What are the IBC Children’s Choice Awards?
The IBC Children’s Choice Awards is 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 have just over 5 weeks to read and judge the books, from Wednesday 6 January to Monday 15 February 2027.
The shadowing process is now open for registration.
How to participate
1. Register here for the IBC Children’s Choice Awards.
2. Buy the books
For schools or libraries ordering via Peters, our official partner, pre-order the books here.
If you are ordering from elsewhere, please consider using our affiliate links at Bookshop.org or Amazon via our website to support our work. These will be available on our booklist pages for the longlist and shortlist when they are announced.
3. Read the books with the children. You have just over 5 weeks to read up to 5 books in your selected category, starting Wednesday 6 January 2027. You can read ideas for running the Children’s Choice Awards in your setting on our blog.
4. Vote for your winner! Links will be shared when voting is underway.
The deadline for casting your vote is midday (GMT) on Monday 15 February.
Register for the IBC Children’s Choice Awards 2026!
FREE downloads
We’ve 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 certificate for partcipating groups
- Bookmarks and stickers available on request for those not ordering books via our offical partner Peters (see below)
Please email sophie@inclusivebooksforchildren.org by the end of Tuesday 2 February, stating your name, address and the quantity of bookmarks and stickers required.
Why participants love taking part
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 two book award categories to choose from:
- Picture Books (3–7)
- Highly Illustrated Children’s Fiction (5–9)
The above age brackets are for loose guidance only. In particular, children aged 7 and over are welcome to participate in the Picture Book shadowing process. Likewise, children aged 9 and over 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 shortly after the ceremony.
What are the IBC 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-9s in three categories, rewarding children’s authors and illustrators with a shared prize fund of £30K.
Why do we run the Children’s Choice Awards?
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, please apply here. The deadline for applications is 5pm (GMT) on Tuesday 15 December.
Got questions?
If you still have questions, email sophie@inclusivebooksforchildren.org.