The Children’s Booker Prize 2027
Submissions are now open to publishers, the three adult judges have been announced, and a UK-wide search for three child judges is underway
The new annual prize, supported by AKO Foundation, will celebrate the best contemporary fiction for children aged eight to 12 years old, written in or translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.
The shortlist of eight books will be announced on 24 November 2026, and the winner will be announced on 2 February 2027.
Illustration by Henri Campeã
The three adult judges on the 2027 judging panel have now been announced. The multi-award-winning children’s book author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who is the current Waterstones Children’s Laureate and the inaugural Chair of judges for the prize, is joined by the acclaimed actor, writer and comedian Lolly Adefope, and award-winning children’s bookseller and owner of the Children’s Bookshop in Muswell Hill, London, Sanchita Basu De Sarkar.
Uniquely, the Children’s Booker Prize will be judged by a mixed panel of adult and child judges. Cottrell-Boyce, Adefope and Basu De Sarkar will select a shortlist of eight books. Three child judges – who must be aged between eight and 12 years old and living in the UK – will then join the adult judges in choosing the winning book. The process will give children a direct voice in the outcome, ensuring the winning book is a recommendation from young readers to their peers.
Lolly Adefope, Frank Cottrell-Boyce (Chair) and Sanchita Basu De Sarkar, judges for the Children’s Booker Prize 2027
© Patch Studio, David Bebber, Rawaa Elsir
The child judges
In April 2026, the Booker Prize Foundation launched a nationwide competition to find three children aged eight to 12 from across the UK to join the adult judges to choose the winning book. The three child judges will be announced alongside the shortlist on Tuesday, 24 November 2026. Find out more.
The Children’s Booker Prize 2027
© Henri Campeã
Prize money, eligibility and submissions
As with the Booker Prize, the shortlist will each receive £2,500 and the winner £50,000, ensuring that children’s prize recipients are given the same level of financial reward and recognition as their counterparts writing fiction for adults.
The prize will be open to authors worldwide, both for books written originally in English and for those translated into English, as long as they are published in the UK and/or Ireland within the eligibility period. This fuses the eligibility of the two existing Booker Prizes. If a book that has been translated into English wins, the author and translator will share the prize money equally, as with the International Booker Prize. If a graphic novel wins, the author and illustrator will share the prize money equally; if an illustrated book wins, the author and illustrator will share the prize money in a 50:50 or 75:25 split, as determined by the Booker Prize Foundation.
UK and Irish publishers are now invited to submit their books for the 2027 prize. Eligible books are those published between 1 November 2025 and 31 October 2026. Key deadlines are staggered between May and June 2026.
The Children’s Booker Prize 2027
© Henri Campeã
The aims of the prize
The Booker Prizes have rewarded and celebrated world-class talent for over 55 years, helping to shape the canon of 20th and 21st century literature, transforming the careers of writers and building a global community of readers. The Children’s Booker Prize is the first major new prize from the Booker Prize Foundation in two decades, since the launch of the International Booker Prize in its original form in 2005.
The aim of the Children’s Booker Prize is to engage and grow a new generation of readers by recognising and championing the best children’s fiction from writers around the world.
Their nominated works will join around 700 books in the Booker library. At least 30,000 copies of the shortlisted and winning books will be gifted to children who need them the most, ensuring that more children can read and own the world’s best fiction.
The founding partner and principal funder of the Children’s Booker Prize is AKO Foundation, a grant-giving charitable foundation focused on supporting charities that improve education and the wellbeing of young people, promote the arts, and combat the climate emergency. AKO Foundation has generously committed to supporting the prize for its first three years. The development of the prize over the last three years has been made possible thanks to donations from a small group of philanthropic supporters.
The Children’s Booker Prize 2027
© Henri Campeã
The 2027 judges
Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, says:
‘We are beyond delighted by the enthusiastic response to the news, late last year, that we would be launching a Children’s Booker Prize. And we’re hugely grateful to AKO Foundation for making it possible.
‘Now we have three phenomenal adult judges at the ready: the trailblazing children’s book author, screenwriter and champion of children’s rights Frank Cottrell-Boyce; the brilliant actor and comedian Lolly Adefope, adored for her performance as Kitty in Ghosts; and Sanchita Basu De Sarkar, esteemed owner of the nation’s oldest children’s bookshop and rarely out of a primary school assembly.
‘Perhaps most exciting of all: we’re ready to invite children to enter our nationwide competition to become one of three child judges.
‘This new prize is underpinned by a social mission: to create future generations of lifelong readers. We feel confident that we can enthuse children if we are armed with the very best. By ‘best’, we mean books that readers will love, books that can be read over and over again or enjoyed just once. Books that contain great characters, emotion, wit, action, adventure, imagination, magic. Books that take readers to other places – in the world, in their minds or in their hearts.
‘To foster those adventures we are thrilled to be collaborating with Beano and Young V&A – organisations that spark joy and creativity in children. We can’t wait for everything that’s about to unfold.’
Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation
© Clara Molden
Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Chair of Children’s Booker Prize 2027 judges, says:
‘Every child deserves the chance to experience the happiness of diving into a great book.
‘The Children’s Booker Prize will make it easier for children to find the book that’s right for them. The book that calls to them, that invites them on the adventure. Having children at the judging table will turn the prize into a national reading party (one of the joys of reading is arguing about books!).
