If you teach reading, October and November have not been quiet months.
The Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize shortlist for 2025 has set a clear marker for science books for under-14s. Six titles have been named, ranging from Green: The Story of Plant Life on Our Planet and Patience to The Animal Body Book, The History of Information, The Rocks Book and The Wild Life of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals. The list has been chosen by a panel that includes a dinosaur expert, a children’s author and illustrator, a brain scientist, a primary teacher and a volcano specialist, and copies now go out to over 600 schools, youth groups and reading clubs, which will choose the eventual winner.
For teachers, the judges’ comments read like planning notes. One judge calls Patience “the type of book that every teacher should have access to and be able to pick up throughout the year”, while another picks out Green as “a rich opportunity to share the science of plants and a deeper understanding of ecology with younger children”. The panel chair links the prize directly to current concerns, warning that “the proportion of children who report reading for enjoyment is at its lowest in 20 years in the UK” and arguing that science non-fiction can tempt in those who are “reluctant to engage with other genres”.
Representation has stayed near the top of the agenda. The eighth Reflecting Realities survey from the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education reports that 24% of children’s books for three to eleven-year-olds published in 2024 have featured racially minoritised characters, up from 17% in 2023, though still below the 30% reported in 2022. Of the 4,009 eligible titles, 952 have included racially minoritised characters, and 24% of those titles have centred a racially minoritised main character, up from 7% the previous year. The study notes that 98% of these main cast characters have influenced the narrative through thought, voice or action.
The picture-book figures may give early years staff pause. Representation in picture books has dropped from 55% to 38%, the lowest percentage since the third survey, even though picture books still hold the highest proportion of presence across text types. The report notes that “it is both disappointing to observe a decrease of output of representative picture books and concerning to be reporting a decrease of this scale”, and flags the lower volume of representative literature for younger readers. Its core recommendation is blunt: “Make the principle of inclusion integral to every stage of the publishing process.”
Inclusive Books for Children has set out its stall for the 2026 IBC Awards. The judging panel combines writer and academic Pragya Agarwal, illustrator and author Mei Matsuoka, librarian and children’s literature academic Phyllis Ramage and disability consultant and content creator Nina Tame. The awards, worth £30,000 across three age categories, recognise UK children’s authors and illustrators whose books “authentically reflect the diverse backgrounds and experiences of today’s young readers”. Agarwal notes that her research shows “children learn biases and prejudices from a young age, and books can play a big role in teaching children the values of equality, inclusivity and empathy”. The winners will be announced at London’s Southbank Centre on 25 February 2026, after shortlists in January.
Elsewhere, the IBBY UK committee has named its 2026 Honour Books, and for the first time has nominated titles in Welsh as well as English. In writing in English, the choice is What the World Doesn’t See by Mel Darbon, a YA novel that uses a dual narrative to challenge myths about people with disabilities. In writing in Welsh, Jac a’r Angel by Daf James offers a “coming of age” story about a boy who uses imagination to manage grief. Illustration honours go to The Star Whale, illustrated by Petr Horáček and written by Nicola Davies, while translation into English is represented by The Secret of Helmersbruk Manor. A Christmas Mystery and translation into Welsh by Curiad Coll: Cyfrol 1 (Heartstopper: Book 1). These books will join the 2026 IBBY Honour List collection that travels to conferences and book fairs worldwide and will be highlighted at the IBBY Congress in Ottawa.
School libraries have also had their moment on stage. The School Librarian of the Year Award has gone to Julie Broadbent of Northampton International Academy for work that has built “a culture of positivity” around reading and developed the library as a safe space with a diverse collection. Judges note partnerships with the local public library and the University of Northampton and activity that reaches beyond the library walls. At primary level, Mangotsfield C of E Primary School in Bristol has been named winner of the Peter Usborne Primary School Library of the Year Award, with librarian Verity Robinson leading a library described by judges as an example of what can happen when senior leaders and the wider school back a dedicated librarian.
Both librarians use their speeches to underline the stakes. Broadbent says, “Every child should have access to books, no matter where they are from, because we know the power of those books,” while Robinson thanks “the quietest children who don’t yet know they are readers” alongside her keen student librarians. The awards, founded in 2005 by Aidan Chambers, now sit alongside the SLA Enterprise of the Year Award, which this year has gone to Thomas A’Becket Infant School for its renovated library The Shore, created in memory of a teaching assistant. At the ceremony at CLPE on 6 November, Anthony Horowitz presents the prizes and speaks about the importance of celebrating school libraries.
Illustration is in the spotlight too. The Klaus Flugge Prize for 2026 has opened for submissions, with a deadline of midnight on 14 January 2026 and a £5,000 award for a debut picture-book illustrator. The judging panel includes recent winner Emma Farrarons, Rob Biddulph, course director Shelley Jackson and bookseller Vanessa Lewis. Farrarons notes that recognition “shines a spotlight on your work, gives a confidence boost, and can open doors to new opportunities”. Chair Julia Eccleshare links the prize to the National Year of Reading 2026, arguing that it feels “more important than ever to be celebrating picture book illustrators and their role in sparking that all-important first love of books and reading”.
The Carnegies have also published their 2026 nominations. There are 125 titles across the Carnegie Medal for Writing and the Carnegie Medal for Illustration, including Tosh’s Island and Fia and the Last Snow Deer, which appear in both lists. Nominations come from CILIP members and nine external bodies, including BookTrust, CLPE, the National Literacy Trust and The Reading Agency. Fourteen librarians from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group now read all the nominated books. Through the Carnegie Shadowing Scheme, children and young people can read, review and respond, with a new age-inclusive longlist shadowing offer planned for the National Year of Reading 2026. Longlists will be announced on 10 February, shortlists on 10 March and winners on 23 June.
