Sleep Tight, Disgusting Blob by Huw Aaron (Puffin), described as an ‘hilarious and imaginative rhyming story, featuring truly monstrous, yet strangely familiar bedtime routines that will delight sleepy little creatures everywhere’, has been crowned the Overall Winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2026.

Celebrating the best in new writing for children and teenagers, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize was first awarded in 2005 and has launched the careers of many now-familiar names, including Rob Biddulph, Kiran Millwood Hargreaves and Katherine Rundell.

Aaron is a Welsh cartoonist, author and illustrator from Swansea, now living in Cardiff. His graphic novel Unfairies was also shortlisted for the Best Book for Younger Readers category, marking the first time in the award’s history that an author has been shortlisted for two different titles at the same time.

To be declared this year’s Overall Winner, Sleep Tight, Disgusting Blob had first to be chosen as the winner of the Best Illustrated Book category from a shortlist of four titles, before going on to beat the winners of the award’s two other categories: Best Book for Younger Readers and Best Book for Older Readers.

The winner of the Best Book for Younger Readers was Evie and Maryam’s Family Tree by Janeen Hyat (Guppy Books), a sensitive family-based exploration of identity, inheritance difference and friendship.

Meanwhile, A Language of Dragons by S. F. Williamson (Harper Fire), an epic sweeping fantasy set in an alternate Bletchley Park in 1923, won the Best Book for Older Readers category.

Commenting on this year’s winners, Bea Carvalho, Waterstones Head of Books said, ‘Huw is a storyteller and illustrator of staggering talent, a new voice to be seriously excited about: we are extremely proud to name him the overall winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2026. Booksellers everywhere hailed Sleep Tight, Disgusting Blob an instant bedtime story classic, falling in love with Huw’s dreamy, painterly style and sweet rhyming text, and relishing the joy that it brings to little ones at bookshop story times.

‘This is a gorgeously cosy tale which puts an adorable spin on all things spooky with bags of charm and a hilarious and monstrously cute supporting cast. Blob is a character for the picture book hall-of-fame: we can’t wait to share his delightful story with children everywhere as the winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2026 alongside our brilliant category winners, Evie and Maryam’s Family Tree and A Language of Dragons.’

To see all 12 titles shortlisted for this year’s Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, click here.