In News:

• The Booker Prize Foundation has announced the establishment of the Children’s Booker Prize, a landmark global award dedicated to fiction written for children aged 8 to 12 years.
• Scheduled to debut in 2027, this prize represents the first major expansion of the Booker brand into children’s literature and carries a purse of £50,000, matching the award value of its established sister prizes.

What the Prize Represents

• The Children’s Booker Prize aims to celebrate and elevate fiction for middle-grade readers, acknowledging the importance of early reading habits in shaping future generations of informed, imaginative, and engaged adults. Books originally written in English or translated into English will be eligible, making the award internationally inclusive.
• The Booker Prize Foundation, in partnership with the AKO Foundation, which supports arts, education, and environmental initiatives, seeks to nurture a global culture of reading and inspire literary excellence in children’s storytelling.

Eligibility and Key Features

• Age Category: Fiction aimed at 8–12-year-old readers.
• Geographic Scope: Open to books published in the UK or Ireland, regardless of the author’s nationality.
• Languages: Both original English works and translated works can be submitted.
• Prize Value: £50,000 (same as the adult Booker and International Booker), funded by the AKO Foundation.
• Selection Process: The first award in 2027 will be decided by a jury of children and adults, chaired by acclaimed British children’s author Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the current children’s laureate.

The submission process begins in early 2026, and the prize hopes to build enthusiasm and visibility around high-quality children’s literature.

Purpose and Vision

• According to Booker Prize Foundation Chief Executive Gaby Wood, the award aims to cultivate an enduring love for reading among younger audiences and to serve as a catalyst for literary engagement across generations. The initiative builds on the Booker’s legacy of recognising works that shape global literary culture.

Position Within the Booker Ecosystem

The Children’s Booker Prize joins two established awards under the Booker umbrella:

1. Booker Prize

• Founded: 1969
• Eligibility: Original novels written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.
• Prize Distribution: Award solely to the author.
• Objective: Celebrates outstanding English-language fiction.
• Indian Winners:
  • Salman Rushdie – Midnight’s Children (1981)
  • Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things (1997)
  • Kiran Desai – The Inheritance of Loss (2006)
  • Aravind Adiga – The White Tiger (2008)

2. International Booker Prize

• Established: 2005; restructured in 2016.
• Eligibility: Translated fiction published in the UK or Ireland.
• Prize Distribution: Shared equally between author and translator.
• Objective: Promotes cross-cultural literary exchange and honours translation.
• Indian-Linked Winners:
  • Geetanjali Shree – Tomb of Sand (2022) (Hindi, translated by Daisy Rockwell)
  • Banu Mushtaq – Heart Lamp (2025) (Kannada, translated by Deepa Bhasthi)