The Children's Book Award is a British literary award for children's books, run by the Federation of Children's Book Groups and previously known as the Red House Children's Book Award. Books published in the U.K. during the preceding calendar year are eligible. It recognises one "Overall" winner and one book in each of three categories: Books for Younger Children, Books for Younger Readers, and Books for Older Readers.[a] The selections are made entirely by children, which is unique among British literary awards.[1]
The Federation of Children's Book Groups owns and coordinates the Award, which it inaugurated in 1981 as the Children's Book Award. Its purpose has been "to celebrate the books that children themselves love reading."[1] From 2001 to 2015 it was sponsored by the mail order bookshop Red House,[1] a brand owned by bookselling company The Book People.
Process and latest rendition
The 2017 Overall Winner was from the Books for Younger Readers category and was won by Michael Morpurgo and illustrator Michael Foreman for An Eagle in the Snow, published by HarperCollins.[2] The 2017 winners were announced at an Award Ceremony held in London on Saturday 10 June 2017.
The 2016 Overall Winner was from the Books for Younger Readers category and was won by Pamela Butchart and illustrator Thomas Flintham with My Head Teacher is a Vampire Rat, published by Nosy Crow.
The 2015 Overall Winner was from the Books for Younger Children and was announced at the Imagine Festival in February. The Winners were Oliver Jeffeys and Drew Daywalt with The Day the Crayons Quit published by HarperCollins.
The 2014 Overall winner was from the Older Readers category, announced in mid-February 2014: The 5th Wave, written by Rick Yancey and published by Penguin Books.[3]
Winners are determined by the votes of children on three category ballots composed by nominations from the same group. "Children from around the world" are eligible to participate in both stages.[4] At least in Britain, many children participate through book groups.[5]
The three ballots, or shortlists, comprise those ten books that garner the most nominations.[6] There are four books on the Younger Children ballot and three each on the Younger Readers and Older Readers ballots.[7]
Winners
Currently the annual awards cover books first published in the U.K. during the calendar year.
From 1992 to 2017 —the period of one Overall and three category awards[a]— 13 Overall winners have come from the Long Novel or Older Readers category, 76 from the Short Novel or Younger Readers category, 4 from the Picture Book or Younger Children category.[8]
1980s
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Quentin Blake | Mister Magnolia | Jonathan Cape |
| 1982 | Leon Garfield | Fair's Fair | Macdonald Young Books |
| 1983 | Roald Dahl, illus. by Quentin Blake | The BFG | Jonathan Cape |
| 1984 | Terry Jones, illus. by Michael Foreman | The Saga of Erik the Viking | Pavilion |
| 1985 | Robert Swindells | Brother in the Land | Oxford University Press |
| 1986 | Amanda Graham | Arthur | Spindlewood |
| 1987 | Janet and Allan Ahlberg | The Jolly Postman | Heinemann |
| 1988 | Valerie Thomas, illus. by Korky Paul | Winnie the Witch | Oxford University Press |
| 1989 | Roald Dahl, illus. by Quentin Blake | Matilda | Jonathan Cape |
1990s
2000s
2010s
| Year | Category | Author | Title | Publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Overall | Suzanne Collins | The Hunger Games | Scholastic | |
| Younger Children | Jeanne Willis, illus. by Adam Stower | Bottoms Up! | Puffin | ||
| Younger Readers | Tanya Landman | Mondays are Murder | Walker Books | ||
| Older Readers | Suzanne Collins | The Hunger Games | Scholastic | ||
| 2011 | Overall | Michael Morpurgo | Shadow | HarperCollins | |
