Editorial 279
It has been a particularly busy time in the world of children’s books. This month, Patrice Lawrence was announced as the new Waterstones Children’s Laureate, taking over from Frank Cottrell-Boyce. She promises to ‘champion the power of books to make us feel like we belong and stories as a tool for bringing people together.’ We are delighted to have an interview with Patrice in this issue and look forward to covering her work in the role over the next two years.
Meanwhile, Frank Cottrell-Boyce will remain as an Ambassador for BookTrust, as his Reading Rights campaign continues. His valedictory Laureate Lecture, given at the Royal Institution, London, focused as his campaign has, on Early Years. He talked about the proven benefits that come from shared reading with young children, referring to the work of a GP in his local-ish borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, to the Meadows Nursery in Shirecliff, Sheffield and health worker Anita Mason in the Dearne Valley, among others, all of whom use the sharing of stories as ‘a golden thread’ (Anita’s words) to pull services together and make a difference for young families and children. As he pointed out, none of this work was particularly expensive; in Barnsley for example, the chair of health found the money to pay for some extra hours so that someone could liaise between the different branches of the council – libraries, health etc. – and weave that golden thread across the borough. What it needs is for us all to make sure that reading shows up in policy, to share the evidence and make that golden thread visible. Patrice Lawrence has already stated that gathering evidence to prove the benefits of reading is one of her aims, and every reader of Books for Keeps is surrounded by qualitative evidence.
Book Awards
June saw the announcement of the winners of the Carnegie Medals for Reading and Writing which went to debut author Beth O’Brien and Kate Rolfe respectively. We have interviews with both, which you can find on the website. In July meanwhile, came the announcement of the winners of the Branford Boase Award, for author and editor of the year’s outstanding debut novel for young people, and the CLiPPA, CLPE Poetry Award and the UK’s sole award exclusively for published poetry for children. The Branford Boase Award was won by Asli Jensen and her editor Shalini Vallepur for Love on Sight (Chicken House, a contemporary romance exploring the relationship between two young people caught between cultures and coping with demanding family responsibilities while trying to live their lives as they want. Meanwhile, for a record third time, the CLiPPA was awarded to John Agard for The Poetry World of John Agard illustrated by Shirley Hottier (Otter-Barry Books).
Both of these were extremely popular results, but at a time when The Bookseller reports that sales of books by Black authors slipped backwards in the first half of the year. Across the first 24 weeks of 2026, The Bookseller reports, there are just 14 Black authors within the top 1,000; combined, they have earned £2.8m, just 0.9% of the total money taken by all authors in that top 1,000, down from 1.6% in 2025. Celebrating new authors like Asli Jensen and established stars like John Agard seems even more important.
IBBY Honour List
Finally, a congratulations to all the authors and the illustrators on the 2026 IBBY Honour List. Originally known as the Hans Christian Andersen Honour List and featuring only fifteen entries from twelve countries, the programme has grown into the largest selection in its seventy-year history. Today, it stands as a testament to global bibliodiversity, honoring writers, illustrators, and translators who foster international understanding through literature. Discover the full list on the IBBY website and particular congratulations to UK representatives Mel Darbon, Daf James and Petr Horáček.
