Children's Book Award (UK) facts for kids

The Children's Book Award is a special British award for children's books. It is run by the Federation of Children's Book Groups. This award used to be called the Red House Children's Book Award.

To be considered, books must have been published in the U.K. during the year before the award. The award picks one main "Overall" winner. It also chooses a winner in three different groups: Books for Younger Children, Books for Younger Readers, and Books for Older Readers. What makes this award unique is that only children choose the winners!

The Federation of Children's Book Groups started this award in 1981. Their goal has always been "to celebrate the books that children themselves love reading." From 2001 to 2015, a bookshop called Red House helped sponsor the award.

How Winners Are Chosen

Children from all over the world can help choose the winners. They do this by nominating their favorite books. Many children in Britain take part through special book groups.

First, children nominate books. The ten books with the most nominations are put on a "shortlist." There are four books on the Younger Children list. The Younger Readers and Older Readers lists each have three books. Then, children vote for their favorite book from these shortlists. Their votes decide the winners!

The 2024 Overall Winner was Press Start! Game On, Super Rabbit Boy! by Thomas Flintham. This book won in the Younger Readers category. The winners for 2024 were announced earlier this year.

From 1992 to 2017, there was one Overall winner and three category awards. During this time, 13 Overall winners came from the Older Readers group. Nine winners were from the Younger Readers group. Four winners were from the Younger Children group.

Award Winners

The annual awards are for books first published in the U.K. during the previous calendar year.

1980s Winners

1990s Winners

2000s Winners

2010s Winners

2020s Winners

Authors with Many Awards

Some authors have won the Children's Book Award many times.

Michael Morpurgo has won the main "Overall" award four times. These wins were for Kensuke's Kingdom (2000), Private Peaceful (2004), Shadow (2011), and An Eagle in the Snow (2017). He also won category awards for The Wreck of the Zanzibar (1996) and Out of Ashes (2002).

Four other authors have won the "Overall" award twice:

• Roald Dahl (1983, 1989)
• Robert Swindells (1985, 1990)
• Jacqueline Wilson (1993, 1996)
• J. K. Rowling (1998, 1999)

J. K. Rowling won the Long Novel category for four years in a row. This was from 1998 to 2001, for the first four Harry Potter books.

The book A Monster Calls won the Overall Red House Award in 2012. It also won the British Children's Book of the Year in 2011. The writer, Patrick Ness, and illustrator, Jim Kay, also won two big awards from librarians: the Carnegie Medal and the Greenaway Medal. This was a very rare achievement! Before this, no other Children's/Red House Award winner had won the Carnegie Medal. Only one had won the Greenaway Medal for its pictures: Mr Magnolia by Quentin Blake in 1981.