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The Children’s Booker Prize: A Golden Ticket Back to Reading for Pleasure

  • Writer: David Salariya
    David Salariya
  • 3 days ago
  • 11 min read

Reading in the Age of “I Want It Now”

Group of children reading a book
Children Reading

Why the new Children’s Booker might just rescue the joy of reading from the age of the scroll.

If Roald Dahl were writing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today, Veruca Salt wouldn’t need to stamp her patent-leather foot and shriek “I want it NOW!” - she’d simply order a Wonka Bar via next-day delivery, live-stream her unboxing, and be trending by teatime. Charlie, meanwhile, would be dismissed as a “quiet-quitting” dreamer who really ought to monetise his optimism on TikTok.


We have in effect, built Veruca’s world - a civilisation of appetites with no pause button. And in that world, reading for pleasure is the last weary act. You can’t scroll a paragraph, or binge-watch chapter nine. Reading still requires that unmarketable quality: time.


When the Booker Prize Foundation announced a Children’s Booker - complete with a £50,000 prize, child judges, and 30,000 books to be given away - It’s the first genuinely golden ticket to appear in years, and this time it’s addressed to the children themselves, not the adults who think they know what’s good for them.


Adults have made a hash of the reading business. We’ve boxed up imagination, measured it in comprehension points, and squeezed joy into “fronted adverbials.” Publishers have perfected the twin genres of the “earnest eco-parable” and the “derivative dragon trilogy.” Parents, meanwhile, are so busy doom-scrolling literacy statistics that they’ve forgotten to read aloud.


Enter Frank Cottrell-Boyce - author, laureate, and all-round bringer of light - to chair the first Children’s Booker jury.

Let the yelling commence,

he says. And quite right too. Literature has always thrived on a little noise.

Nothing rekindles the love of reading faster than being allowed to argue about it.

The prize is more than a ceremony; it’s a cultural intervention. Equal money, equal respect, and, crucially, equal voice. For the first time, children will decide which stories deserve the spotlight. Imagine the shock in certain publishing boardrooms when they realise the readers have wrested back the narrative.


I hope those 30,000 free copies don’t end up shrink-wrapped in a warehouse “for future outreach.” I hope they’re dog-eared within weeks - left on buses, traded in playgrounds, read under duvets. I hope teachers seize the shortlist as ammunition against apathy. I hope parents put down their phones long enough to remember what a story sounds like in a human voice.


We are, as the Education Secretary puts it, entering a National Year of Reading. Good. Let’s make it more than a slogan. If the Booker’s adult incarnation was once a dinner-jacketed toast to literary seriousness, this new child-led version might just be its Sid Vicious offspring - loud and unfiltered.


Here’s to the golden ticket: not the one that opens factory gates, but the one that opens minds. Veruca can keep her instant gratification; the rest of us will be busy turning the page - slowly, gloriously, and for the sheer pleasure of it.


And now for the part Veruca would have skipped: the fine print of the golden ticket itself.


The Children’s Booker Prize, The Nut's & Bolts


The Booker Prize Foundation has announced the Children’s Booker Prize, a new award for fiction aimed at 8 –12-year-olds. Like the adult Booker, the purse is £50,000. The inaugural chair is Frank Cottrell-Boyce, current Waterstones Children’s Laureate. Two adult judges will help choose an eight-book shortlist, and then three child judges will join to pick the winner. Submissions open in spring 2026, the shortlist follows in late November 2026, and the first winner will be revealed in February 2027.

Crucially, 30,000 copies of shortlisted/winning books will be given to children who need them most.



This is the most ambitious expansion of the Booker ecosystem since the International Booker launched 20 years ago, and it lands at a moment when reading for pleasure is at a 20-year low among UK children. Only one in three 8–18s enjoy reading; only one in five read daily in their free time. If you care about literacy, empathy, attainment - and yes, the future of publishing - this is a hinge moment.




The big signals the prize sends

1) Parity of esteem

Matching the adult prize money says children’s literature is not the “overlooked Cinderella” of the book world; it is literature. The purse, profile, and a Booker-grade ceremony confer status that trickles down to booksellers, librarians, and, importantly, school leaders who shape budgets and displays.


2) Children’s voices count

Bringing child judges to the final decision is not marketing garnish - it’s a structural shift in how prestige is conferred. It legitimises taste formed in playgrounds and school corridors and should colour how publishers pitch, package and pace middle-grade fiction.


3) Access built in

A promise to distribute 30,000 copies to children who need them most bakes equity into the prize mechanics. That’s not a “nice to have”; it’s how you move the needle on reading for pleasure where choice and ownership of books are scarce.




4) Format-agnostic on purpose

Rules anticipate graphic novels, translations, and highly illustrated books, with revenue-sharing to match (authors, illustrators, translators). That reflects how many pre-teen readers actually read now and could de-snobify visual storytelling at the very moment it’s winning readers back.


