Children’s reading for pleasure is under renewed scrutiny this spring, with new research, prize launches and school programmes all pointing to the same problem: children still like books, but too many are not getting regular time with them.
Frank Cottrell-Boyce used his Waterstones Children’s Laureate lecture at the Royal Institution in London to call for national action through his Reading Rights movement. BookTrust’s Family Survey found that daily shared reading among families with children aged nought to eight fell from 60% to 49% between 2021 and 2025, while the proportion of children reported to like or love reading rose from 65% to 80%.
Cottrell-Boyce will continue with BookTrust as reading rights ambassador after the end of his two-year Laureateship. His argument is aimed squarely at the early years, with daily access to books and shared reading treated as part of childhood rather than an optional extra.
HarperCollins Children’s Books and Farshore have published research suggesting that a focus on literacy skills can work against reading for pleasure when enjoyment drops out of the conversation. The NielsenIQ BookData survey, with extra questions commissioned by HarperCollins, found daily reading for pleasure among five to 17-year-olds at 25% in 2025, down from 39% in 2012.
The same research found that 58% of parents did not cite enjoyment as a reason for reading to their child, while three-fifths of three to seven-year-olds are still not read to daily. There were signs of movement among older readers, with weekly reading rising among 11 to 17-year-olds and fewer 14 to 17-year-old boys saying they never read.
Bloomsbury Publishing and the National Literacy Trust have reported results from LitUp, a three-year reading for pleasure programme in six primary schools in Hastings. The programme followed pupils from Years 3 and 4 through to Years 5 and 6, donating more than 16,000 books and involving more than 2,000 children in author visits.
The report found that 70% of participating pupils said author visits made them want to read more. Among children who did not read daily at the start, 44% increased their reading frequency, while 29% of those who did not enjoy reading at the outset reported greater enjoyment. Authors involved included Katya Balen, Sheena Dempsey, Sam Sedgman, Iszi Lawrence and Andrew Jennings.
The Children’s Booker Prize has opened submissions to publishers, named its first adult judges and launched a UK-wide competition to find child judges. The annual prize, backed by AKO Foundation, will recognise contemporary fiction for children aged eight to 12, written in or translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland.
Frank Cottrell-Boyce will chair the 2027 judging panel, joined by Lolly Adefope and Sanchita Basu De Sarkar. They will choose an eight-book shortlist, announced on 24 November 2026, before three child judges aged eight to 12 help select the winner, due to be announced at Young V&A on 2 February 2027. The winning author will receive £50,000, while shortlisted books will receive £2,500 each, and at least 30,000 copies of shortlisted and winning books will be gifted to children.
The Branford Boase Award has announced a seven-book shortlist for debut children’s novelists and their editors. The shortlisted titles are Tart by Becki Jayne Crossley, How to Roller Skate with One Leg by Ella Dove, illustrated by Jennifer Jamieson, Evie and Maryam’s Family Tree by Janeen Hayat, Love on Sight by Asli Jensen, Gloam by Jack Mackay, The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King by Harry Trevaldwyn and Augmented by Kenechi Udogu.
The list ranges from YA romance, horror and contemporary fiction to a sci-fi eco-thriller and pre-teen family stories. Julia Eccleshare chairs the judges, with Margaret McDonald, Katherine Woodfine, Stephen Dilley and Anjali Patel on the panel. The winner will be announced at CLPE in London on 8 July 2026.
The Klaus Flugge Prize has named six debut picture book illustrators on its 2026 shortlist. The £5,000 award, now in its eleventh year, recognises a published picture book by a newcomer to children’s illustration.
The shortlisted books are The Great Green Island by Becky Colvin, We Are Like Birds by Laila Ekboir, The Voyage that Changed the World by Thekla Priebst, Henry the Artistic Dog by Justin Worsley, Seven Babies by Forest Xiao and Our Dance by Circle Yuen. Rob Biddulph, Emma Farrarons, Shelley Jackson and Vanessa Lewis are judging, with Julia Eccleshare chairing, and the winner will be announced at the Art Workers’ Guild in London on 9 September 2026.
Michael Rosen’s 80th birthday has been marked by Walker Books with a celebration at Foyles’ Charing Cross Road branch, attended by publishers, librarians, booksellers, literacy charity representatives and members of his family. Belinda Rasmussen and Lemn Sissay paid tribute, and Rosen was presented with a framed personalised illustration based on We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, his picture book with Helen Oxenbury.