| Younger Children | Angela McAllister, illus. by Alison Edgson | Yuck! That's not a Monster! | Little Tiger Press | ||
| Younger Readers | Michael Morpurgo | Shadow | HarperCollins | ||
| Older Readers | Alex Scarrow | Time Riders | Penguin | ||
| 2012 | Overall | Patrick Ness and Jim Kay | A Monster Calls | Walker Books | [5][11] |
| Younger Children | Chris Wormell | Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice | Jonathan Cape | [5][11] | |
| Younger Readers | Liz Pichon | The Brilliant World of Tom Gates | Scholastic | [5][11] | |
| Older Readers | Patrick Ness and Jim Kay | A Monster Calls | Walker Books | [5][11] | |
| 2013 | Overall | Andrew Weale, illus. by Lee Wildish | The Spooky Spooky House | Corgi | |
| Younger Children | Andrew Weale, illus. by Lee Wildish | The Spooky Spooky House | Corgi | ||
| Younger Readers | David Walliams, illus. by Tony Ross | Gangsta Granny | HarperCollins | ||
| Older Readers | Sophie McKenzie | The Medusa Project: Hit Squad | Simon & Schuster | ||
| 2014 | Overall | Rick Yancey | The 5th Wave | Penguin | [12] |
| Younger Children | Julia Donaldson, illus. by Axel Scheffler | Superworm | Scholastic | [12] | |
| Younger Readers | Jennifer Gray | Atticus Claw Breaks the Law | Faber | [12] | |
| Older Readers | Rick Yancey | The 5th Wave | Penguin | [12] | |
| 2015 | Overall | Drew Daywalt, illus. by Oliver Jeffers | The Day the Crayons Quit | HarperCollins | [13][14] |
| Younger Children | Drew Daywalt, illus. by Oliver Jeffers | The Day the Crayons Quit | HarperCollins | [13] | |
| Younger Readers | David Walliams | Demon Dentist | HarperCollins | [13] | |
| Older Readers | Sophie McKenzie | Split Second | Simon and Schuster | [13] | |
| 2016 | Overall | Pamela Butchart, illus. by Thomas Flintham | My Head Teacher is a Vampire Rat | Nosy Crow | |
| Younger Children | Viviane Schwarz | Is There a Dog in this Book? | Walker Books | ||
| Younger Readers | Pamela Butchart, illus. by Thomas Flintham | My Head Teacher is a Vampire Rat | Nosy Crow | ||
| Older Readers | Sarah Crossan | Apple and Rain | Bloomsbury | ||
| 2017 | Overall | Michael Morpurgo, illus. by Michael Foreman | An Eagle in the Snow | HarperCollins | [2] |
| Younger Children | Kes and Claire Gray, illus. by Jim Field | Oi Dog! | Hachette | [2] | |
| Younger Readers | Michael Morpurgo, illus. by Michael Foreman | An Eagle in the Snow | HarperCollins | [2] | |
| Older Readers | Sarah Crossan | One | Bloomsbury | [2] |
Winners of multiple awards
Prior to winning the 2012 Red House Award, Overall, A Monster Calls was named the 2011 British Children's Book of the Year.[5] Subsequently, Ness and Kay as writer and illustrator won both annual children's book awards from the professional librarians, the Carnegie Medal and Greenaway Medal; that double award alone was an unprecedented sweep. In fact, no previous Children's/Red House Award winner (Overall) has won the Carnegie Medal and only one has won the Greenaway Medal for illustration: the inaugural Children's winner Mr Magnolia (Jonathan Cape, 1980), written and illustrated by Quentin Blake.
Authors with multiple Children's/Red House Awards
Michael Morpurgo has won four Overall awards for Kensuke's Kingdom in 2000, Private Peaceful in 2004, Shadow in 2011 and An Eagle in the Snow in 2017. He has also won category awards for The Wreck of the Zanzibar in 1996 and Out of Ashes in 2002.[2]
Four other authors have won two Overall awards:
- Roald Dahl 1983, 1989
- Robert Swindells 1985, 1990
- Jacqueline Wilson 1993, 1996
- J. K. Rowling 1998, 1999
J. K. Rowling won the Long Novel category four years in succession, 1998 to 2001, for the first four Harry Potter books.
See also
Notes
References
Citations
- Red House Children's Book Award (RHCBA). Retrieved 2012-09-23.
Select from the left menu. Version archived on 1 October 2012