Why now? The data is blunt - and the timing political







  • Gender & age: The drop-off is sharp among boys 11–18; primary-age enjoyment also fell in 2025.




Overlay that with government-backed signals: 2026 will be the National Year of Reading, led by the Department for Education with the National Literacy Trust as delivery partner. Whatever you think about the politics, the direction of travel is unified: make reading pleasurable again.




There’s also a growing evidence link between better Key Stage 2 English attainment and higher lifetime earnings; DfE’s July 2025 research notes meaningful lifetime gains from stronger KS2 scores. Foundational reading is not a “soft” metric - it predicts opportunity.



What success should look like (and how we’ll know)

If the Children’s Booker Prize does what it says on the tin, we should see:

  1. Spikes in borrowing and sales for the shortlist/winner among 8–12s, especially in communities with lower reading engagement.

  2. Diverse formats on the shortlist - standard prose alongside graphic novels and translated titles - and a more varied “comp shelf” in Waterstones and school fairs.

  3. Teacher adoption: schemes of work and guided reading units built round the shortlist, not just SATs-adjacent texts.

  4. Retention: children who pick up one shortlisted book go on to read another within 6–8 weeks (trackable via school/class reading logs; Beano Brain-style panels can help).

  5. Noise: kids recommending the winner to kids. A prize that socialises taste among peers is doing its job.

The prize architecture

  • Scope: Fiction for ages 8–12, written in or translated into English, published in the UK or Ireland in the eligibility window (1 Nov 2025–31 Oct 2026 for year one).


  • Jury: Three adults (chair Frank Cottrell-Boyce plus two to be named) create an eight-book shortlist; three child judges then join to choose the winner.


  • Money: £50,000 to the winner (shared with translators/illustrators where applicable). £2,500 to each shortlisted author (shared as appropriate).


  • Access: 30,000 copies distributed to children who need them most.

  • Timeline: Submissions spring 2026; shortlist Nov 2026; winner Feb 2027.

  • Funding: Principally backed by the AKO Foundation


Why putting children on the jury is genius

Children’s reading choices are intensely social. Place three young readers at the centre of the decision and you send a signal: your taste matters. Peer validation turns reading into a public act again (playground, bus, after-school clubs), not a private chore.

It also reframes the “reluctant reader” problem. Let’s be honest: some kids find adult-selected award lists preachy or remote. A prize that says “these readers liked this” narrows the distance between plaque and playground.


Will this fix everything? No. But it could move three stubborn problems:

Perception

The Booker halo cuts through a lot of parental noise — including the idea that “real reading” stops when picture books do. That could help retain readers at 8–12, the age many kids peel off.

Provision

If the shortlist reliably includes funny, high-velocity, visually literate books, schools may feel permission to stock, teach and recommend beyond “worthies”. That matters when English time is squeezed and assessment dominates. The Times

Participation

Those 30,000 giveaway copies, deployed to the right schools and hubs, create first-ownership moments that reading research repeatedly links to motivation. Book ownership + peer buzz = habits.


Mind the pitfalls (so we don’t waste the moment)

  • Don’t over-index on “improving” books. The list must be irresistible to a tired kid at 8pm.

  • Don’t crowd out emerging voices. Prize gravity can flatten risk; guard against it by actively scouting independent lists and translated gems.

  • Don’t forget comics & manga literacy. A shortlist that never pictures a speech bubble would miss how many kids truly read now.

  • Don’t make access an afterthought. Tie the 30,000 copies to ready-to-teach class sets, activity sheets, and audio - not just a pallet in a corridor.


How this dovetails with the National Year of Reading (2026)

The DfE-backed National Year of Reading aims to reboot reading across ages, with the National Literacy Trust as delivery partner. The Children’s Booker can be the cultural engine of that year: a countdown, a shortlist party in schools, a final pick day. Build classroom and library programming backwards from the February 2027 award.


The case for pleasure

The National Literacy Trust’s 2025 survey (114,970 respondents) confirms enjoyment and daily habit at rock bottom — 32.7% enjoy reading; 18.7% read daily. Pair a high-status prize with joyful campaigns and you’ve got a fighting chance.




10 practical steps (schools, libraries, parents, publishers)

For schools & MATs

  • Build a “Children’s Booker Term” (Jan–Mar 2027): weekly assemblies, shortlist “speed-dating”, vote-along sessions when the child judges meet.

  • Classroom kits: 20-minute “first chapter” routines for each shortlist title; a Booker Bell slot after lunch.

  • Reading ladders: If Book A lands, here are three read-nexts (one prose, one graphic, one audio).

  • Boys’ routes in: embed titles with humour, competition, informational hooks; support with lunchtime clubs.

  • Measure the right thing: track self-reported enjoyment and second-book uptake, not just quizzed “points”.


    For public libraries

  • Instant displays: “If you liked the winner…” pyramids that mix new and backlist; co-host reveal parties with schools.

  • Borrow-to-own bridges: partner with local charities to gift won-over readers their own copy after three borrows.


