On its 21st anniversary, the prestigious Waterstones Children’s Book Prize has awarded Mikey Please the title of overall winner for his delightful picture book, The Café at the Edge of the Woods, published by HarperCollins Children’s Books.

The accolade not only includes a cash prize of £5,000 but also signifies Waterstones’ commitment to supporting the ongoing literary and artistic journey of the winner.

Category Winners Highlighted

Prior to topping the overall ranking, The Café at the Edge of the Woods secured victory in the Illustrated Books category. Other notable winners include:

• Rune: The Tale of a Thousand Faces by Carlos Sánchez – Younger Readers category
• King of Nothing by Nathanael Lessore – Older Readers category

Reflections from Waterstones

Bea Carvalho, head of books at Waterstones, praised Please’s work, stating, “Mikey Please is an exciting new talent in both illustration and writing for children. The Café at the Edge of the Woods is a book which champions the fun and playful joy to be found in children’s books, takes delight in the delicious and disgusting in equal measure, and begs to be read on repeat. We can’t wait to share this exquisite picture book with children everywhere as the winner of Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2025, alongside our brilliant category winners, Rune and King of Nothing.”

Mikey Please’s Creative Inspiration

Please, who is notably a BAFTA award-winning and Oscar-nominated animation director based in Bristol, shared insights on the inspiration behind his award-winning book. He revealed, “The story grew from a game my wife, son, and I would play during lockdown. Jess would pretend (with little effort) to be a pompous chef, my son Axel would play the downtrodden waiter, and I (with even less effort) would pretend to be a demanding customer. The dynamic was so rich, the setting so loaded with potential and the opportunity to showcase my long-practised art of rearranging food to look funny made the story impossible to resist.”