The best children's books for Christmas written by Booker Prize authors

After the crackers have been pulled, the fire is roaring and those bellies are full, there’s no bigger joy at Christmas time than settling down as a family and turning the crisp pages of a new book. 

With the festive season upon us, we’ve compiled a list of children’s books written by Booker Prize-nominated authors that make the perfect gifts for everyone from tots right through to teens. From wintery classics to read together in the run-up or laugh-aloud stocking fillers for the big day, this selection of books will pass on the magic of storytelling to the children in your life.

Weirdo by Zadie Smith (ages 0-5)

Booker-shortlisted Zadie Smith dipped her toe into the world of children’s picturebooks in 2021 when she co-wrote Weirdo, along with her husband Nick Laird and Magenta Fox on illustrations.  It follows a gutsy little guinea pig who breaks the mould while wearing a judo suit. What’s not to love? With colourful images which are stylistically akin to a modern Raymond Briggs, Weirdo is a book with a big heart that will show readers it’s OK to be different and their individuality is something to be celebrated. Widely regarded as one of the finest contemporary writers, Smith first made the longlist in 2002 with The Autograph Man, followed by nominations for On Beauty in 2005 and the breathtaking Swing Time in 2017.

Up in the Tree by Margaret Atwood (ages 2-6)

Renowned for her terrifying dystopian works which have become symbols of resistance against the patriarchy, Margaret Atwood isn’t particularly associated with the slightly more quaint world of children’s picture books. Written in 1978, eight years before she published The Handmaid’s Tale, Up in the Tree was the future Booker Prize winner’s first children’s book - a story about two children who make a home high in the branches. But when the ladder that connects them to the world down below is destroyed, they are left wondering if they are really so free. A playful read with a simple message at its core, Up in the Tree is illustrated by Atwood herself and a book adults and young children can enjoy together.

Mama’s Sleeping Scarf by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, illustrated by Joelle Avelino (ages 3+)

A writer of novels, short stories, essays – and the host of a TED talk (which was sampled by Beyoncé) – Booker Prize-longlisted Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has now turned her pen to children’s literature with Mama’s Sleeping Scarf. Here, she writes under the pen name of Nwa Grace-James, meaning ‘the child of Grace James’, which is a poignant homage to her own parents. The picture book, which is beautifully illustrated by Joelle Avelino, is inspired by Chimamanda’s own family life and takes an ordinary object – a sleeping scarf, most commonly worn by Black women – and turns it into something extraordinary, which offers a connection between a little girl and her mother when they are apart. The incidentals of family life are captured through a joyful lens, in this book that celebrates that precious bond in the early years between parent and child.

Mossy Trotter by Elizabeth Taylor (ages 8-11)

In 1967 Elizabeth Taylor wrote a book that still has the timeless ability to transport a reader to the halcyon days of childhood - a book full of marbles, tree climbing, forest explorations, and day-long adventures. But most of all, a book full of just the right amount of mischief. Mossy Trotter is a whimsical read that perfectly captures the essence of growing up between its pages and, surprisingly, it was the only children’s book the author wrote. Taylor went on to be shortlisted for Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont in 1971, a book at the opposite end of the spectrum - a ruthlessly observant study of eccentricity in old age.

A Stitch in Time by Penelope Lively (ages 9-11)

Got a kiddo in your life who loves to sink into a mystery? Penelope Lively’s 1976 classic will be right up their street. Following Maria, an introspective young girl who often gets lost within the secret world in her imagination, and begins to see and hear things that aren’t really ‘there’. But when she connects with a ten-year-old girl from over a hundred years ago, Maria is drawn into the Victorian child’s life, where past and present merge. A gorgeous, time-travelling tale for independent readers by the twice-shortlisted author, who won the Booker Prize in 1987 with Moon Tiger.

The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan (ages 9-11)

In 1994 Ian McEwan teamed up with former Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne to create the peculiar world of The Daydreamer, a novel where a young boy with a big imagination enters a world of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales. McEwan evokes the strange and beguiling world of childhood while Browne’s bold and surrealist illustrations create a far-fetched masterpiece together, which draws comparisons to the zany worlds of Roald Dahl. The author has been nominated an impressive six times and won the prize in 1998 with Amsterdam, his darkly funny tale about a fragile friendship.
 

The Village by the Sea by Anita Desai (ages 9-11)

Three-time Booker-nominated Anita Desai won the Guardian’s Children’s Fiction Prize with The Village By The Sea in 1983, which she wrote in between two of her shortlisted books, Clear Light of Day and In Custody. A story of a small rural community in Bombay, India, it depicts the struggles and strengths of two children who hold their family together through both financial hardships and sorrow. Desai’s intricate writing beautifully illuminates a culture, through an emotional, coming-of-age story.

The Six Lives of Fankle the Cat by George Mackay-Brown (ages 9-12) 

As a poet, George Mackay-Brown is renowned for his rich and evocative use of language, his native Orkney always providing the backdrop or inspiration for his work, as in his 1994 shortlisted saga Beside the Ocean of Time. It’s here he has also set his 1980 children’s book The Six Lives of Fankle the Cat, an imaginative feline caper where a cat tells Jenny, a little girl, of its former lives and the adventures he undertook. Now he is down to his final three. With each little life occupying a new chapter, this makes a lovely bedtime read, by one of the 20th century’s most original writers.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (ages 13+)

Golding won the Booker Prize in 1980 with his haunting epic Rites of Passage, but it’s Lord of the Flies, his 1954 dystopian that has left an indelible mark on British culture. Revealing the darker side of adolescent life, it could be classified as one of the original YA novels, going on to sell over 25 million copies in the English language alone. A group of schoolboys are left stranded after a plane crash and while they try to forge their own society without adult supervision, order collapses and the grand idea of island adventures slowly slip from their grasp. A novel synonymous with the lost innocence of childhood, it’s a thought-provoking and captivating read for young readers who love survival stories, with a twist.