The cross-party Education Committee has called for a National Reading Guarantee, automatic public library membership from birth and a library in every secondary school as part of its Reading for Pleasure report. The inquiry took evidence from education experts, the publishing industry, charities and author and former Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell Boyce.
The committee recommends a school library development fund, dedicated library lessons and a legal requirement for secondary schools to provide libraries. It also wants the early years foundation stage profile and inspection framework to place greater emphasis on enjoyment, while breakfast clubs should offer books and reading activities alongside their wider provision.
The report argues that the government should develop a comprehensive reading for pleasure strategy and a National Decade of Reading. It also calls for changes to GCSE English Literature, including a stronger focus on developing a love of books, a more diverse range of texts and a broader definition of literature in English.
MPs also identify pressures on parents, including work, lack of time and lack of confidence, with poverty and food insecurity adding to the barriers for some families. The committee wants clearer government guidance for parents of young children, further research into good practice for secondary teachers and renewed attention to screen time, including adults modelling reading themselves.
Roald Dahl’s Matilda has meanwhile been named an ambassador for the National Year of Reading during August. The character leads the Roald Dahl Story Company’s Summer of Stories, with free reading quests, activity sheets, book recommendations, outdoor challenges and drama games available online.
The campaign arrives in a year that marks 15 years of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda the Musical in the West End and the 30th anniversary of the Matilda film. Puffin is also due to publish The Terrible Miss Trunchbull and Other Tales of Tricks and Villainy in September, with contributions from Sara Pascoe, Kevin and Katie Tsang, Rosie Jones and Sharna Jackson.
Publishers can now enter the Inclusive Books for Children Awards 2027, which cover baby and toddler books for ages one to three, picture books for ages three to seven and highly illustrated fiction for ages five to nine. Eligible books must have been traditionally published in the UK between 1 November 2025 and 31 October 2026 and include specified forms of representation among their main characters.
Fiction is required in the picture-book and highly illustrated fiction categories, while the baby and toddler section accepts all early years genres and formats. The awards have also dropped the previous restriction affecting some hardbacks whose paperback editions were due within a year, and some paperbacks excluded under the old 2026 rule can now qualify.
The Children’s Choice Awards shadowing scheme will return, inviting children in primary schools, early years settings and homes to vote on the 2027 shortlist. Winning authors and illustrators will share a £30,000 prize fund and appear at Hay Festival in 2027, while publisher submissions close at 23:59 on 16 September 2026.
The 2026 Wainwright Prize has announced children’s shortlists for fiction, non-fiction and picture books. Fiction contenders include Hannah Gold’s The Lone Husky, illustrated by Levi Pinfold, M.G. Leonard’s The Adventures of Portly the Otter, illustrated by Polly Dunbar, and Caryl Lewis’s The Danger of Small Things.
The non-fiction list includes Jess French’s An Anthology of Remarkable Bugs, Dara McAnulty’s A Wild Child’s Guide to Nature at Night, illustrated by Barry Falls, and Kate Winter’s The Cave Explorer. Picture-book finalists include Amy-Jane Beer’s A River Running Through You, illustrated by Elin Manon, Robert Macfarlane and Luke Adam Hawker’s Firefly, Greg Stobbs’s Isla and the Sky and Yuval Zommer’s The Whale That Sings in the Deep.
The children’s lists form three of six prize categories, and the 2026 shortlists were selected by an academy of independent booksellers, specialist nature reviewers and authors. Winners will be announced on 17 September at Elmley Nature Reserve in Kent, with Henry Bird hosting, and the overall adult and children’s books of the year will each receive £2,500, with the remaining category winners receiving £500.
The seventh Diverse Book Awards has announced longlists across picture books, children’s fiction, young adult and non-fiction, highlighting books by UK and Ireland based authors published during 2025. Picture-book selections include Bashabi Fraser and Maanvi Kapur’s A Card for my Mum, Farhana Islam and Nabila Adani’s Ibraheem’s Perfect Eid, and Candy Gourlay and Jamie Bauza’s Little Rhino Lost.
Children’s fiction contenders include Tolá Okogwu’s Champions of the Galaxy, Jasbinder Bilan’s Naeli and the Secret Song and Chanté Timothy’s Supa Nova. The YA list includes Manjeet Mann’s Roar, Alex Wheatle’s The Girl with the Red Boots and Cynthia So’s This Feast of a Life, while the new non-fiction categories include Paterson Joseph and Rumbidzai Savanhu’s Ten Children Who Changed the World and Chi Thai and Linh Dao’s The Endless Sea.
The Readers’ Choice Award is open for public voting until 7 September, with winners due to be confirmed at Waterstones Piccadilly on 22 October. The organisers added two non-fiction categories this year.
Michael Rosen has launched mini libraries at 10 Great Western Railway stations after research commissioned by the operator examined children’s summer reading habits. Rosen launched the initiative with a reading to children travelling on a GWR service from London Paddington to Reading.
View this post on Instagram
The libraries at Reading, Exeter St Davids, Swindon, Penzance, Worcestershire Parkway, Didcot Parkway, Westbury, Plymouth, Truro and Gloucester work on a give, take or donate basis. Titles stocked include We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Barking for Bagels, Rigatoni the Pasta Cat and Snow White and the Seven Bears.
The research among 1,002 UK parents of children aged four to 11 found an average of three hours a week spent reading during the summer holidays, compared with 11 hours watching television, gaming or using phones and tablets. One in five parents reported that their children struggled in September with words they had known at the end of term, while more than a quarter said reading confidence took three to four weeks to return.
Greg Stobbs’s Cloud Boy has won the Oxford Children’s Book World Cup, an Oxford University Press National Year of Reading activity. More than 100 award-nominated books were reduced to 16 before readers voted through a football-style tournament on Instagram, with Cloud Boy beating Stella and the Seagull by Georgina Stevens and Izzy Burton in the final.
Independent publisher Firehorse has named Farah Rahman and A.J. Pinehill as the winners of its 2026 New Novel Competition, created to find new voices in children’s fiction and provide a publishing route. Rahman’s YA science fiction novel Himalayan Blue and Pinehill’s middle-grade Marina’s Magical Orkney Adventure are both scheduled for publication in paperback and e-book in February 2027.
A free exhibition devoted to animals in children’s books opened at Lowry in Salford on 18 July and runs until 1 November. Wild Things brings together original illustrations by Diane Ewen, Nick Sharratt, Helen Oxenbury, Lydia Monks and Rod Campbell, alongside stories by Julia Donaldson, Michael Rosen, Yasmeen Ismail and Lizzy Stewart.
The exhibition, designed for under-sevens and their families, includes screen-free games, creative activities, a Reading Nest and a free notebook for each young visitor. It draws on books including Elmer, Dear Zoo, Poo in the Zoo, Meerkat Mail, Time for Bed, Fred!, The Steves and The Great Unicorn Rescue, and coincided with a run of Dear Zoo at Lowry’s Quays Theatre from 11 to 16 August. Admission is free.
