New Children’s Booker Prize Launched to Celebrate Young Readers

The Booker Prize Foundation announced the establishment of the new Children’s Booker Prize, aimed at recognizing outstanding fiction for young readers. This initiative, revealed on October 20, 2023, will complement the existing prestigious literary awards for English-language and translated fiction.

In a significant move, the children’s award will carry a purse of £50,000 ($67,000) and is set to open for submissions in early 2024. The inaugural award ceremony will take place in 2027, with winners selected by a jury comprising both children and adults, led by celebrated author Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who currently holds the title of Children’s Laureate in the U.K. Cottrell-Boyce, known for his acclaimed work, including the Carnegie Medal-winning novel *Millions*, expressed his excitement about the initiative, stating, “It’s going to be – as they say – absolute scenes in there. Let the yelling commence.”

The new Children’s Booker Prize will welcome submissions for fiction intended for children aged 8 to 12, encompassing works written in English or translated from other languages. To qualify, books must be published in either the U.K. or Ireland. This initiative is funded by the AKO Foundation, a charity focused on arts, education, and the environment.

According to Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, the goal of this new award is to inspire young people to embrace reading, serving as “a seed from which we hope future generations of lifelong readers will grow.”

The original Booker Prize, founded in 1969, has gained international acclaim for its ability to significantly elevate the careers of writers. Notable past winners include literary giants such as Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Arundhati Roy, and Hilary Mantel. This year’s winner will be announced on November 10, 2023.

The International Booker Prize, established in 2005, originally served as a lifetime achievement award but has since evolved to honor a single work of translated fiction, with the prize money shared between the author and the translator. Past recipients have included Nobel Prize laureates such as Olga Tokarczuk from Poland and Han Kang from South Korea.

With the introduction of the Children’s Booker Prize, the Booker Prize Foundation aims to further enrich the literary landscape for younger audiences, fostering a new generation of readers and storytellers.