The Booker Prize Foundation has announced the inauguration of a new prize next year, aiming to celebrate outstanding contemporary fiction for children aged 8 to 12, either written in or translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland. This initiative will embrace worldwide authors, provided their works are translated and published in those regions.
The prize will match the monetary value of the other two Booker awards, amounting to £50,000 (€43,600), to be shared between the author and illustrator or author and translator, as relevant.
The inaugural jury will be led by writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce, featuring both adult and child judges.
“The Booker Prize for Children aspires to be many things simultaneously: a prize advocating for future classics written for children; a social intervention designed to inspire more young people to read; and a seed from which we hope future generations of readers will grow,” stated Gaby Wood, the foundation’s executive director, in the announcement.
Submissions for the prize’s first edition will open in spring 2026, with finalists being unveiled in November of the same year. The winning book will be announced in February 2027.
