Image: Booker Prize Foundation
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘An Award That Will Champion Future Classics’
In London today (October 24), the Booker Prize Foundation has announced a £50,000 (US$66,625) new Children’s Booker Prize, to be implemented in 2026 and awarded on an annual basis, starting in 2027.
With its news somewhat abruptly released this morning in a 3,300+ word announcement, the Children’s Booker Prize, if produced as planned, will be the first new prize put into play by the Booker program in 20 years. Becoming the third of the Booker’s major awards, it will join the Booker Prize (fiction) and the International Booker Prize (translation).
The goal of the new program’s effort will be to award contemporary fiction for children aged between 8 and 12 years. Eligible content can be written in English or translated into it, and must have been published in either the United Kingdom or Ireland.
“The aim of the prize,” write organizers, “is to engage and grow a new generation of readers by recognizing and championing … children’s fiction from writers around the world.”
For our late-week business readers who are wisely trying to get out of the office, we will bullet out as many details as possible of this news.
- The new children’s award is sponsored by AKO Foundation, which describes itself as making “grants toward charities and charitable projects within its three priority areas–to improve education and the well-being of young people; to promote the arts; and to combat the climate emergency. That foundation’s financial support is to be in place for the prize’s first three years.
- The UK’s children’s laureate, author Frank Cottrell-Boyce, is to be the chair of the inaugural jury panel for the 2027 awards.
- The Children’s Booker Prize winner will be selected by a combined panel of child and adult jurors.
- At least 30,000 copies of the shortlisted and winning books are to be donated.
- Former Booker Prize- and Carnegie Medal-winning author Penelope Lively is to give the keynote speech at the (regular) Booker Prize 2025 ceremony about the new prize.
- The Booker foundation mentions three years of development of this new prize, “with thanks to donations from a small group of philanthropic supporters.”
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In positioning the third and newest prize of the Booker array, the award program’s CEO Gaby Wood is quoted, saying:
Gaby Wood. Image: David Parry
“The Children’s Booker Prize is the most ambitious endeavor we’ve embarked on in 20 years, and we hope its impact will resonate for decades to come. It aims to be several things at once: an award that will champion future classics written for children; a social intervention designed to inspire more young people to read; and a seed from which we hope future generations of lifelong readers will grow.
“In other words, the Children’s Booker Prize is not just a prize—it’s part of a movement: a cause that children, parents, teachers and everyone in the world of storytelling can get behind.
“We’ve been laying the groundwork for this prize for the past three years, and in that time we’ve been buoyed by many fruitful conversations with prospective partners: we could not do this alone. And we absolutely could not have launched it without the generosity of its founding partner and principal funder, AKO Foundation, to whom we are enormously grateful.
“We’re delighted that Frank Cottrell-Boyce, master storyteller and passionate advocate, will be the inaugural chair of the jurors. And we can’t wait to hear the views of the ultimate jurors of the quality of children’s fiction: children themselves.
“The Booker Prize Foundation exists to inspire more people to read the world’s best fiction—because if you can imagine a different world, you can help to create a better one. The possibility of welcoming young readers into our growing global community is hugely exciting. We hope they discover stories and characters that will keep them company for life.”
The program notes, “The Booker Prize Foundation announces the Children’s Booker Prize at a time when children’s reading for pleasure is reportedly at its lowest in 20 years, and as the UK government and the National Literacy Trust have announced a National Year of Reading 2026 to change the nation’s reading habits.”
Below, we embed a video provided by the Booker about its new children’s book prize venture:
More from Publishing Perspectives on the international publishing business’ myriad book and industry awards is here, more on the Booker Prizes is here, more on the United Kingdom’s market is here, and more on children’s literature is here.
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