains a ‘green’ riddle, with clues leading to a different plant.
Caspia sets out to solve the riddles and, as she does, she meets friends she could never have imagined and discovers that anywhere can feel like home, if you are just brave enough to put down new roots.
The Lone Husky
Hannah Gold and Levi Pinfold
April Wood is no stranger to adventure. After all, she lives in the Arctic and her best friend is a polar bear. But when April finds herself volunteering for the Polar Race – a long-distance dog sled race across the frozen tundra – even she wonders if this may be an adventure too far.
April will need all the help she can get if she’s to make it to the finish line. And competition is fierce – with experienced dog sledders, including new boy Finn, who will go to any lengths to win.
But April has something the other teams don’t: Blaze, a solitary husky with a troubled past, who may just prove to be her secret weapon.
Swanfall
Sophie Kirtley
Pip lives with Mum in their isolated cottage on the wetlands. Pip struggles to feel like he fits in at school. But at home, amongst nature, he truly feels he can be himself. Just like every winter, Pip is waiting for the swanfall – when the flock of majestic Arctic swans return from Siberia on their annual migration.
He knows every swan by their unique markings, and he loves to help Mum record the flock as they soar, shining through the sky, to their home. But this December, Pip’s favourite three swans haven’t appeared. Instead, Pip notices strange footprints in the snow, whispers on the wind and the sense that someone is watching him.
Something mysterious is afoot, and the adventure to discover the truth leads Pip to follow clues to an ancient curse that he had always believed was simply a fairytale.
The Adventures of Portly the Otter: Untold Tales From the Wind in the Willows
M.G. Leonard and Polly Dunbar
There is a time in a young otter’s life when they must be introduced to their river. For Portly, today was that day. Told across four seasons in one year, little Portly has the greatest of adventures.
Among other fur-raising encounters, the youngest of Mrs Otter’s pups learns to swim, battles a large trout, rescues a human girl, outwits the weasels and stoats of the Wild Wood and sleeps between the cloven feet of the god Pan – a scene familiar to readers of the original book.
Full of all the charm, nostalgia and sounds of splashing in the river that fans of ‘The Wind in the Willows’ have fallen in love with over the years, M.G. Leonard’s faithful spin-off will enchant an entirely new generation.
The Danger of Small Things
Caryl Lewis
Imagine a world where honeybees have died out.
It’s a patriarchal world where famines are rife. It’s a world without art, without books, without plays.
Girls are sent away from home, forced to pollinate crops by hand with brushes and to marry as soon as they can. Inhabiting this world is Jess and her friends Cass, Deva, and Ruth.
But even if one fourteen-year-old knows that brushes weren’t invented for pollinating, can she really stoke a revolution?
Birdlands
Anthony McGowan and Keith Robinson
Life can be tough when you’re a bird, and is especially tough for Herman, Beaky and Pidge.
But when the cantankerous crow, young jackdaw and flighty pigeon band together as an unlikely flock, they set off for a place where they are promised shelter and food aplenty. As they set out into the wild, the trio find themselves facing a series of threats both human and animal.
Will the three birds survive to make it to their final destination? And if they do, will it be everything they are hoping for?
Tree Thing
Piers Torday and Matthew Taylor Wilson
Once, in a faraway land, a green thing squeezed out of the earth. The mysterious Tree Thing, which changes Marlo’s life forever. Nothing grows in Marlo’s valley, and it’s a struggle to survive.
But when his squirrel Rinti finds a glowing emerald acorn, it grows into a miraculous Tree Thing. Tree Thing changes everything, bringing life and hope. And when the shadowy Rider arrives with an axe, Marlo needs all his bravery and ingenuity to stand between triumph and disaster.
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