Children’s Book Award 2026
The Children’s Book Award Top 10 2026
The full shortlist is as follows:
Books for Younger Children
Creepy Pair of Underwear!, written by Aaron Reynolds and illustrated by Peter Brown, published by Simon & Schuster
Gozzle, written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Sara Ogilvie, published by Macmillan
The Torto-saurus, written and illustrated by Katie Cottle, published by Little Tiger
There’s a Shark in my Pants!, written by Michelle Harrison and illustrated by David Tazzyman, published by Simon & Schuster
Books for Younger Readers
Murray and Bun: Murray the Pirate, written illustrated by Adam Stower, published by HarperCollins
Pablo and Splash: Roman Holiday, written and illustrated by Sheena Dempsey, published by Bloomsbury
Supa Nova, written and illustrated by Chanté Timothy, published by Nosy Crow
Books for Older Readers
Fear Files: Hide and Seek, written by Christopher Edge and illustrated by Mathias Ball, published by Walker Books
My Name is Samim, written by Fidan Meikel, published by Floris Books
The Last Dragon on Mars, written by Scott Reintgen, published by Rock the Boat
Read, Review and Respond
We hope you have fun reading and talking about the books on this year’s Children’s Book Award shortlists.
The notes for each book are designed to help you to engage your child or children with the books in a variety of ways, to encourage them to write reviews and to get them responding creatively.
Murray and Bun: Murray the Pirate!
Pablo and Splash: Roman Holiday
Although there are many local children’s book awards around the country, the Federation of Children’s Book Groups’ Children’s Book Award is the only national award that is voted for entirely by children at all stages.
Downloadable Resources
Pick of the Year 2026
As well as the shortlist, every year we produce a list of Picks of the Year – books which have also proved popular with our young readers during the testing process. You will be able to view the whole list soon.
Buy the books
Once again we have partnered with Heath’s Books to offer a discount on all of the Pick of the Year books including the Top Ten.
To buy any of the books click here