Rosen’s birthday month also includes a family event on 23 May, with live illustration from Chris Riddell and Hannah Robinson, a poetry workshop with Joshua Seigal, and an appearance with MC Grammar, the teacher and rapper Jacob Mitchell. Rosen has also won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing and the Children’s Illustrated and Non-Fiction Book of the Year at The British Book Awards for Oh Dear, Look What I Got!, illustrated by Oxenbury.
Julia Donaldson has received the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health College Medal for her contribution to child health and wellbeing. The award has been presented only once before, in 2006, and recognises exceptional work connected to children’s health and wellbeing. Donaldson and Axel Scheffler will publish Gruffalo Granny, the third instalment in The Gruffalo series, in September.
The Jellyfish Jiggle by Caryl Hart, illustrated by Nicola Slater, has won the BookTrust Storytime Prize 2026 for the best book of the year for children under five. The Orchard Books seaside story was chosen through votes from librarians, families and early-years professionals. The shortlist also included Five Enormous Dinosaurs by Annie Kubler and Sarah Dellow, Superwolf by Helen Docherty and Thomas Docherty, Tiger, It’s Snowing! by Daishu Ma and Suki Cat: Astronaut by Grace Habib.
The Wild Life of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals by Mike Barfield, illustrated by Paula Bossio, has won the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize. The Buster Books title was chosen by more than 11,000 young readers after an adult panel selected the shortlist, with Barfield and Bossio sharing the £10,000 overall prize.
The YA Book Prize 2026 judging panel will include Juno Dawson, Andy Darcy Theo, Lucy Jakes and Jodie Barnacle-Best. The award, run in association with Edinburgh International Book Festival, celebrates novels for teenagers by authors living in the UK and Ireland. The shortlist will be announced on 18 June and the winner on 27 August, with input from teenage students.
The Empathy Day Festival will run from 4 to 11 June as part of the National Year of Reading, with organisers aiming to reach 1 million children and young people. The free programme includes an assembly featuring S.F. Said, a Welsh assembly with Huw Aaron, and primary and secondary events with Jeffrey Boakye, Louie Stowell, Manjeet Mann and Matt Goodfellow.
On-demand films for the festival feature Michael Rosen, Rachel Bright, Patrice Lawrence, Ian Eagleton and Kristina Rahim, Nathanael Lessore, and Cariad Lloyd and Tom Percival. The programme also includes resources such as a new Empathy Challenge and Superpower Glasses by Ramzee, alongside a partnership with The Big Lunch from 5 to 8 June. Download a free toolkit.
The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration will open in Clerkenwell, London, on 5 June, after the redevelopment of former waterworks at New River Head. Billed as the world’s largest space dedicated to illustration, it will open with three exhibitions, a cafe, shop, gardens, a Library and a Creative Studio.
Quentin Blake: Performance will show more than 100 original works on paper and examine the theatrical influence on Blake’s career. The opening programme also includes MURUGIAH: Ever Feel Like… and Queer as Comics, curated by Paul Gravett, with work connected to Tove Jansson, David Shenton, Rupert Kinnard, Alison Bechdel and Tom of Finland.
The Guardian’s The 100 best novels list has stirred debate online after a poll of authors, critics and academics. Middlemarch placed first, followed by Beloved, Ulysses, To the Lighthouse and In Search of Lost Time, which should keep secondary English departments agreeably busy disagreeing.
Russell Kane has begun a school tour in Kent for his debut children’s picture book When Brian Met Terry. The book is based on the introduction of Kane’s pet chihuahua to his Burmese cat and deals with change, family dynamics and big emotions. The tour began at Maypole Primary School in Dartford, with bookselling provided by Sevenoaks Bookshop.
Olympic sprinter and bobsledder Joel Fearon has written Just Be Brave, a children’s book rooted in his own life story. Fearon, from Coventry, won bronze in the four-man bobsleigh at the 2014 Winter Olympics and has described the book as drawing on his journey from a challenging childhood to elite sport.
Grace, Gigi and HIV, written by Katie Warburton and illustrated by Jasmine Thompson, has been launched by Bristol charity Chiva. The free book, now available in HIV centres nationwide, aims to help children understand an HIV diagnosis and reduce stigma through the story of Grace, her family and her parakeet Gigi.
A new school reading platform, myschoolreads.com, has been developed by a primary school teacher and her sibling after the school needed a way to track reading and book lending. The small start-up says its web and Android tools are designed to let schools set up a library without specialist equipment, and it is offering free access to a small group of schools most in need.