‘And – maybe most of all – gifting thousands of copies of the nominated titles will open the door to that party and say, come on in, this is for you.’
Lolly Adefope, Children’s Booker Prize 2027 judge, says:
‘I’m so excited to judge the Children’s Booker Prize. I love that the prize recognises the importance of judging children’s books with the same rigour and respect as the adult fiction prizes, and can’t wait to hear the perspectives of my fellow judges, none more so than the child judges whose input matters most of all.
‘As a child I was a voracious reader; much like film and television the opportunity to be lost within and consumed by a new world is one that should be encouraged for children everywhere. I can’t wait to get started.’
Sanchita Basu De Sarkar, Children’s Booker Prize 2027 judge, says:
‘I’m thrilled to be a judge for the inaugural Children’s Booker Prize – it brings together everything I love. Reading loads of children’s books; getting to discuss them with some utterly brilliant people; and sharing the books with children all over the country so we can continue the conversation. Reading, talking, sharing. What more could anyone want?
‘Judging with the children is going to be a completely unique experience, and one of the things I’m most excited about for the Children’s Booker. One of my favourite activities in the bookshop is our book club sessions – children make for the most passionate and opinionated readers, and whenever we sit down and discuss books together, I’m always gaining new perspectives. We all come away buzzing with ideas. What a fabulous way to celebrate the Year of Reading.’
Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Chair of judges for the Children’s Booker Prize 2027
© David Bebber
About the judges
Frank Cottrell-Boyce (Chair of Children’s Booker Prize 2027 judges) is a multi-award-winning author, screenwriter and the Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2024-2026 (managed by BookTrust). Millions, his debut children’s novel, won the prestigious Carnegie Medal. His other books include Cosmic, Runaway Robot, The Wonder Brothers and many more which have been shortlisted for a multitude of prizes.
He is also a highly successful screenwriter and along with Danny Boyle, he devised the Opening Ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics. Cottrell-Boyce is a lifelong champion of children’s books. In 2023 he launched a successful podcast with Nadia Shireen, The Island of Brilliant!, celebrating writing and illustration for children of all ages.
His latest book, A British Childhood: How Our Children Live Now is a non-fiction account of our failure to look after the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, and a call to arms to all of us to protect the innocence of childhood. It will be published in June 2026 by Picador.
Lolly Adefope is a BAFTA-nominated actress best known for her role in the hit BBC sitcom Ghosts. The acclaimed comedy ran for five seasons, earning two BAFTA nominations and winning the Broadcast Press Guild Award for Best Comedy in 2024. She is currently working on the Ghosts film.
Adefope starred opposite Richard E. Grant in HBO’s superhero satire The Franchise, earning her a BAFTA nomination for Female Performance in a Comedy. Her previous TV credits include Horrible Histories (Series 7), Black Mirror, Shrill, This Time with Alan Partridge, and guest roles in We Might Regret This and Lovesick. On film, she has appeared in Wicked Little Letters and Saltburn.
Her upcoming projects include Will Sharpe’s Apple TV series Prodigies. She was named one of Vanity Fair’s Rising Stars of 2025.
Sanchita Basu De Sarkar is the owner of the Children’s Bookshop in Muswell Hill, London. It is the oldest running children’s bookshop in the UK, and has inspired generations of young readers. The bookshop sits at the heart of children’s literature, and works with schools, charities, and organisations all over the country to ignite children with the reading spark. It was awarded the double accolade of Children’s Bookseller of the Year and Book Retailer of the Year at the British Book Awards 2024.
Basu De Sarkar has judged for numerous awards including the Costa Book Award, the British Book Awards, amongst others. She sits on the Children’s Laureate Steering Group and is a co-founder of SAIL Fest, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of South Asian children’s authors and illustrators in the UK.
She was made an Honorary Fellow at the Royal Society of Literature in 2024.
The Children’s Booker Prize 2027
© Henri Campeã
Delivering the Children’s Booker Prize with partners
The Booker Prize Foundation will be working with publishers and a range of partners, including the National Literacy Trust, The Reading Agency, OnSide, Bookbanks, and the Children’s Book Project to gift and deliver the 30,000 copies of the shortlisted and winning books each year to children who need them the most.
We are collaborating with Young V&A on an unprecedented takeover of the London museum for the inaugural Children’s Booker Prize 2027 ceremony. Young V&A is designed to spark creativity in young people and families, and the event will be a high-profile celebration of books for young readers featuring exciting activities in the museum’s inspiring spaces, as well as the announcement of the first winner of the prize. A livestream of the ceremony will ensure schools across the UK can join in with the celebrations.
We have also announced a partnership with Beano – the world’s longest-running weekly comic. As well as the prizes for child judges, the partnership will include bespoke illustrated content celebrating the shortlisted books and the child judging experience in the magazine, lesson plan content created and delivered via Beano for Schools, and a special presence at the ceremony at Young V&A on Tuesday, 2 February 2027.
We have been working with Beano Brain, specialists in kids and youth insight, consulting children on the development of the Children’s Booker Prize, including co-creation sessions with eight to 12 year olds. We will also be working with the National Literacy Trust to measure longer term trends in children’s reading.
The inaugural Children’s Booker Prize 2027 ceremony will take place at the Young V&A in London
© David Parry for the V&A