BRING THE FIGHT J K ROWLING!

JK Rowling has some celebrity competition to win children’s book of the year <!– Changed to

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There are a number of famous names among this year’s shortlist.

Will the fisticuffs come off when JK Rowling go head-to-head with celebrity writers Tom Fletcher, David Walliams and Nadiya Hussain to win the children’s book of the year prize at the British Book Awards.

Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, the renowned writer’s latest instalment about the boy wizard, features in a shortlist of 36 contenders, announced on Wednesday.

The category also includes McFly singer Tom’s The Christmasaurus, comedian David’s The World’s Worst Children and Great British Bake Off champion Nadiya’s interactive cookery book Nadiya’s Bake Me A Story.

The Bake Off champ has become a TV star and an author (Philip Toscano/PA)

In the non-fiction lifestyle category, British astronaut Tim Peake’s Hello, Is This Planet Earth? will compete with Joe Wicks’ Lean In 15: The Sustain Plan for the title.

American singer Bruce Springsteen also features in the non-fiction narrative category with his 2016 autobiography, Born To Run.

Meanwhile, last year’s Man Booker Prize winner Paul Beatty could be in line for the best fiction award with his satirical racially charged bestseller, The Sellout.

The final awards, which this year include the crime and thriller, non-fiction narrative and non-fiction lifestyle categories for the first time, will be revealed at London’s Grosvenor House on May 8.

Recognising each of the entries’ authors, illustrators and publishers, the books of the year prizes are part of the greater British Book Awards, run by The Bookseller magazine.

A panel of judges will select a winner out of six entries from each of the six categories, and a separate panel, including TV presenter and writer June Sarpong, will then pick out the overall book of the year

The Last Act Of Love author who will lead the judges, Cathy Rentzenbrink, said: “Our shortlists are full of unleashed imaginations, smart ideas, brave new worlds and personal stories tamed on to the page.

“It is a joy to judge this prize and to be able to consider every part of the journey from the author’s mind to the readers’ hands.”

Children’s Category:

The Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher, Shane Devries (illus) (Puffin)

Oi Dog! Kes and Claire Gray and Jim Field (Hodder)

Nadiya’s Bake Me a Story by Nadiya Hussain, Clair Rossiter (illus) (Hodder)

The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargreave (Chicken House)

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J K Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne (Little, Brown and Pottermore)

The World’s Worst Children by David Walliams and Tony Ross (Harper Collins Children’s Books)