Waterstones Children’s Book Prize
From Waterstones
Resource type: Book awards
Price band: Free
Key stage: KS1, KS2, KS3, KS4
Region(s): All of UK
The Waterstones Children’s Book Prize is a celebration of the best new talent in children’s writing and illustration, as voted for by Waterstones booksellers. There are three prize categories:
- Illustrated Books
- Younger Readers
- Older Readers
There are winners for each of the three categories, who then compete for the overall title of Waterstones Children’s Book of the Year.
Read our winner and shortlist announcements for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2026.
Timetable:
- The shortlist is announced in February.
- The winner is announced in March
Cost: Free.
About Waterstones:Waterstones is the UK and Ireland’s leading high street bookseller with 320 bookshops, including Foyles, Hatchards, Hodges Figgis, Blackwell’s and branches in Ireland, Brussels and Amsterdam. It is the only national specialist book retailer of scale in the UK, with the average sized shop carrying a range of around 30,000 individual books and with over 200,000 titles in the largest shop.
Further resources:
- Other picture book awards include the FCBG Children’s Book Award, The Carnegie Medal for Illustration, the Klaus Flugge Prize, the Shropshire Bookfest Book Awards, the Spark! School Book Awards and the UKLA Book Awards.
- For a full listing of children’s book awards judged by adults, click here. Book awards judged by young people can be found here.
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