What are the IBC Children’s Choice Awards?
The IBC Children’s Choice Awards are an exciting shadowing scheme for our IBC Awards, where children act as judges, reading the shortlisted books and voting on their favourites.
The scheme aims to engage children in fun reading activities that mirror the IBC Awards process. They will have 5 weeks to read and judge the books.
Registration and pre-orders will open in autumn 2026. Please subscribe to the IBC newsletter for updates.
Reading and judging will take place between early January and mid-February 2027.
How to participate?
- Register for the IBC Children’s Choice Awards. The form will be available from Autumn 2026.
- Buy the shortlisted books.
- For schools or libraries ordering via our official partner, Peters, you will be able to buy the shortlists and longlists on the Peters website. For those who pre-order, books will be delivered in early January 2027, as soon as schools re-open.
- If you are ordering from elsewhere, check your inbox in early January 2027, for the announcement of the shortlisted titles.
- Read the books with your children. You have 5 weeks to read up to a maximum of 5 books.
- Vote for your winner!
The deadline for casting your vote will be in February 2027.
Why participants love taking part
FREE downloads
We put together a range of downloadable resources to make the shadowing process a breeze! These will be available on this page during the shadowing process so please check back in due course. The assets include:
- Book Talk Cards created for each shortlisted book by Peters children’s book specialists, packed with useful discussion prompts
- Quick guide for Activity Leaders
- Voting slips to make it easy and fun to organise the casting and counting of votes
- Editable certificates for partcipating groups
- Bookmarks and stickers
Who can participate?
Children in any setting can participate, supported by an adult. For example, any teacher, librarian, parent or caregiver can register to participate in the Children’s Choice Awards on behalf of one child or a group.
What age range is this for?
Children of any age can take part in the Children’s Choice Awards with adult direction. There are three book award categories to choose from:
- Baby and Toddler Books (1–3)
- Picture Books (3–7)
- Highly Illustrated Children’s Fiction (5–9)
The above age brackets are for loose guidance only. In particular, children aged over 7 are welcome to participate in the Picture Book shadowing process. Likewise, children aged over 9 can take part in Children’s Fiction shadowing.
Winners and prizes
The authors and illustrators of the winning books will be announced at the IBC Awards ceremony in February.
Each winner will be presented with a trophy and a gift of £250 worth of books made in their name to the school of their choice.
The ceremony will take place in the evening and will be livestreamed. As Children’s Choice Awards participants, your children will be sent a special video message from the winners a few days after the ceremony.
What are the IBC Awards and why do we run the Children’s Choice Awards?
As a registered literacy charity, we aim to help parents, teachers and librarians source diverse and inclusive books for children. Our annual IBC Awards highlight outstanding new children’s literature for the under-10s in three categories, rewarding children’s authors and illustrators with a shared prize fund of £30K.
The Children’s Choice Awards run in tandem with the main book awards. This shadowing scheme is designed to excite children about reading, motivating them to engage with a broader range of books.
The scheme follows the release of The National Literacy Trust’s annual reading survey, revealing children’s reading for pleasure is at its lowest in two decades, with only ‘1 in 3 (32.7%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 enjoying reading in their free time in 2025’, a 36% drop since 2005.
For more information about IBC and the work we do, check out our About us page, inclusive book reviews and recommendations, and thematic booklists curated by experts.
I would love to participate, but my organisation doesn’t have the budget
We allocate 10 free sets of shortlisted books to applicants who made a compelling case for receiving them. If you would love this for your setting, be sure to apply in good time. You can subscribe to our newsletter for a timely reminder.
Got questions?
If you still have questions, email sophie@inclusivebooksforchildren.org.