Children's Book Award 2020

The Children's Book Award Winning Books

Books for Younger Children Category

The Runaway Pea written by Kjartan Poskitt and illustrated by Alex Willmore

Books for Younger Readers category

Mutant Zombies Cursed My School Trip written by Matt Brown and illustrated by Paco Sord

Books for Confident Readers

D-Day Dog by Tom Palmer

Books for Older Reader’s category

On The Come Up by Angie Thomas

Tom Palmer's D-Day Dog also won the overall prize of The Children's Book Award 2020.

Tom Palmer said  ‘I am thrilled to win the Children's Book Award 2020! A massive thank you to the thousands of children who voted and to the Federation organisers. This prize celebrates writers writing and readers reading, and I am beyond delighted to receive it. Thank you. It is really important to me, when writing about history, to base my stories on real people and real events. I have learned that children are far more engaged with a book if the soldier (or dog) character really existed. I think the celebration and interest in Captain Tom Moore and other veterans we’ve seen in the D-Day 75th and other anniversaries bears this out. There is no need to make up inspiring figures like Glen the Paradog and Captain Tom - we have them in our midst and in our history, and we owe it to them to celebrate the strength and values that they represent, in turn to help us deal with our own challenges in 2020.’   

The full shortlist for the Children’s Book Award 2020 was as follows:

Books for Younger Children

Jazz Dog, written and illustrated by Marie Voigt, published by OUP

Matisse’s Magical Trail, written by Tim Hopgood and illustrated by Sam Boughton, published by OUP

The Runaway Pea, written by Kjartan Poskitt and illustrated by Alex Willmore, published by Simon & Schuster Children’s Books

Books for Younger Readers

Mutant Zombies Cursed My School Trip, written by Matt Brown and illustrated by Paco Sordo, published by Usborne

Owen and The Soldier, written by Lisa Thompson, published by Barrington Stoke

The Maker of Monsters, written by Lorraine Gregory, published by OUP

Books for Confident Readers

Wildspark, written by Vashti Hardy, published by Scholastic

A Pocketful of Stars, written by Aisha Busby, published by Egmont

D-Day Dog, written by Tom Palmer, published by Barrington Stoke

Books for Older Readers

Becoming Dinah, written by Kit de Waal, published by Hachette Children’s Group

On The Come Up, written by Angie Thomas, published by Walker Books

Two Can Keep a Secret, written by Karen M McManus, published by Penguin

The Children's Book Award is now in its 40th anniversary year and is owned and run by the Federation of Children's Book Groups, a charity set up by Anne Wood, the Founder and Creator of Ragdoll Productions and the originator of The Teletubbies. The Awards were founded by author and librarian Pat Thompson to celebrate the books that children themselves were reading. (They were known as the Red House Children’s Book Award during the 14 years of The Book People’s sponsorship). This years titles were chosen by children from across the country who read and voted for the books at events organised by the FCBG.

The FCBG acts as an umbrella organisation for local Children’s Book Groups all over the UK. The groups organise a variety of activities including author events and other activities that promote the enjoyment of children’s books.

The Children's Book Award has brought acclaim and strong sales to past winners such as J.K. Rowling, Patrick Ness, Andy Stanton, Malorie Blackman, Anthony Horowitz and Michael Morpurgo, who has won a record three times. The award has often been the first to recognise the future stars of children’s fiction and has the ability to turn popular authors into bestsellers.

Sarah Stuffins, Children’s Book Award Coordinator says  says ‘2020 didn’t quite deliver the 40th Anniversary that we expected, but we’re thrilled to have been able to take the ceremony online and Tom is a truly worthy winner. Being online also allows us to reach well beyond our own book groups and home-schooling has brought many parents into contact with their children’s reading in a unique way. We hope the filmed reports on each of the shortlisted title are a real resource to many and will encourage even more engagement in today’s superb and vibrant children’s literature scene.’

You can read more about the winning and shortlisted books and watch a video of the award ceremony, which due to the Covid-19 crisis was held online on 10th October 2020 - fcbg.org.uk/childrens-book-award

And on twitter @CBACoordinator  or visit the Children's Book Award facebook page where you can find the blog tours for each book on the shortlist.