The Booker Prize Foundation has announced the launch of a significant new literary award, the Children's Booker Prize, designed to champion the best contemporary fiction for readers aged eight to twelve. This £50,000 award, set to be given annually starting in 2027, is the Foundation’s most ambitious initiative in two decades, positioning itself not just as a prize but as a major social intervention aimed at tackling the crisis of declining reading for pleasure among children.
The most distinctive and radical element of the Children's Booker Prize is its mixed judging panel. For the first time in the Foundation’s history, the ultimate winner will be selected by a panel combining both adults and child judges. The inaugural judging panel will be chaired by the UK's current Children's Laureate and acclaimed author, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, alongside two other adult literary experts. After the adults select a shortlist of eight books, three young people will be recruited to join the panel to help choose the final winner. This direct involvement of the target audience is intended to ensure the winning book resonates authentically with young readers and brings new energy and perspective to the literary judging process. Cottrell-Boyce enthusiastically stated that stories belong to everyone and welcomed the children to the judging table, anticipating a lively and honest debate.
The prize is supported by the AKO Foundation and will be open to fiction written in or translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland within the eligibility period. The £50,000 purse for the winner, alongside £2,500 for each shortlisted author, mirrors the financial stature of the established Booker Prize and International Booker Prize, signalling a commitment to giving children's literature the same high level of recognition as adult fiction. Furthermore, the initiative includes a massive book-gifting programme, with at least 30,000 copies of the shortlisted and winning titles to be distributed to children who might not otherwise have access to them, working with partners like the National Literacy Trust.
The launch is timed to coincide with the UK’s planned National Year of Reading 2026 and comes amid reports that children’s reading for pleasure is at its lowest level in twenty years. Booker Prize Foundation Chief Executive Gaby Wood described the prize as aiming to be three things at once: an award to champion future classics, a social intervention to inspire reading, and a seed to cultivate future generations of lifelong readers. Submissions for the inaugural award will open in spring 2026, with the child judges and shortlist announced in late November 2026, and the winner revealed at a dedicated event in February 2027. The Children's Booker Prize marks a bold and welcome move to place children's books at the centre of the cultural conversation.
