The adult judges for the Children’s Booker Prize have been announced, and the search for child judges is underway, the Booker Prize Foundation revealed in a news release.
The Children’s Booker Prize was announced last October and officially launched Tuesday. It is the third award from the foundation, which also sponsors the Booker Prize and the International Booker Prize. The foundation says that the new award, which will come with a cash prize of 50,000 British pounds (about $68,000) “will celebrate the best contemporary fiction for children aged 8 to 12 years old, written in or translated into English and published in the U.K. and/or Ireland.”
The award will be judged by three adults and three young people. The adult judges for the prize are Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the children’s author and screenwriter; Lolly Adefope, the comedian and actor known for her roles on the TV series Shrill and Ghosts; and Sanchita Basu De Sarkar, a children’s bookseller.
The three adult judges will select a shortlist of eight books, and the three child judges, along with the adults, will vote on the winner. A competition to determine the child judges, who must be aged 8 to 12 and living in the U.K., is now open; parents and teachers can nominate children here.
The child judges will be announced along with the shortlist on Nov. 24. The winner of the award will be revealed at a ceremony on Feb. 2, 2027.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
