Congratulations to Ross Montgomery, whose heartwarming story I Am Rebel (Walker Books), about the unbreakable bond between a dog and his human, was crowned the Overall Winner of this year’s Children’s Book Award.

As the only national award voted for entirely by children, the Children’s Book Award is a leading champion of children’s voices in reading. This year, over 30,000 young people took part, selecting their favourite books from the 10 shortlisted titles.

To be crowned this year’s Overall Winner, I Am Rebel had first to win the Books for Younger Readers category before overcoming stiff opposition from the winners of the Books for Younger Children and Books for Older Readers categories.

The winner of the Books for Younger Children category was Grotti, written and illustrated by Leoni Lord (Walker Books), a sweet and funny picture book about the way babies enter our lives and capture our hearts.

In the Books for Older Readers category, the top spot went to Seven Million Sunflowers by Malcolm Duffy (Zephyr), a “powerful and moving” story inspired by the author’s experience of taking in a Ukrainian family fleeing the war.

The Children’s Book Award was founded in 1980 by national children’s reading charity the Federation of Children’s Book Groups. Commenting on this year’s winners, award co-ordinator Sarah Stuffins said: “Congratulations to Ross, and of course Leonie and Malcolm. We had 10 great and varied titles on the Top 10 this year and it is always fascinating to see which ones strike a particular chord with our young voters to become the children’s choice.”

For more children’s book awards, click here.