The longlist for the 2024 Branford Boase Award has been announced. Set up in memory of award-winning author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase, one of the founders of Walker Books, the Branford Boase Award is given annually to the author of the year’s outstanding debut novel for children. The Branford Boase Award is […]
The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) has announced the shortlist for the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Award. Established in 1956, the IBBY Hans Christian Andersen Award, is the world’s most prestigious international children’s book award. Given every other year, the Awards recognize lifelong achievement and are presented to an author and an illustrator […]
Inclusive Books for Children (IBC) has today revealed the 13 brilliant books that made it onto the shortlists for their new inclusive children’s book awards. Inclusive Books for Children aspires for mainstream children’s books to be inclusive, and for inclusive children’s books to be mainstream. Along the way, they hope to nurture a new generation […]
Five ‘original and beautiful and mind-expanding’ books The Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) and the Society of Authors (SoA) have announced the shortlist for the 2023 ALCS Educational Writers’ Award. The UK’s only award for educational writing, it recognises books that inspire creativity, encourage students to read widely and build up their understanding of […]
Submissions for the Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction are now open, and the organisers have announced two new judges for 2024: teacher and author, Alom Shaha and lecturer, designer and illustrator, Soofiya. Alom Shaha is a Physics teacher and the author of several books, including Mr Shaha’s Recipes for Wonder and Mr Shaha’s […]
Oxford University Press’ (OUP) Oxford Language Report, an annual study of vocabulary development in under 18s in the UK, points to an increasing number of children in the UK falling behind in their English vocabulary development. More than 800 teachers and parents were surveyed across the UK as part of research and a majority of […]
The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education’s (CLPE) 6th annual Reflecting Realities Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children’s Literature shows that 30% of children’s books published in 2022 feature a racially minoritised character, a significant and consistent increase from the 4% first reported in 2017. This increase is also echoed in the increase of […]
The School Library Association have announced the winners of their 2023 Information Book Award, with children making their voices heard by crowning different winners to the judges in every category. The judges favoured titles touching on important parts of the curriculum, crowning ABC Pride their overall winner, written by Dr Elly Barnes MBE and Louie […]
Caffè Nero has announced the shortlists for the inaugural Nero Book Awards, recognising the outstanding books of the past 12 months across four categories including children’s fiction. Launched in 2023, and run as a not-for-profit organisation, the Awards’ mission is to help readers of all ages and interests discover outstanding books from the past year through […]
The longlist for the inaugural Inclusive Books for Children (IBC) Awards 2024 has been announced. The longlists celebrate the best books demonstrating inclusivity from the past year across two categories: picture books for ages three to seven and children’s fiction for ages five to nine. The longlists feature books with strong representation of racialised minority, […]
The winners of the Diverse Book Awards 2023 have been announced at an event held at Waterstones Piccadilly in London. The organisers of the awards hope that the longlist, shortlist and winners will become essential reading on a national level, highlighting the outstanding diverse and inclusive books published by authors based in the UK and […]
CILIP has recognised three individuals with the award of Honorary Fellowships, given to those who have made an outstanding contribution to the library, information and knowledge world. Joseph Coelho, the current Waterstones Children’s Laureate is awarded Honorary Fellowship of CILIP in recognition of his services to libraries and reading. Coelho recently completed an epic […]
The winners of the Farshore Reading for Pleasure Teacher Awards 2023 have been announced. Launched in 2017 and run in association with the Open University and the UK Literacy Association (UKLA), the awards recognise and celebrate teachers who are putting Reading for Pleasure at the heart of their classrooms in creative and innovative ways, to […]
The longlists for the 2024 UKLA Book Awards have been announced. These are the only national children’s book awards to be judged by teachers and consequently of great interest to fellow teachers in schools around the UK. This year saw a record-breaking number of submissions with publishers putting forward over 500 books. This year there […]
Already Mariajo Ilustrajo is the winner of the 2023 Klaus Flugge Prize for the most exciting and promising newcomer to children’s picture book illustration. Mariajo is already overall winner of the Association of Illustrators World Illustration Awards, the English Association 4-11 Picture Book Award 2023 and the UK Literacy Association Picture Book Award 2023. She […]
In the week when National Literacy Trust research reveals that children’s reading enjoyment is at its lowest level in almost two decades, World Book Day has revealed the 15 new £1/€1.50 books for 2024. The 2024 £1 World Book Day selection includes re-imagined classics, adventure tales, picture books and comic book and graphic stories, aiming […]
Danielle Jawando has won the YA Book Prize 2023 with When Our Worlds Collided. Her book follows three teenagers from different backgrounds who are brought together in the aftermath of a stabbing. What follows flips their worlds upside down and makes Chantelle, Jackson, and Marc question the deep-rooted prejudice and racism that exists within society. […]
Patrice Lawrence is the winner of the 2023 Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction for her book Needle, published by Barrington Stoke. Needle tells the story of Charlene Yewless, a young, looked after, teenager who gets caught up in the criminal justice system through a single, grief-driven, act. Charlene’s journey spotlights a range of […]
Launched in 1980, we’ve reviewed hundreds of new children’s books each year and published articles on every aspect of writing for children.
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