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Costa Children's Book of the Year Award (Formally the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year)

Annual

Sponsor: Costa

Visit the web site for more information

Management and main contact:
Sunita Rappai
Karen Earl Ltd
66 Great Suffolk Street
London SE1 0BL
tel: 020 7202 2822
fax: 020 7202 2802
email: sunita@karen-earl.co.uk

Book Trade administration:
The Booksellers Association
Minster House
272 Vauxhall Bridge
London SW1V 1BA
tel: 020 7834 5477
fax: 020 7834 8812

The awards began as the Whitbread awards in 1971 and the first award for a children's novel was given in 1972. The format changed in 1985 when the Whitbread Book of the Year was launched, and in 1996, children’s books were taken out of the main category and given a prize of their own.

Entries must be by authors who have been resident in the UK or Eire for three years and whose book has been published between 1 November and 31 October of the year of the prize. The prize is £5,000. The winner is announced in January. 1999 was the first year the winner of the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year Award was also considered for the overall Whitbread Book of the Year Award, with a prize of £25,000.

In 2006 Costa took over as the main sponsor of the award, which followed with a renaming of the award to the 'Costa Book Awards'

Most Recent Winner (2006)

Linda Newbery, Set in stone

Past Winners

2005
Kate Thompson , The new policeman

2004
Geraldine McCaughrean, Not the end of the world (OUP)

2003
David Almond, The Fire-Eaters (Hodder)

2002
Hilary McKay, Saffy's Angel. (Hodder)

2001
Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass (Scholastic)

2000
Jamila Gavin, Coram Boy (Mammoth)

1999
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Bloomsbury)

1998
David Almond, Skellig (Hodder Children's Books)

1997
Andrew Norriss, Aquila (Puffin)

1996
Anne Fine, The Tulip Touch (Hamish Hamilton)

1995
Michael Morpurgo The Wreck of the Zanzibar (Methuen)

1994
Geraldine McCaughrean Gold Dust (Oxford University Press)

1993
Anne Fine Flour Babies (Hamish Hamilton)

1992
Gillian Cross The Great Elephant Chase (Oxford University Press)

1991
Diana Hendry Harvey Angell (Julia MacRae)

1990
Peter Dickinson AK (Gollancz)

1989
Hugh Scott Why Weeps the Brogan (Walker Books)

1988
Judy Allen Awaiting Developments (Julia MacRae)

1987
Geraldine McCaughrean A Little Lower than the Angels (Oxford University Press)

1986
Andrew Taylor The Coal House (Collins)

1985
Janni Howker The Nature of the Beast (Julia MacRae)

1984
Barbara Willard The Queen of the Pharisees Children (Julia MacRae)

1983
Roald Dahl The Witches (Cape)

1982
W J Corbett The Song of Pentecost (Methuen)

1981
Jane Gardam The Hollow Land (Julia MacRae)

1980
Leon Garfield John Diamond (Kestrel)

1979
Peter Dickinson Tulku (Gollancz)

1978
Philippa Pearce The Battle of Bubble and Squeak (Deutsch)

1977
Shelagh Macdonald No End to Yesterday (Deutsch)

1976
Penelope Lively A Stitch in Time (Heinemann)

1975
No award

1974
Joint Winners: Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen (Cape) and Jill Paton Walsh The Emperor’s Winding Sheet (Macmillan)

1973
Alan Aldridge and William Plomer The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast (Cape)

1972
Rumer Godden The Diddakoi (Macmillan)

1971
No award