• UKLA Awards
• UKLA Children’s Book Awards
  • UKLA reviews of the 2008 Childrens Book Award winners
• UKLA Author Award
• John Downing Award
• Student Research Awards
• UKLA/ Wiley-Blackwell Research in Literacy Education
  • Research in Literacy Education Award Winners 2008
• Nominations for the ‘UKLA Research in Literacy Education Award’

UKLA Children’s Book Awards

The UKLA Children’s Book Awards are distinguished from other book awards by focusing on literacy. Literacy is interpreted here as being about the expression of meaning and ideas through challenging use of language, imaginative expression, illustration and other graphics. Thus the awards are not given solely on the basis of content but also on the means of expression. 

Our award is unique as the shortlist is decided by teachers- this year teachers in Liverpool created the shortlist. The awards for 2007-2008 were announced at the gala dinner of the international conference, held in Liverpool in July 2008. They were: 

Polly Dunbar - ‘Penguin’ (Walker Books)

Philip Reeve - ‘Here Lies Arthur’ (Scholastic Children’s Books). 

You can read the UKLA reviews of these books here

Submissions for the UKLA Children’s Book Award 2009 are now open

You are invited to submit books for consideration for this prestigious award.

There are two categories for submission 3 - 11 years (primary) and 12 - 16 years (secondary). You can submit a maximum of 4 books per imprint for each award and these may be picturebook, fiction, poetry, non-fiction or playscript. Please note that books must be published for the first time in the UK between August 1st 2007 and July 31st 2008. Books may previously have been published in other countries and translations are eligible. However, reprints and new editions are not eligible. 
Please download the criteria for the award and a submission form. Two copies of the form should accompany each submission.

The deadline for submissions is the 17th September 2008. Submissions (1 copy of the book) should be sent to:

Lynda Graham
Convenor UKLA Membership and Awards Committee
11 Brambledown Rd
South Croydon
CR2 0BN

A submission form to accompany the books can be downloaded here.

In the event that your submission/s is longlisted for this award, you will be asked to submit 5 copies to go forward to the shortlisting process, which this year will be conducted by teachers in Greenwich, the local authority where our International Conference is to be held in July. In the event that your submission/s is shortlisted, you will be asked to send 5 copies to direct to members of the national judging panel. The panel comprises teachers and children’s book experts and is convened by the UKLA Membership and Awards convenor.

The announcement of the UKLA Children’s Book Award will be made at the UKLA International Conference in Greenwich in July 2009. Authors and representatives from the publishing house of the winning books will be invited to attend the event to receive their awards. Authors will be invited to make an acceptance speech. Overnight accommodation will be offered to enable writers and publishers to attend the event. We request that publishers support the award by paying travel costs for themselves and their authors.

The UKLA Children’s Book Award is a national award conferred by education professionals and it is held in high esteem by teachers, who regard the shortlist as a reliable indicator of the best books of the year for inclusion in class and school collections. In the coming year we have plans to further increase the profile of the shortlist through teachers’ centres and the education press.

If you have further questions please direct them FAO Lynda Graham

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Best wishes
Lynda Graham
Convenor UKLA Membership and Awards Committee