The Booker Prize Foundation, supported by AKO Foundation, has announced the Children’s Booker Prize.

The first major new prize from the Foundation since 2005, the Children’s Booker Prize will launch in 2026 and be awarded annually starting in 2027. The prize will celebrate the best contemporary fiction for children aged eight to 12 years old, and aims to “engage and grow a new generation of readers by recognising and championing the best children’s fiction from writers around the world.”

The shortlisted authors will each receive £2,500 and the winning author £50,000. The prize will be open to authors worldwide, for books written in English and for translations into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland. For translations and graphic novels, the author and translator will share the £50,000 equally. For a highly illustrated book, the author and illustrator will share the £50,000 in a fashion agreed by the publisher.

‘The Children’s Booker Prize is the most ambitious endeavour we’ve embarked on in 20 years – and we hope its impact will resonate for decades to come,” says Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation on the official website. “It aims to be several things at once: an award that will champion 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 lifelong readers will grow.”

The inaugural prize will open for submissions in spring 2026. The shortlist of eight books will be released in late November 2026, with the winner revealed at an event for young readers in February 2027. The eligibility period for the 2027 prize is Nov. 1, 2025 to Oct. 31, 2026.

Frank Cottrell-Boyce, a multi-award-winning children’s book author and screenwriter who is the current Waterstones Children’s Laureate, will be the inaugural chair of judges. Cottrell-Boyce and two other adult judges, to be revealed next November, will select the shortlist. Three child judges will also be selected to join the adults in choosing the winning book.

“Stories belong to everyone. Every child deserves the chance to experience the happiness that diving into a great book can bring,” says Cottrell-Boyce on the website. “By inviting them to the judging table and by gifting copies of the nominated books it will bring thousands more children into the wonderful world of reading.”

The Booker Prize Foundation will work with publishers and partners, including the National Literary Trust, The Reading Agency, Bookbanks, and the Children’s Book Project, to donate at least 30,000 copies of the shortlisted and winning books every year to children.