# Guardian Children's Fiction Prize

The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annually recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults (at least age eight) and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author of the book by The Guardian newspaper, which established it in 1965 and inaugurated it in 1967. It was a lifetime award in that previous winners were not eligible. At least from 2000 the prize was £1,500. The prize was apparently discontinued after 2016, though no formal announcement appears to have been made.

## History

The prize was established in 1965 as the "only children's book award made to writers by their fellow authors"(2005 shortlist) and inaugurated by the 1967 award to Leon Garfield for Devil in the Fog (Constable & Co., 1966). Through the 2000 prize, announced 28 March, it recognised one book published in the UK during the preceding calendar year.
Between the 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 cycles, the prize schedule was rearranged to culminate in October during Booktrust Children's Book Week. "[F]iction for children aged seven and above, published in the UK between January 2000 and September 2001" (21 months) was eligible for the 2001 prize. Publishers were required to submit no more than ten entries by April 30.
At the same time, a summer program was inaugurated, using the newspaper's educational website and featuring a longlist announced in July. The program initially comprised merely an opportunity to vote for longlist favourites, comments by the judges to guide summer reading, and advice on "how to build a classic library of children's books".(2001 longlist) A version of the ongoing Young Critics contest was inaugurated in 2002 and the program has expanded since then to include online discussion and author interviews and appearances. Meanwhile, announcement of the longlist has advanced to late May or early June and announcement of the winner has retreated to November.

## Conditions

The shortlist of no more than four books and the winner were selected by three children's fiction writers, almost always including the latest winner. The Guardian described the prize as the only children's book award winner selected by peers. The newspaper's children's book editor Julia Eccleshare participated (from 2000 to 2016) in selection of the longlist and thereafter chaired the panel of final judges.
In years to 2016, a longlist of eight books was announced in May or June, a shortlist of no more than four announced in September, and a single winner. The longlist was the foundation for a summer program of reading, reviewing, and discussion.
The U.K. publishers of eligible books entered them for the prize with a fee, although the chair may call for submission. The publication year is August to July of the current year, but May, June, and July books must be submitted in advance. Books originally published in another language were eligible in English translation for five years.
Routinely, eligible books were entered for the prize by their UK publishers, as many as ten books each (2000) although chair Eccleshare also called for particular submissions.

## Honorees

Through 2016, 52 prizes were awarded in 49 years covering 1966 to mid-2015 publications. There were co-winners in 1992 and 1996.

### 1960s

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners, 1967-1969 :
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Result |
| 1967 | Leon Garfield | Devil-in-the-Fog | Constable | Winner |
| 1968 | Alan Garner | The Owl Service | Collins | Winner |
| 1969 | Joan Aiken | The Whispering Mountain | Jonathan Cape | Winner |
| 1969 | Samuel Youd | The Pool of Fire | | Runner-up |

### 1970s

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners, 1970-1979 :
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Result |
| 1970 | K. M. Peyton | The Flambards trilogy (1967–1969) | Oxford | Winner |
| 1971 | John Christopher | The Guardians | Hamish Hamilton | Winner |
| 1972 | Gillian Avery | A Likely Lad | Collins | Winner |
| 1973 | Richard Adams | Watership Down | Rex Collings | Winner |
| 1974 | Barbara Willard | The Iron Lily | Longman | Winner |
| 1975 | Winifred Cawley | Gran at Coalgate | Oxford | Winner |
| 1975 | Anne Fine | The Summer House Loon | | Runner-up |
| 1976 | Nina Bawden | The Peppermint Pig | Gollancz | Winner |
| 1977 | Peter Dickinson | The Blue Hawk | Gollancz | Winner |
| 1978 | Diana Wynne Jones | Charmed Life | Macmillan | Winner |
| 1979 | Andrew Davies | Conrad's War | Blackie | Winner |

### 1980s

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners and finalists, 1980-1989 :
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Result |
| 1980 | Ann Schlee | The Vandal | Macmillan | Winner |
| 1980 | Gillian Cross | The Iron Way | | Runner-up |
| 1981 | Peter Carter | The Sentinels | Oxford | Winner |
| 1982 | Michelle Magorian | Goodnight Mr. Tom | Kestrel | Winner |
| 1983 | Anita Desai | The Village by the Sea | Heinemann | Winner |
| 1983 | Gillian Cross | The Dark Behind the Curtain | | Runner-up |
| 1984 | Dick King-Smith | The Sheep-Pig(US title: Babe, the Gallant Pig) | Gollancz | Winner |
| 1984 | Anne Fine | The Granny Project | Puffin | Runner-up |
| 1985 | Ted Hughes | What is the Truth | Faber | Winner |
| 1986 | Ann Pilling | Henry's Leg | Viking Kestrel | Winner |
| 1987 | James Aldridge | The True Story of Spit MacPhee | Viking Kestrel | Winner |
| 1987 | Anne Fine | Madame Doubtfire | Puffin | Runner-up |
| 1988 | Ruth Thomas | The Runaways | Hutchinson | Winner |
| 1989 | Geraldine McCaughrean | A Pack of Lies | Oxford | Winner |