Looking ahead, the Booker Prize Foundation has confirmed a Children’s Booker Prize for fiction for readers aged eight to twelve. The prize launches in 2026, with the first winner announced in February 2027, and will be open to books written in or translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland in a set 2025–26 window. UK Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce will chair the first panel and promises “absolute scenes in there. Let the yelling commence.” Shortlisted authors will receive £2,500 and the winner £50,000, with at least 30,000 copies of shortlisted and winning books gifted to children.
Chief executive Gaby Wood describes the Children’s Booker Prize as aiming to “champion future classics” and “to inspire more young people to read”. The prize will use both adult and child judges, with three young readers joining the panel once an eight-book shortlist is set. The announcement lands as reading for pleasure is reported to be at a 20-year low, and sits alongside the National Literacy Trust’s plan for a National Year of Reading 2026.
Campaign work around reading formats has gathered pace. In its paper The Future of Literacy: Multimodal Reading, the National Literacy Trust argues that “literacy today goes beyond printed books and writing with pen and paper”, and calls for print, digital, audio and visual reading to be recognised together. The paper suggests that families need support and reassurance about different reading formats, schools need curriculum reform and training, and libraries and communities need to act as “hubs of access, inclusion and cultural celebration”. Its conclusion is clear: “Print is vital, but alone it is not enough.”
The Trust’s Go All In message for the National Year of Reading sits on the same line. The campaign uses the strapline “If you’re into it, read into it” and starts from research that only 9% of readers in one survey say reading helps them spend time with others, and fewer than one in five say it helps them feel connected with the world. Chief executive Jonathan Douglas talks about literacy as “a living, evolving practice” and describes the year as “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to bring different partners together and “reimagine reading”.
AI has entered that conversation in a very practical way. Oxford University Press’s report Teaching the AI-Native Generation has surveyed 2,000 students aged 13–18 and finds that eight in ten young people use AI tools in their schoolwork, rising to nine in ten in London. Students report benefits in problem solving, generating ideas and revision, but 62% also feel that AI has negatively affected some skills, with a quarter saying it makes work too easy, and notable numbers worrying about its effect on creative thinking and writing.
Classroom teachers may nod along with the trust issue. Fewer than half of pupils feel confident in judging the accuracy of AI-generated information, with a third saying they cannot tell if content is true and a fifth unsure. Many worry about classmates using AI secretly, and about teachers’ ability to spot it. Almost half of students want help from teachers in deciding what AI content is trustworthy and just over half want clearer guidance on when they should use AI in their schoolwork. OUP has launched an AI and Education Hub and an AI Framework for UK school resources, and its Secondary Product Director Amie Lawless says the findings are “a valuable reminder of bringing together trusted content and sound learning design principles with responsible AI tools which put the learner’s needs at the core”.
Policy shifts are under way at system level. The Department for Education has accepted many recommendations from Professor Becky Francis’s Curriculum and Assessment Review, with the revised curriculum due by spring 2027 and implementation from September 2028. There will be a key stage three English test and a strengthened year six writing assessment, with a focus on early writing fluency and more clarity for teachers. A revised English literature syllabus will include “more diverse and representative texts” and a new oracy framework will appear in primary and secondary schools, while the EBacc performance measure will be scrapped.
Industry bodies have broadly welcomed the direction of travel but kept an eye on the detail. Dan Conway of the Publishers Association notes “the clear emphasis to boost reading and writing standards; the focus on creative subjects; and the recommendation to draw on diverse and representative texts in GCSE English Literature”. Tom Weldon of Penguin Random House UK links the changes to the Lit in Colour programme and stresses the need for “resources and training” to help teachers. Conway also warns that uncertainty over Oak National Academy may put private investment in curriculum materials “under threat” and urges the government to give “proper clarity on the future parameters” to avoid publishers looking elsewhere.
The trade news has not all been sober reports and frameworks. Shefali Kharabanda has won the £10,000 Times/Chicken House award with The Less-Than-Perfect Life of Jaya Kapoor, while the £7,500 Lime Pictures New Storyteller Award has gone to Marianna Shek for The Wrangler’s Daughter. Both receive publishing deals with Chicken House after judges sift nearly 1,000 entries. Chicken House managing director Barry Cunningham notes that the shortlist has ranged “from wild wolves to game-playing skeletons”, and says the winners show that “science fantasy and domestic school-based anxieties are not miles away” in their appeal. The competition will reopen in 2026 to unagented and unpublished writers.
On the bestseller front, Dav Pilkey has taken his first overall Official UK Top 50 number one with Dog Man: Big Jim Believes. The fourteenth Dog Man title has entered the chart with 28,909 copies in its first week, 18.1% down on the four-week launch period figure for Big Jim Begins in 2024, but with three extra Christmas shopping weeks still to come this time. It is Pilkey’s fifteenth week at the top of the Children’s Top 20 and his second this year. At the same time, Simon & Schuster Children’s Books has promoted Danielle Wilson to children’s sales director, Jess Dean to publicity director and Miya Elkerton to senior digital marketing manager, after recording best-ever TCM sales of more than £13m in 2024.
Formats keep moving as well. Jason Reynolds’s original audiobook Soundtrack, first released in June with Listening Library, is set for simultaneous hardback and paperback publication on 14 April 2026. The audio production has used a full cast and an original score and has already picked up an AudioFile Earphones Award. Reynolds describes the story, about 18-year-old drummer Stuyvesant and a band of young jazz musicians in early 2000s New York, as part of his interest in “presenting stories in different forms and mediums”, and says that in print “the medium is a book, but the form is a script”.
With prizes opening, reports landing and campaigns lining up for the National Year of Reading, the margin in many teachers’ planners may need an extra column.
