New Children’s Laureate Announced
Handing Over the Baton!
Out with the old, in with the new! Today a new Children’s Laureate has been crowned, after two amazing years of Joseph Coelho’s tenure.
The BooksForTopics team would like to express their appreciation to Joseph Coelho for what he has made of the opportunities of being Children’s Laureate! Championing accessibility, showcasing libraries and bringing poetry joy to thousands. Joseph has thrown pebbles into a pond and the ripples will spread profoundly, way beyond his tenure.
We would also like to congratulate Frank Cottrell-Boyce – incoming Children’s Laureate 2024-2026. Frank has been a key voice in advocating for children’s story-making for years – we have no doubt he will bring his own wisdom, warmth and creative flair to the role!
A New Laureate
On Tuesday 2nd July, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the multi-award-winning author and screenwriter, was announced as the new Children’s Laureate 2024 – 2026 and was presented with the bespoke silver Laureate medal by outgoing Children’s Laureate, Joseph Coelho.
The Waterstones Children’s Laureate is a biannual award that has been running for 25 years, making Frank the thirteenth in a line of impactful appointments. Managed by BookTrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity, and sponsored by Waterstones, this prestigious role celebrates storytelling and promotes the importance of reading. Each Laureate brings their unique voice, with a focus on enriching children’s lives through books.
At this week’s ceremony, Frank Cottrell-Boyce launched his Laureateship with a powerful speech declaring his ambitions for children’s books and the life-changing benefits of reading to be ‘taken seriously’. He pledged to dedicate his two-year tenure to igniting a fierce national conversation about the role books and reading can play in transforming children’s lives, referencing the decades of compelling evidence showing that reading for pleasure is the single biggest factor impacting the life chances of a child, as well as the ‘crisis point’ facing the millions of children now living in poverty, warning: ‘we risk losing a generation unless we act.’
This campaign – which is called Reading Rights: Books Build a Brighter Future – also includes plans for a national summit bringing together expert voices in the political, education, literacy and early years sectors..
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