Booker Prize charity launches new Children's Prize worth 50,000 pounds

The charity behind one of the world's most significant literary prizes on Friday announced a new 50,000-pounds Children's Booker Prize for fiction, to be selected by a combined panel of child and adult judges.

The Booker Prize Foundation, behind the prestigious annual prize for fiction also worth 50,000 pounds, said the first edition of the children's award will open for nominations in 2026 to be awarded annually from 2027. It 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.

“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,” Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation.

“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,” she said.

Supported by education charity AKO Foundation, at least 30,000 copies of the shortlisted and winning books will be gifted to ensure more children can own and read the world's best fiction.

“The evidence linking reading for pleasure to improved educational outcomes and greater social mobility is compelling, and this initiative aligns closely with our priorities as a funder,” said Philip Lawford, AKO Foundation CEO.

The UK's Children's Laureate and multi-award-winning children's book author and screenwriter, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, has been confirmed as the inaugural Chair of judges for the new prize.

While Cottrell-Boyce and two other adult judges will select a shortlist of eight books, three child judges will be recruited – with the support of schools and a range of partners across the culture and entertainment industries – to join the panel to choose the winning book.

“Stories belong to everyone. Every child deserves the chance to experience the happiness that diving into a great book can bring,” said Cottrell-Boyce.

“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,” he said.

British author Penelope Lively will give a keynote speech on the new children's prize at this year's Booker Prize ceremony in London on November 10.

Delhi-born author Kiran Desai is shortlisted for her novel ‘The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' and in line for a double win of the coveted literary prize, having won for ‘The Inheritance of Loss' in 2006.

The Booker Prize dates back over 55 years and this week's announcement marks the first major new prize from the foundation in two decades – since the launch of the International Booker Prize in 2005. First awarded in 1969, it is considered a leading literary award in the English-speaking world that rewards outstanding works of fiction.

Earlier this year, ‘Heart Lamp' by Banu Mushtaq and translated by Deepa Bhasthi became the first collection of short stories and the first translated from Kannada to win the International Booker Prize.