Three children to judge first Children’s Booker Prize, Bbc Newsround
newsround is covering a new search by the Booker Prize Foundation for three UK-based children aged 8 to 12 to join the judging panel for the first Children’s Booker Prize. The competition opened on Tuesday 28 April 2026, and the three children will have an equal voice in choosing the winner.
Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who chairs the judges and is the current Waterstones Children’s Laureate, said he had been asked to find three book-loving children to join him. He added: “Whether you’ve read one book this year or a hundred; whether you love comic books or big thick chapter books; books with loads of pictures, books with no pictures; it doesn’t matter, YOU could be exactly the judge that we’re looking for.”
He also said: “We will get together for a special judging day, when we’ll argue and laugh and eat loads of snacks and decide which is the very best.”
Children’s Booker Prize
The prize celebrates contemporary fiction for readers aged eight to 12. The adult judging panel also includes actor Lolly Adefope and bookseller Sanchita Basu De Sarkar, alongside Cottrell-Boyce as chair. The Booker Prize Foundation says the prize is supported by the AKO Foundation.
Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, said: “This new prize is underpinned by a social mission: to create future generations of lifelong readers.” She added: “We feel confident that we can enthuse children if we are armed with the very best. By ‘best’, we mean books that readers will love, books that can be read over and over again or enjoyed just once.”
Booker Prize Foundation
The foundation has pledged to gift 30,000 copies of the shortlisted and winning books to children who need them most. The three chosen child judges will also receive prizes in partnership with the Beano, including the eight shortlisted books to keep.
Sanchita Basu De Sarkar called children the “most passionate and opinionated readers” and said judging with them would be “a completely unique experience.”
