The winners of this year’s ALCS Annual Awards, hosted by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), have been announced. The ALCS Annual Awards celebrate significant contributions to literacy, creativity and educational writing. Of the three honours presented, two are in the children’s book world: the ALCS Educational Writers’ Award in association with the Society […]
The winners of the Inclusive Books for Children Awards 2026 have been announced. The Awards celebrate the best UK-published inclusive children’s books for ages 1 to 9, and the winning titles reflect the breadth of children’s lives and experiences. For the second time since the awards were launched in 2023, there is an all-female roster […]
The longlist for the 2026 Klaus Flugge Prize has been announced. Set up in 2016, the Klaus Flugge Prize honours publisher Klaus Flugge, a hugely influential figure in picture books and founder of publishing house Andersen Press. The £5,000 prize is awarded annually to the most promising and exciting newcomer to children’s book illustration and […]
The Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) and the National Literacy Trust have announced the shortlist for the 2026 Ruth Rendell Award, which recognises the writer or author who has had the most significant influence on literacy in the UK over the past year. The award was launched in 2016 by ALCS and the National […]
The CLiPPA (CLPE Poetry Award) opens today. Now in its 23rd year, the CLiPPA is the UK’s foremost award for published poetry for children. Recent winners include Joseph Coelho, Valerie Bloom, Michael Rosen, Colette Hiller and Matt Goodfellow. Each year, the shortlist is explored and celebrated by tens of thousands of primary school children who […]
The Carnegies, the UK’s longest running book awards for children and young people, have announced their longlists for 2026 with 19 books on each of the two lists. Independent publishers dominate both longlists, and this year’s Medal for Illustration longlist features 17 artists longlisted for the very first time. Identity is a stand-out theme across […]
The Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction has been paused this year due to the need to source additional funding. Award organiser, Fen Coles of Letterbox Library said, ‘Since its inception in 2013, the Little Rebels Award has grown immeasurably in stature. It is a testament to its success that the work it generates […]
The 2026 Read for Empathy collection of 65 books for 3–16-year-olds has been revealed. Selected by teachers, librarians and academics, the books will be used in homes, schools and libraries to help children and young people build their ability to understand other people’s feelings and points of view. Now in its tenth year, the collection […]
The Henrietta Branford Writing Competition, the annual competition for young people which runs in conjunction with the Branford Boase Award, is now open. The competition aims to find and encourage writers of the future, something author Henrietta Branford was always keen to do. Anyone under the age of 19 can enter the competition and each […]
Puffin Press is a new list set to publish voice-led middle-grade fiction for the most confident and voracious young readers. Publisher Natalie Doherty explains. Puffin Press is a new list at Puffin, dedicated to voice-led middle-grade fiction for voracious 9–12-year-old book-lovers, who want to be immersed, challenged, and swept away. Puffin aims to publish a book for […]
The Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) and the Society of Authors (SoA) have announced the shortlist for the 2025 ALCS Educational Writers’ Award, the UK’s only award for educational writing and intended to inspire creativity, encourage students to read widely and build up their understanding of a subject beyond the requirements of exam specifications. […]
The School Library Association (SLA) has revealed the shortlist for the 2026 Information Book Award (IBA), celebrating inspiring UK-published information books for young people, up to age 16. The SLA has also announced new sponsorship for the IBA, with DK, the children’s non-fiction publisher, joining the Award as sponsor. This is an exciting new development, which reflects the IBA’s growing focus on pupil voice and […]
The longlist for the 2026 Branford Boase Award has been announced. Set up in 2000, in memory of author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase, one of the founders of Walker Books, the Branford Boase Award recognises the author of the year’s outstanding debut novel for children and young people, together with the editor […]
Oxford University Press (OUP) have announced the Oxford Children’s Word of the Year for 2025 and it is peace. 35 per cent of children surveyed for the research chose peace, though it was narrowly followed by a third (33 per cent) choosing AI. 21 per cent opted for resilience. The research, carried out in 2025, […]
Poetry By Heart, the national poetry speaking competition, is extending its activity and creating new materials to help the very youngest school pupils discover the joy of poetry and speaking it aloud. A new timeline of poems for children in KS1 and Reception launched on Tuesday 20 January 2026, coinciding with the start of the […]
Jamila Gavin is the winner of the 2025 Nero Book Awards, children’s fiction category, with her novel My Soul, A Shining Tree (Farshore). She receives £5,000 and is now in the running for the Nero Gold Prize, Book of the Year 2025 alongside the other category winners Benjamin Wood (Adult Fiction), Claire Lynch (Debut Fiction) […]
The shortlist for the 2026 Inclusive Books for Children (IBC) Awards has been announced. The IBC Awards celebrate UK-published inclusive children’s books for 1- to 9-year-olds and the shortlist recognises 25 authors and illustrators who excel in inclusive storytelling. This year’s shortlist selections follow. Baby and toddler book shortlist: Ada, Go, Go, Go! […]
Bookmark Reading Charity has launched Mind The Gap, a national campaign calling for urgent action to close England’s ‘literacy gap’ – the discrepancy in reading attainment between disadvantaged children and their peers. Only 10% of disadvantaged children who fall behind in reading at primary school go on to pass English and maths at GCSE (Education […]
Launched in 1980, we’ve reviewed hundreds of new children’s books each year and published articles on every aspect of writing for children.
Books for Keeps,
30 Winton Avenue,
London,
N11 2AT
Telephone: 0780 789 3369
ISSN: 0143-909X (this is our International Standard Serial Number).
