Congratulations to Thomas Flintham whose gaming-inspired graphic novel Press Start! Game On, Super Rabbit Boy (Nosy Crow) was declared the Overall Winner of this year’s Children’s Book Award at a special award ceremony on 8th June.

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 and librarians, as well as by authors and illustrators. 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, Press Start! Game On, Super Rabbit Boy had first to win the Books for Younger Readers category and then overcome 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 Gigantic, written and illustrated by Rob Biddulph (Harper Collins Children’s Books), while a second graphic novel, The Final Year, written by Matt Goodfellow and illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton (Otter-Barry Books) won the Books for Older Readers category.

Commenting on this year’s Children’s Book Award, Co-ordinator Sarah Stuffins said: “As ever, the children have spoken! And this year they have chosen a brilliantly accessible book that bursts with fun and practically fizzes off the page. Inspiring the love of reading for pleasure – and highlighting its importance to child development – remains a key aim of the award. We at the FCBG are always proud and delighted to help put these fantastic books directly into the hands of children up and down the country. The engagement displayed by the children is always a delight to see and many, many congratulations to all our worthy winners. And many thanks, too, to every child who voted.”

See the full shortlist for the Children’s Book Award 2024 and access resources to stimulate discussion about all the shortlisted titles here.

For more children’s book awards, click here.