The prestigious Booker Prize has announced a brand new category for children’s books worth £50,000.
Open to books written in English and published in England or Ireland, the Children’s Booker Prize will recruit three child judges to join three adult judges in deciding which story deserves the accolade.
The announcement comes in the middle of a “literacy crisis”. A recent survey by the National Literacy Trust found British children were reading less and with less enjoyment.
The new children’s award hopes to reverse the trend. The Booker Prize Foundation plans to donate 30,000 copies of the shortlisted books to increase exposure to outstanding works of fiction for children. Its chief executive, Gaby Wood, declared, “The Children’s Booker Prize is not just a prize – it’s part of a movement: a cause that children, parents, carers, teachers and everyone in the world of storytelling can get behind”.
The National Literacy Trust in England has also declared 2026 to be a National Year of Reading in an effort to alter the reading habits of the country.
But will such efforts raise reading levels?
Recreational readingThe reports have acted as a call to arms for the government and the publishing industry, which have recognised that part of the literacy puzzle is that most children do not enjoy reading.
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