### 1990s

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners and finalists, 1990-1999 :
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Result |
| 1990 | Anne Fine | Goggle-Eyes | Hamish Hamilton | Winner |
| 1991 | Robert Westall | The Kingdom by the Sea | Methuen | Winner |
| 1991 | Gillian Cross | Wolf | Oxford | Finalist |
| 1992 | Rachel Anderson | Paper Faces | Oxford | Winner |
| 1992 | Hilary McKay | The Exiles | Gollancz | Winner |
| 1992 | Jamila Gavin | The Wheel of Surya | | Finalist |
| 1993 | William Mayne | Low Tide | Jonathan Cape | Winner |
| 1993 | Terry Pratchett | | | Finalist |
| 1994 | Sylvia Waugh | The Mennyms | Julia MacRae | Winner |
| 1994 | Jamila Gavin | The Eye of the Horse | | Finalist |
| 1995 | Lesley Howarth | MapHead | Walker Books | Winner |
| 1996 | Alison Prince | The Sherwood Hero | Macmillan | Winner |
| 1996 | Philip Pullman | Northern Lights (US title, The Golden Compass) | Scholastic UK | Winner |
| 1996 | Russell Hoban | The Trokeville Way | Jonathan Cape | Finalist |
| 1996 | Beverley Naidoo | No Turning Back | | Finalist |
| 1996 | Chloë Rayban | Love In Cyberia | | Finalist |
| 1997 | Melvin Burgess | Junk | Penguin | Winner |
| 1997 | Jamila Gavin | The Track of the Wind | Mammoth | Finalist |
| 1997 | Keith Gray | Creepers | | Finalist |
| 1997 | Terry Pratchett | Johnny and the Bomb | | Finalist |
| 1998 | Henrietta Branford | Fire, Bed, and Bone | Walker Books | Winner |
| 1998 | J. K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Bloomsbury | Finalist |
| 1998 | Jane Stemp | Secret Songs | Hodder Children's Books | Finalist |
| 1999 | Susan Price | The Sterkarm Handshake | Scholastic UK | Winner |
| 1999 | J. K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | Bloomsbury | Finalist |

