There are many prizes and awards for children's literature. The books shortlisted for such awards are of the highest quality and reading them is a good way to increase your knowledge of children's books in general. Prize lists are also a good place to start if you want to find out about books published in previous decades, and achievement awards for authors and illustrators are useful in identifying the highly-regarded authors and illustrators, both national and international.
Our Favourites
The Children’s Book Award (previously the Red House Children’s Book Award) is the only national book award voted for entirely by children. Founded in 1980 by the FCBG’s Pat Thomson to celebrate books that children themselves love reading, it has three age categories and an overall winner. The winners are normally announced in February and past recipients have included J.K. Rowling, Patrick Ness, Andy Stanton, Malorie Blackman, Anthony Horowitz and Oliver Jeffers.
The UKLA Children's Book Award is the only national book award judged by teachers. Founded in 2008 to encourage teachers to increase their professional and personal knowledge of high quality children's books, enhance literacy teaching and promote reading for pleasure in the classroom, there are three age categories. The award is announced each July at the UKLA conference.
The Yoto Carnegie Medals for Writing and Illustration are awarded by CILIP (the Library and Information Association) and judged by librarians. The Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing (previously known as the CILIP Carnegie Medal, established in 1937) is for excellence in writing, and the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration (previously known as the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal, established in 1952) for excellence in illustration. Often described by authors and illustrators as 'the one they want to win', they are considered the gold standard in literature and illustration for children and young people. We have a complete collection of all CILIP Carnegie Medal winners in the Library.
The UK's Children's Laureate for 2024-26 is Frank Cottrell-Boyce.
Cottrell-Boyce will hold the title until 2026 and is the 13th person to receive the honour, which is awarded every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children's books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field.
The idea for the Children's Laureate originated from a conversation between (the then) Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and children's writer Michael Morpurgo (himself an Honorary Graduate of BGU). Children’s Laureates often take the opportunity to promote a particular theme in children's literature.
Below are lists of the winners of all major children's literature prizes in any given year. All winners are available to borrow from the Teaching Resources Collection. From 2018-2019 onwards the links are to lists hosted on the University's My Reading platform.