A girl looks for a book in the children's section of a bookshop in France on June 18.STEPHANE OUZOUNOFF/Getty Images
One the world’s top literary honours, the Booker Prize, is launching a new award to celebrate children’s literature and encourage more young people to read.
The Children’s Booker Prize will recognize the best contemporary fiction aimed at kids between the ages of eight and 12. Like the Booker Prize, it will be open to authors worldwide for works written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Books translated into English will also be eligible.
The winner will receive £50,000 ($93,000), which is the same amount as the Booker Prize. A panel of judges composed of three children and three adults will select the winning entry.
The prize will be managed by the Booker Prize Foundation and backed by the London-based AKO Foundation, a charity that supports programs aimed at improving education and the well-being of young people. AKO has agreed to fund the award for its first three years.
Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, said children’s fiction doesn’t get the kind of attention or recognition it deserves, and she hopes the new award will guide readers to some of the best work. “It’s very hard for children and parents to figure out what they do want to read and what’s good.”
Canadian-born author David Szalay’s book Flesh shortlisted for Booker Prize
She added that the foundation hopes to address the dwindling number of children who read books.
“One way of combating that is to help children discover the books that really might be for them. And so, quite significantly for this prize, we’ve got children at the judging table choosing the winner,” Ms. Wood said. “We really think that in order for them to enjoy their reading, they have to choose it. They can’t just be told to read it.”
Children’s books can be entered for the Booker Prize and the International Booker Prize, which is awarded to books that have been translated into English. But none have won and few get far in the process.
Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass, part of a children’s trilogy called His Dark Materials, was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001 and Treacle Walker by acclaimed children’s writer Alan Garner was shortlisted in 2022.
“We don’t prevent publishers submitting children’s books, but it’s true that it’s very hard,” Ms. Wood said. “But more importantly, I don’t think children look to the Booker Prize for their reading material. So really, this is to steer them towards things they might love.”
The inaugural Children’s Booker Prize will be open to submissions in spring 2026 for books published between Nov. 1, 2025, and Oct. 31, 2026.
A short list of eight books will be announced in November, 2026, and the winner will be revealed at a ceremony in February, 2027. British author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce will chair the inaugural judging panel.
The foundation is working with publishers and Britain’s National Literacy Trust to deliver at least 30,000 copies of the shortlisted and winning books each year to children.
This year’s Booker Prize will be awarded during a gala dinner in London on Nov. 10. Canadian-born author David Szalay’s book Flesh is among the six shortlisted works.
The short list also includes books by three American writers: Flashlight by Susan Choi, Audition by Katie Kitamura and The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits. Indian author Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny also made the final list along with The Land in Winter by British author Andrew Miller.