### 2000s

Until 2000, books published in the previous year were eligible for the award, and the award included a winner and a shortlist. In 2001, the award cycle was rescheduled to conclude in the fall rather than the spring. At the same time, a longlist of seven books was instituted with a shortlist of four to six books.
Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners and finalists, 2000-2009 :
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Min. Age | Result |
| 2000 | Jacqueline Wilson | The Illustrated Mum | Transworld | | Winner |
| 2000 | David Almond | Kit's Wilderness | Hodder Children's Books | | Shortlist |
| 2000 | Bernard Ashley | Little Soldier | Orchard | | Shortlist |
| 2000 | Susan Cooper | King of Shadows | Bodley Head | | Shortlist |
| 2000 | Jan Mark | The Eclipse of the Century | Scholastic | | Shortlist |
| 2000 | J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Bloomsbury | | Shortlist |
| 2001 | Kevin Crossley-Holland | The Seeing Stone | Orion | | Winner |
| 2001 | Allan Ahlberg | My Brother's Ghost | Puffin | 9 | Shortlist |
| 2001 | Celia Rees | Witch Child | Bloomsbury | 11 | Shortlist |
| 2001 | Karen Wallace | Raspberries on the Yangtze | Simon & Schuster | 11 | Shortlist |
| 2001 | Adèle Geras | Troy | David Fickling/Scholastic | 11 | Longlist |
| 2001 | Gaye Hiçyilmaz | Girl in Red | Orion | 11 | Longlist |
| 2001 | Eva Ibbotson | Journey to the River Sea | Macmillan | 10 | Longlist |
| 2001 | Margaret Mahy | 24 Hours | Collins | | Longlist |
| 2001 | Jan Mark | Heathrow Nights | Hodder | 12 | Longlist |
| 2001 | Beverley Naidoo | The Other Side of Truth | Puffin | | Longlist |
| 2002 | Sonya Hartnett | Thursday's Child | Walker Books | 12 | Winner |
| 2002 | Keith Gray | Warehouse | Red Fox | 13 | Shortlist |
| 2002 | Elizabeth Laird | Jake's Tower | Heinemann, MacMillan | 11 | Shortlist |
| 2002 | Linda Newbery | The Shell House | David Fickling | 12 | Shortlist |
| 2002 | Terry Pratchett | The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents | Doubleday, Transworld | 11 | Shortlist |
| 2002 | Marcus Sedgwick | The Dark Horse | Orion | 12 | Shortlist |
| 2002 | Bernard Ashley | Revenge House | Orchard | | Longlist |
| 2002 | Julie Bertagna | Exodus | Macmillan | | Longlist |
| 2002 | Susan Cooper | Green Boy | Bodley Head | | Longlist |
| 2003 | Mark Haddon | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | Jonathan Cape, David Fickling | 12 | Winner |
| 2003 | David Almond | The Fire-Eaters | Hodder | 10 | Shortlist |
| 2003 | Kevin Brooks | Lucas | Chicken House | 12 | Shortlist |
| 2003 | Alex Shearer | The Speed of the Dark | Macmillan | 11 | Shortlist |
| 2003 | Simon French | Where in the World | Little Hare | 9 | Longlist |
| 2003 | Keith Gray | Malarkey | Red Fox | 13 | Longlist |
| 2003 | Marcus Sedgwick | The Book of Dead Days | Orion | 10 | Longlist |
| 2003 | Jean Ure | Bad Alice | Hodder & Stoughton | 10 | Longlist |
| 2004 | Meg Rosoff | How I Live Now | Puffin | 14 | Winner |
| 2004 | Frank Cottrell-Boyce | Millions | Macmillan | 9 | Shortlist |
| 2004 | Ann Turnbull | No Shame, No Fear | Walker Books | 10 | Shortlist |
| 2004 | Leslie Wilson | Last Train from Kummersdorf | Faber | 11 | Shortlist |
| 2004 | Kevin Brooks | Kissing the Rain | Chicken House | 13 | Longlist |
| 2004 | Patricia Elliott | Murkmere | Hodder | 10 | Longlist |
| 2004 | Jan Mark | Useful Idiots | David Fickling | 13 | Longlist |
| 2004 | Michael Morpurgo | Private Peaceful | Collins | 10 | Longlist |
| 2005 | Kate Thompson | The New Policeman | Bodley Head | 11 | Winner |
| 2005 | Julie Hearn | The Merrybegot | Oxford | 10 | Shortlist |
| 2005 | Alex Shearer | The Hunted | Macmillan | 11 | Shortlist |
| 2005 | Tim Wynne-Jones | The Boy in the Burning House | Groundwood Books, 2000; Usborne | 10 | Shortlist |
| 2005 | Kevin Brooks | Candy | Chicken House | 13 | Longlist |
| 2005 | Michelle Paver | Wolf Brother | Orion | 9 | Longlist |
| 2005 | Philippa Pearce | The Little Gentleman | Puffin | 9 | Longlist |
| 2005 | Christopher Russell | Brind and the Dogs of War | Puffin | 10 | Longlist |
| 2006 | Philip Reeve | A Darkling Plain | Scholastic UK | | Winner |
| 2006 | Patrick Cave | Blown Away | Simon & Schuster | 13 | Shortlist |
| 2006 | Frank Cottrell-Boyce | Framed | Macmillan | 11 | Shortlist |
| 2006 | Frances Hardinge | Fly by Night | Macmillan | 11 | Shortlist |
| 2006 | David Almond | Clay | Hodder | 12 | Longlist |
| 2006 | Siobhan Dowd | A Swift Pure Cry | Doubleday | 12 | Longlist |
| 2006 | Jill Murphy | The Worst Witch Saves the Day | Penguin | 8-11 | Longlist |
| 2006 | Tim Wynne-Jones | The Survival Game | Usborne | 10 | Longlist |
| 2007 | Jenny Valentine | Finding Violet Park | HarperCollins | 12 | Winner |
| 2007 | Mary Hoffman | The Falconer's Knot | Bloomsbury | 11 | Shortlist |
| 2007 | Sally Prue | The Truth Sayer | Oxford | 10 | Shortlist |
| 2007 | Andy Stanton | Mr Gum and the Biscuit Billionaire | Egmont | 7 | Shortlist |
| 2007 | Allan Ahlberg | The Boyhood of Burglar Bill | Puffin | 8 | Longlist |
| 2007 | Charlie Fletcher | Stoneheart | Hodder | 10 | Longlist |
| 2007 | Tim Lott | Fearless | Walker Books | 12 | Longlist |
| 2007 | Mal Peet | The Penalty | Walker Books | 12 | Longlist |
| 2008 | Patrick Ness | The Knife of Never Letting Go | Walker Books | 13 | Winner |
| 2008 | Frank Cottrell-Boyce | Cosmic | Macmillan | 9 | Shortlist |
| 2008 | Siobhan Dowd | Bog Child | David Fickling | 13 | Shortlist |
| 2008 | Jenny Downham | Before I Die | Definitions | 13 | Shortlist |
| 2008 | Tanya Landman | The Goldsmith's Daughter | Walker Books | 11 | Longlist |
| 2008 | Rhiannon Lassiter | Bad Blood | Oxford | 12 | Longlist |
| 2008 | Anthony McGowan | The Knife That Killed Me | Definitions | 14 | Longlist |
| 2009 | Mal Peet | Exposure | Walker Books | | Winner |
| 2009 | Siobhan Dowd | Solace of the Road | David Fickling | | Shortlist |
| 2009 | Morris Gleitzman | Then | Puffin | | Shortlist |
| 2009 | Terry Pratchett | Nation | Doubleday | | Shortlist |
| 2009 | Bernard Beckett | Genesis | Quercus | | Longlist |
| 2009 | Sally Gardner | The Silver Blade | Orion | | Longlist |
| 2009 | Julie Hearn | Rowan the Strange | Oxford | | Longlist |
| 2009 | Marcus Sedgwick | Revolver | Orion | | Longlist |

