The Waterstones Children's Book Prize is an annual award given to a work of
children's literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...
published during the previous year. First awarded in 2005, the purpose of the prize is "to uncover hidden talent in children's writing" and is therefore open only to authors who have published no more than two or three books, depending on which category they are in.
The prize is awarded by British book retailer
Waterstones
Waterstones Booksellers Limited, trading as Waterstones (formerly Waterstone's), is a British bookselling, book retailer based in London, England, owned by the American investment group Elliott Investment Management. It operates 311 shops, ma ...
.
It was originally called the
Ottakar's Children's Book Prize, after the bookshop chain. When all Ottakar's stores were rebranded as Waterstone's following the
HMV
HMV is an international music and entertainment retailer, founded in 1921. The brand is owned by Hilco Capital and operated by Sunrise Records, except in Japan, where it is owned and operated by Lawson.
The inaugural shop was opened on Lo ...
Group takeover in 2006, the prize also changed its name to become the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize.
Beginning in 2012, the prize was divided into three categories: Picture Books, Fiction 5–12, and Teen.
Each category winner receives £2,000 with an overall winner chosen from the three getting an additional £3,000 (thus the overall winner receives £5,000 in total).
In 2016 the categories were renamed: Picture Books became Illustrated Books, Fiction 5–12 became Younger Fiction and the Teen category became Older Fiction.
Nominations and winners
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014 (10th anniversary)
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024 (20th anniversary)
2025
See also
*
Waterstones Book of the Year
*
Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize
References
External links
{{Portal, Children's literature
Official Waterstones Children's Book Prize site– dedicated to the latest winners
British children's literary awards
Young adult literature awards
Picture book awards
Awards established in 2005
2005 establishments in the United Kingdom
English-language literary awards