The Booker Prize Foundation has announced that a Children’s Booker Prize will launch in 2026, with the first winner announced in February 2027. The Children’s Booker Prize will be supported by AKO Foundation and is the first major new prize from the Foundation in two decades, since the launch of the International Booker Prize in 2005.

The Children’s Booker Prize will celebrate the best contemporary fiction for children aged eight to 12 years old, written in or translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland with the winner receiving a prize of £50,000 and a likely huge boost to sales.

Current Waterstones Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce will be the inaugural Chair of the judges. He will be joined by two other adult judges to select a shortlist of eight books before three child judges are recruited to help decide the winner. Their nominated works will join almost 700 books in the Booker library.

Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, says, ‘The Children’s Booker Prize is the most ambitious endeavour 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, carers, teachers and everyone in the world of storytelling can get behind.

‘We’re delighted that Frank Cottrell-Boyce, master storyteller and passionate advocate, will be the inaugural Chair of the judges. And we can’t wait to hear the views of the ultimate judges 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.’

Frank Cottrell-Boyce, says, ‘Stories belong to everyone. Every child deserves the chance to experience the happiness that diving into a great book can bring. The Children’s Booker Prize will make it easier for children to find the best that current fiction can offer. To find the book that speaks to them. By inviting them to the judging table and by gifting copies of the nominated books it will bring thousands more children into the wonderful world of reading.

‘I am absolutely buzzing about the news that I’m going to be chairing the judging panel. It’s going to be – as they say – absolute scenes in there.  Let the yelling commence.’

To mark the announcement of the Children’s Booker Prize, Penelope Lively will give the keynote speech at this year’s Booker Prize ceremony on Monday, 10 November 2025 at Old Billingsgate, London sharing the reasons she thinks that children’s literature should be celebrated by this new prize. Lively is the only recipient of both the Booker Prize (for Moon Tiger, 1987) and the Carnegie Medal for writing, the UK’s longest-running children’s book award (for The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, 1973).   Welcoming the announcement of the Children’s Booker Prize, she says: ‘Those who write for children especially need this – and it is needed equally for the children who read the books.’

Joseph Coelho, Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s predecessor as Children’s Laureate 2022-2024, says, ‘I’m incredibly excited by the announcement of the Children’s Booker Prize. This is a brilliant way to invite children into the world of words through a celebration of books, authors and illustrators. I fully welcome a robust prize that celebrates children’s literature in a manner equal to that which adult literature receives and one that makes essential space for the voice of the child.’

The inaugural prize will open for submissions from publishers in spring 2026, when the remaining two adult judges will be made public. The shortlist of eight books – and the three child judges – will be announced in late November 2026, with the winner revealed at a high-profile event for young readers in February 2027. The eligibility period for the 2027 prize is 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2026.

The shortlisted authors will each receive £2,500 and the winning author £50,000, ensuring that children’s prize recipients are given the same level of financial reward and recognition as their counterparts writing fiction for adults. The prize will be open to authors worldwide, both for books written originally in English and for those translated into English, as long as they are published in the UK and/or Ireland within the eligibility period. This fuses the eligibility of the two existing Booker Prizes. If a book that has been translated into English wins, the author and translator will share the £50,000 equally, as with the International Booker Prize. If a graphic novel wins the author and illustrator will share the £50,000 prize equally; if a highly illustrated book wins, the author and illustrator will share the £50,000 in a manner to be agreed with the publisher.