Children’s Book Awards Shortlists by Month
The UK has a number of active children’s book awards. From the prestigious Carnegie medals and media-backed The Week Junior Book Awards to more specific prizes like the CLiPPA poetry prize or the Alligator’s Mouth Award for short illustrated chapter books, children’s book awards are important for promoting quality children’s literature. These accolades celebrate exceptional storytelling and illustrations, helping to guide readers and bring a wider range of authors and stories into the spotlight.
Our list of UK children’s book awards features book awards that celebrate children’s literature, spotlighting books of exceptional quality, and also comes with a handy downloadable children’s book award calendar for you.
Here at BooksForTopics, we are big fans of children’s book awards. We are often asked to lend a hand in shortlisting and judging for children’s book awards, including the Lollies (Laugh Out Loud) Book Awards, the Diverse Book Awards and The Week Junior awards – as well as organising our very own Books of the Year award, voted by teachers.
Below we’ve featured a range of children’s book award shortlists that teachers might find useful to follow. Exploring the shortlisted titles offers a great way to broaden your knowledge of children’s books, or as a central point for library displays. Prize lists also serve as handy starting points for discovering noteworthy reads from previous years or books that might have become otherwise forgotten, and some also come with shadowing schemes to follow along with. We’ve also included some special collections curated by expert panels from across the industry, like the Read for Empathy collection and the Reflecting Realities recommendations.
Awards for authors and illustrators prove invaluable in identifying talented contributors to the world of children’s books on both national and international scales, as well as bringing children’s books into the news. These recognitions not only honour individual talents but also serve as useful guides for finding impactful voices in the world of children’s literature.
Download the PDF list of book awards or browse the shortlists below.
