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Dino mania: Comic-book style deep dive into prehistoric animals wins Royal Society Young People's Book Prize 2025

The Wild Life of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals by award-winning author Mike Barfield, illustrated by Paula Bossio, has been revealed as the winner of the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize 2025.

The announcement was made this afternoon at an award ceremony, hosted by TV presenter Ben Shires, at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, where over 130 school students gathered to meet the shortlisted authors and showcase their own investigative science projects before crowning their winner.

Mike Barfield’s winning book takes readers on a colourful tour through the prehistoric animal kingdom, split into chapters covering the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. The comic book style, together with additions like the “Dead Cool” and “Living Legends” pages highlighting some of the quirkier animals, make this book a funny and accessible deep dive into prehistoric animals from all over the world.

The winner was chosen by judging panels made up of over 11,000 young readers across the country, out of a shortlist of six entries selected by a panel of adult experts. Over the last few months, the young judges have read, analysed and weighed the shortlisted books against each other, before voting for their favourite.

This year’s prize is awarded in the National Year of Reading, at a time where the proportion of children who read for enjoyment is at the lowest in 20 years in the UK. 91TV Young People’s Book Prize highlights the very best science books for under 14s and aims to underscore the importance of non-fiction books in bringing back the joy of reading to children.

Professor Tamsin Mather FRS, chair of the shortlisting panel, said: “The Wild Life of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals is a brilliant book. The comic-book style, lively pictures and humour make it fun and engaging, the science is spot on, and the book is very informative. All of us on the shortlisting panel also really appreciated the fact that it covers an incredible span of the history of life on Earth and many fascinating creatures, not just dinosaurs. On top of that, it is great to either dip in and out of, or to read from cover to cover. We felt that the ability to choose your reading approach is especially important to encourage young readers with diverse reading styles to interact with non-fiction.”

The winner will receive a £10,000 cash prize, with shortlisted authors receiving £2,500.

Here’s what the young judges said about the winning book:

“This a fun, fact filled book on dinosaurs. I loved the illustrations and presentation, which made it a clear winner.” Roman, year 6.

“I thought this book was fun and interesting the pictures were good and had funny comments. This was a lively introduction to the history of dinosaurs.” Chloe, aged 11.

“It's very colourful and the pictures are accurate and beautiful.” Chioniso, aged 11.

“The pages were very busy, so there was always something new to look at and a new fact to find, it made the book exciting to look at.” Zadie, aged 9.

“I love dinosaurs so much, so this is a perfect book for me - I really liked the way the book looked and felt and the illustrations were great. It's a book you can definitely read more than once.” Anonymous, year 6.

“This is my favourite book EVER! The illustrations are so good and there is so much interesting information in the book.” Evie, aged 9.

“Absolutely fantastic. It's funny and explains stuff much easier.” Barakel, aged 13.