    For parents & carers

  • Lead visibly: read where children can see you (DfE is right on this one). Pair print with audio to normalise storytelling in motion. GOV.UK

  • Swap scrolling: 10 minutes of family reading most evenings beats one “big” Sunday. Track it with a paper calendar; celebrate streaks.


For publishers & booksellers

Treat the shortlist like a season: rapid reprints, teachers’ notes, class-set pricing, indie-shop windows, author school visits, short 30-second social clips of kids recommending the books.


What kinds of books do we need to see on the shortlist?

  • High-joy adventure that’s pacey in the first three pages.

  • Comedy that respects the wit and chaos of playground banter.

  • Graphic narratives that don’t apologise for panels.

  • Contemporary realism that acknowledges phones and fractured attention - without turning into a sermon.

  • Shorter, serialisable arcs with satisfying mini-payoffs (because habit builds on finishing).


Where the money and measurement come in

Funding is led by the AKO Foundation - a major philanthropic player across arts and education — signalling durability beyond year one. Expect robust evaluation partners (the press notes mention culture/entertainment orgs and youth insight outfits) to track impact, and please: share the data so schools and councils can copy what worked.




The bigger cultural argument

We’ve spent a decade fretting about how little children read and how much they scroll. A £50,000 prize with children choosing the winner reframes the conversation. It tells an eight-year-old: you belong in literature’s front row. If we align schools, libraries and families to that signal — and keep the shortlist shamelessly entertaining — we can bend the curve on enjoyment without dumbing anything down.

If the Children’s Booker Prize becomes the night every Year 5/6 classroom cares about - the way World Book Day once captured imaginations - we’ll have done more than mint a trophy. We’ll have minted new readers.


Quick FAQ


Non Fiction


Fiction has glamour. Dragons, time-travel, interplanetary love affairs. Non-fiction often gets labelled “textbook” or “serious”. That’s lazy. Because non-fiction for children - strong narrative nonfiction, illustrated fact books, biographies, science writing - is every bit as capable of enthralling, surprising and transforming young readers.


Consider this: in a world where screens flick and fade, a fact book that hooks a child into reading to finish is a small rebellion. And yet non-fiction prizes often play the underdog role. The new Children’s Booker makes the industry shout; the non-fiction awards whisper in corridors. If fiction wins the headlines, nonfiction builds the foundations. The bridge between them matters more than ever.


3. Top Children’s Non-Fiction Prizes You Should Know


• British Book Awards – Children’s Non‑Fiction Book of the Year (UK)

A high-profile UK prize for children’s non-fiction, part of the British Book Awards. The 2025 winner was Wilding by Isabella Tree & Angela Harding (Macmillan Children’s Books) — praised as “legacy publishing … this will stand the test of time”. The Bookseller+1This category signals that children’s non-fiction is worthy of the same shelves, coverage and awards space as fiction.


• Golden Kite Awards – Nonfiction Categories (USA)

The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators runs this international award, including Nonfiction Text for Young Readers & Older Readers. Winners receive grant funding and the recognition comes from peers in the industry. WikipediaNon-fiction formats and older reader audiences are explicitly recognised — important for your Pulp History/board-school project.


• Wainwright Prize - Children’s Non‑Fiction (UK)

The environmental and nature-writing prize has a dedicated “Children’s Non-Fiction” category (from its expanded 2025 structure). This is niche but signals how topical non-fiction for children (nature, science, conservation) is rightly earning dedicated award attention.


• Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis - Sachbuch (Non‑Fiction) (Germany)

Germany’s major children’s literature prize includes the “Non-Fiction” (Sachbuch) category. Translated works and German originals compete for illustrators, authors and publishers looking at international rights, this shows factual children’s work travels.


• International Literacy Association Children’s & Young Adult Book Awards – Nonfiction (Global)

This international prize recognises both fiction and nonfiction in primary, intermediate and young adult categories — books from all countries (in English) are eligible.




4. What’s Changed - and What’s Still Needed

  • Some older non-fiction children’s prizes are no longer active: e.g., the dedicated “Best Book With Facts” category of the Blue Peter Book Awards has since been discontinued. Publishing felt the loss of its free-TV reach.

  • Non-fiction prizes are increasing, but visibility remains weaker than big fiction awards. Books that win non-fiction may not hit front-tables or get viral news.

  • Prizes emphasising fact-based books help signal quality, but the ecosystem of marketing, classroom adoption, author tours still lags behind fiction in many respects.

  • Translated children’s non-fiction is still under-represented in awards lists compared to fiction translation categories.


About the Author – David Salariya

David Salariya has been accused of many things - being “too visual,” “too educational,” and once, outrageously, of “making history fun.” As founder of The Salariya Book Company, he spent four decades smuggling knowledge into the hands of millions of children through series such as You Wouldn’t Want To Be… and A Very Peculiar History. and the Spectacular Visual Guides. His crime? Believing that books should never be boring, and that children are capable of laughing and learning at the same time.




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