FCBG Children’s Book Award 2023 – Winners Announced!

13 June, 2023

Congratulations to Louie Stowell whose hilarious take on Norse mythology Loki, A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good (Walker Books) was declared the overall winner of this year’s Children’s Book Award, having also won the Books for Younger Readers category.

The Children’s Book Award was established in 1980 and is administered by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups. It is the only national award voted for entirely by children from beginning to end and, for this reason, is highly regarded by parents, teachers, librarians, and authors and illustrators themselves. Previous winners include Quentin Blake, J. K. Rowling, Malory Blackman, Andy Stanton, Anthony Horowitz, Jacqueline Wilson and Michael Morpurgo.

To be crowned this year’s Overall Winner, Loki, A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good  overcame stiff competition from the winners of the Books for Younger Children and Books for Older Readers categories. The Books for Younger Children category was won by Blobfish, written and illustrated by Olaf Falafel (Walker Books), while the Books for Older Readers category was won by Dread Wood by Jennifer Killick (Farshore).

Commenting on her success, author Louie Stowell said, ‘Well, I hope you all know what you’ve done! Giving Loki this trophy… he is going to be unbearable! However, I’m really grateful. I cannot wait to get my acorn, and my – I think it’s a whole tree, actually! Maybe made of silver. Unfortunately, I think although I’m supposed to give that back at the end of the year, Loki may bury it somewhere, so look out for that. But thank you all so much!’

Cover shots of the three category winners for the Children's Book Award 2023

See the full shortlist for the Children’s Book Award 2023 and find out how your pupils can get involved in choosing next year’s Children’s Book Award winners.

Logo for Children's Book Award