Friendship (lots of this), tapirs and giant robots feature in the Scottish children's book award 2015 shortlist.

Shortlisted authors include 20-year-old Alex McCall, who wrote his book in just six week after a school author visit from Caroline Clough! In a bizarre twist of fate, he is joined in the same category by another more famous Scottish author with almost exactly the same name, Alexander McCall Smith – we hope that doesn't cause too much confusion to the children of Scotland who are going to be voting for their winners!

The shortlist is split into three age categories: Bookbug Readers (3-7 yrs), Younger Readers (8-11 yrs) and Older Readers (12-16 yrs).

So, drum roll please… we can now announce the shortlist for the biggest children's books prize in Scotland.

Bookbug Readers (3-7 years)

• Princess Penelope and the Runaway Kitten by Alison Murray (Nosy Crow)
• Robot Rumpus by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Ross Collins (Andersen Press)
• Lost for Words by Natalie Russell (Macmillan)

Younger Readers (8-11 years)

• Precious and the Mystery of the Missing Lion by Alexander McCall Smith (Birlinn)
• Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens by Alex McCall (Kelpies)
• Pyrate's Boy by EB Colin (Kelpies)

Older Readers (12-16 years)

• Dark Spell by Gill Arbuthnott (Kelpies)
• The Wall by William Sutcliffe (Bloomsbury)
• Mosi's War by Cathy MacPhail (Bloomsbury)

The Scottish book awards are run by the Scottish Book Trust with support from Creative Scotland, and voted for entirely by children (over 38,000 voted last year). Shortlisted authors and illustrators receive £500 per book, and the three winning books receive £3,000 each. The winners will be announced on 4 March 2015, so watch out for the news on the Guardian children's books site.

For all the more kids books news – and to comment – join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter (@GdnChildrensBks)! Younger members can email us childrens.books@theguardian.com