The judges for the 2026 Branford Boase Award, which recognises the author and, uniquely, the editor of the year’s outstanding debut novel for children, have been announced. They include the winning author of the 2025 Branford Boase Award Margaret McDonald. McDonald won with Glasgow Boys (Faber). She will be joined by children’s book experts, Katherine […]
The 2026 Phoenix Fest will take place in Oxford over the weekend of 25-26 April 2026 with over 6,000 in-person and digital tickets on offer for families. Organisers the Phoenix Comic and David Fickling Books promise a weekend of interactive fun and community with live comic artist shows, draw-a-longs and meet the artist sessions. It will be […]
The 2026 Poetry By Heart competition opens today, National Poetry Day, 2 October with a special preview of the new documentary feature film which showcases the competition’s impact. Poetry By Heart: The Movie is an uplifting film and celebration of the power of choosing, learning and sharing poetry. Since late-2024 Poetry By Heart has been […]
Congratulations to Sarah Hagger-Holt who has won the 2025 Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction for The Fights That Make Us (Usborne). This is the second Little Rebels win for Hagger-Holt, who also took the award in 2022 with Proud of You (Usborne). No other author has achieved this honour. Empathetic, positive, empowering and […]
The 2025 Nero Book Awards are underway with the judges for the different categories announced. The judges for the Children’s Fiction Award are: author Sharna Jackson, Emily Bearn, Children’s Literary Critic and author, The Telegraph, and Nick Campbell, Children’s Campaign Manager, Waterstones. Now in its third year, the Nero Book Awards recognise and celebrate outstanding […]
The winners of The Week Junior Book Awards have been announced at a ceremony held at London’s County Hall. Hosted by Bex Lindsay of Fun Kids, 14 awards were presented across categories including poetry, audiobook, cover of the year and breakthrough book. Judges included author Sophie Dahl, CBeebies’ George Webster, presenter and actor Rhys Stephenson, […]
At this year’s Labour Party Conference, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a government funding commitment to ensure that every state primary school in England will have a library by the end of this parliament (2029). The announcement is a significant success in the Libraries for Primaries campaign, launched by the National Literacy Trust and Penguin Books […]
The longlists for this year’s UKLA Book Awards include books in translation, past winners, exciting debuts and ‘a huge range of genres, topics and themes’, say the organisers, and showcase ‘high-quality children’s books that can reflect all identities and promote diversity’. The longlists are selected by panels made up of experienced past teacher judges, ex-teachers, […]
Congratulations to Nicola Davies who has been appointed fourth Children’s Laureate Wales. She takes over from poet, Alex Wharton. The announcement was made on 10 September 2025 during an event at Maesteg Library. Nicola Davies will be in the role until August 2027, working to share the power of poetry: making it accessible, fun, and relevant […]
Emma Farrarons has been announced as winner of the 2025 Klaus Flugge Prize which is awarded to the most exciting and promising newcomer to children’s picture book illustration. She won for her illustrations in My Hair is as Long as a River, written by Charlie Castle (Macmillan Children’s Books). The boy in the story has […]
The winners of the 2025 Wainwright Prize for nature and conservation writing have been announced, including the three winners of the children’s books categories. The prize ceremony took place at FarmED in Oxfordshire on Wednesday 10th September. The Children’s Wainwright Prize for Fiction has been won by Wildlands by Brogen Murphy (Puffin Books), and winner of […]
SAIL Fest, the South Asian Illustration and Literature festival will return for a second year on Saturday 27 September. The 2025 festival has partnered with Tate Publishing and the festival will take place at Tate Britain with a theme of barriers and possibilities across South Asian children’s literature. Its organisers say that SAIL FEST is the first of […]
Poet Matt Goodfellow is the new BookTrust Writer in Residence. His tenure begins today, 1 September. The Writer in Residence programme provides a platform for the country’s best loved children’s authors and illustrators to explore and share themes they are passionate about, while inspiring children and their families to discover the joy and lifelong benefits of […]
City Lit first ran a course in writing for children in 1983. It has continued to run courses in writing and illustration for children to the present day and has nurtured an extraordinary array of talent both in terms of the written word and illustration. Now a new exhibition celebrates four decades of storytelling through […]
Whose History? Challenging historical narratives through writing for children and young people. What stories do we tell children about the past? From whose point of view are these stories told? Whose lives are considered to be important and are retrievable from the records? What are historical facts and who gets to interpret them? This year’s […]
The winners of the 2025 Jericho Prize for new Black-British writers of children’s picture books have been announced. Sebrina O’Connor is named the winner of Best Picture Book Script (ages 3–7) and Ronke Owoeye as the winner of Best Baby and Toddler Script (ages 1–3). Both writers receive £1250 cash from partners Hachette Children’s Group […]
Community organisation Comics Youth has launched the UK’s first Youth Comics Laureate. The role builds upon the existing UK Comics Laureate, currently held by Bobby Joseph and supported by the Lakes International Comics Festival (LICAF). Comics have always been a powerful storytelling tool, allowing creators to explore themes of mental health, identity, and social justice […]
The Inclusive Books for Children Awards are open for submissions. Now in their third year, the awards celebrate outstanding new children’s literature for readers up to age nine in three categories, rewarding children’s authors and illustrators with a shared prize fund of £30K. In a new development, IBC is also launching Children’s Choice Awards for […]
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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