The shortlist for the Blue Peter Book Awards was announced this week, honouring the best examples of children-targeted fiction and non-fiction works from the past year. Known best for his role as Baldrick on the BBC's historical sitcom Blackadder and for his presenting job on Channel 4's Time Team, Sir Tony Robinson is among the would-be winners in the non-fiction category, but he faces stiff competition if he wants to win his second Blue Peter title.

Sir Tony Robinson
Robinson was made Sir Tony Robinson in the Queen's birthday honours this year

Tony Robinson’s Weird World of Wonders: World War II, illustrated by Del Thorpe, is up for the top non-fiction prize and would be the second work by Robinson to win the Blue Peter award should he be successful this year. He previously won in 2007 for The Worst Children's Jobs in History. Robinson faces tough competition in the non-fiction shortlist however, with Jonathan Litton and Thomas Flintham's Marvellous Maths and Jon Richards & Ed Simkins' The World in Infographics: Animal Kingdom standing in his way to success.

The award also celebrates fictional titles too, with another three titles up for the award. Another former-winner of the award, Philip Reeve, is up for the fiction prize for his work Oliver and the Seawigs. Whale Boy by Nicola Davies and Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell are also up for the award.

The shortlist was announced on Blue Peter Thursday evening's edition of Blue Peter, with the shortlist being read out by CBBC presenter Katie Thistleton and Jeff Kinney, the author of the successful Wimpy Kid series. The winner will be chosen by over 200 children from 10 schools across the UK, who will read each book and chose their favourite. The two winning books will be announced live on Blue Peter, on the episode coinciding with World Book Day on March 6, 2014.

Tony Robinson
Can Robinson make it two wins?