FCBG Children’s Book Award Books

The Children's Book Award has been given since 1980 by the Federation of Children's Book Groups, a volunteer network of family reading groups founded in 1968. It is the only national book award in the UK voted for entirely by children — solely by children, as the Federation puts it, from start to finish, with no adult judging panel at any stage. Quentin Blake's Mr Magnolia took the first medal in 1981.

Publishers and authors submit some 600 to 700 new titles a year. Children in testing groups around the country read them and vote, with more than 85,000 votes cast across a testing year. The fifty most-voted books are published as the Pick of the Year list, the shortlist is drawn from those, and medals go to three categories: Books for Younger Children, Books for Younger Readers, and Books for Older Readers.

Because it measures what children finish and go back to rather than what adults admire, it is the list to reach for when a reader keeps abandoning prize-winners. Its instincts have held up: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, published in the United States as Sorcerer's Stone, won the overall award in 1998, the year after it appeared. Michael Foreman has won five times and Michael Morpurgo four.

Information from the Federation of Children's Book Groups.