Winners of the inaugural Week Junior Book Awards announced
First Week Junior Book Award Ceremony
This week, The Week Junior children’s magazine celebrated the outstanding achievements of the inaugural The Week Junior Book Awards 2023. These awards, sponsored by Bookily from National Book Tokens and in partnership with The Bookseller and World Book Day, were presented at a ceremony held at London’s County Hall, which we had the honour of attending.
The event brought together luminaries from the UK’s children’s publishing industry to celebrate the impact of books on children’s lives and to recognize the remarkable talent in today’s children’s book landscape. Among the winners were SF Said, Serena Patel and Rob Biddulph, and a number of the winning books will be familiar to the BooksForTopics community from their appearances on our primary school booklists.
Celebrating Excellence in Children’s Books
Established in 2023, The Week Junior Book Awards were created to address the need for critical discourse around children’s literature and to spotlight the remarkable work of both emerging and established children’s authors. The awards were given to the winners of nine different categories and you can read about the full shortlist here.
Anna Bassi, Editorial Director of The Week Junior and chair of the awards, said:
“Our wonderful – and thoroughly deserving – winning titles represent a broad and fascinating spectrum of topics, genres and voices, but what they all have in common is their absolute power to captivate, entertain and inform young readers. The judges were unanimous in their decisions and I feel privileged to celebrate the success of the authors, illustrators and publishers whose brilliant books bring such pleasure to children, and help form a love of reading that will have benefits for the rest of their lives.“
Audiences will have the opportunity to meet some of the award-winning authors, including Breakthrough winner J. T. Williams and Younger Fiction winner Serena Patel, at The Week Junior Book Festival, scheduled during the school half-term on October 24th in London. They will be joined by best-selling authors like Michael Morpurgo, Michael Rosen, and Jenny Pearson, promising a memorable literary experience for young readers and their families.
The Winners of The Week Junior Book Awards 2023
Children’s Book Cover of the Year – Peanut Jones and The Twelve Portals written and illustrated by Biddulph (Macmillan Children’s Books).
Children’s Book of the Year: Younger Fiction 6-9 – Anisha, Accidental Detective: Holiday Adventure by Patel and illustrated by Emma McCann (Usborne)
Children’s Book of the Year: Older Fiction 9-12 – Tyger by Said, illustrated by Dave McKean (David Fickling Books)
Children’s Audiobook of the Year – Audio Adventures: Natural Wonders of the World by Sidra Ansari and narrated by Ben Bailey-Smith (Ladybird)
Children’s Book of the Year: Breakthrough – The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Drama and Danger by J T Williams and illustrated by Simone Douglas (Farshore)
Children’s Illustrated Book of the Year – Frankie’s World, written and illustrated by Aoife Dooley (Scholastic).
Children’s Book of the Year: Older Non-Fiction 9-12: Real Life Dragons and Their Stories of Survival by Anita Ganeri and illustrated by Jianan Liu (Wayland)
Children’s Book of the Year: STEM: 24 Hours in Time and Space by Rob Lloyd Jones and illustrated by Laurent King (Usborne)
Children’s Book of the Year: Younger Non-Fiction 6-9: The Extraordinary Book That Makes You Feel Happy by Poppy O’Neill and illustrated by Caribay M Benavides (Weldon Owen Children’s Books).
You can see the full Week Junior Book Award shortlist here.
Further information can be found on The Week Junior Book Awards website.
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> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub.
> Browse our Topic Booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.
> View our Year Group booklists