### 2010s

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners and finalists, 2010-2016 :
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Min. Age | Result |
| 2010 | Michelle Paver | Ghost Hunter | Orion | 10 | Winner |
| 2010 | Morris Gleitzman | Now | Puffin | 9 | Shortlist |
| 2010 | Gregory Hughes | Unhooking the Moon | Quercus | 11 | Shortlist |
| 2010 | Eva Ibbotson | The Ogre of Oglefort | Macmillan | 8 | Shortlist |
| 2010 | Theresa Breslin | Prisoner of the Inquisition | Doubleday | 12 | Longlist |
| 2010 | Ally Kennen | Sparks | Marion Lloyd Books | 9 | Longlist |
| 2010 | Linda Newbery, illus. by Pam Smy | Lob | David Fickling | 8 | Longlist |
| 2010 | Marcus Sedgwick | White Crow | Orion | 13 | Longlist |
| 2011 | Andy Mulligan | Return To Ribblestrop | Simon & Schuster | 10 | Winner |
| 2011 | David Almond | My Name is Mina | Hodder | 9 | Shortlist |
| 2011 | Frances Hardinge | Twilight Robbery | Macmillan | 11 | Shortlist |
| 2011 | Simon Mason | Moon Pie | David Fickling | 10 | Shortlist |
| 2011 | Lissa Evans | Small Change for Stuart | Doubleday | 8 | Longlist |
| 2011 | Saci Lloyd | Momentum | Hodder | 12 | Longlist |
| 2011 | Annabel Pitcher | My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece | Orion | 10 | Longlist |
| 2011 | Andy Stanton, illus. David Tazzyman | Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout | Egmont | 7 | Longlist |
| 2012 | Frank Cottrell Boyce | The Unforgotten Coat | Walker | 9 | Winner |
| 2012 | Roddy Doyle | A Greyhound of a Girl | Scholastic | 12 | Shortlist |
| 2012 | Jack Gantos | Dead End in Norvelt | Corgi | 12 | Shortlist |
| 2012 | Eva Ibbotson | The Abominables | Scholastic | 8 | Shortlist |
| 2012 | Aidan Chambers | Dying to Know You | Bodley Head | 14 | Longlist |
| 2012 | Russell Hoban | Soonchild | Walker | 14 | Longlist |
| 2012 | Ally Kennen | Bullet Boys | Scholastic | 14 | Longlist |
| 2012 | Dave Shelton | A Boy and a Bear in a Boat | David Fickling | 9 | Longlist |
| 2013 | Rebecca Stead | Liar & Spy | Andersen Press | 10 | Winner |
| 2013 | David Almond, illus. Oliver Jeffers | The Boy Who Swam With Piranhas | Walker | 9 | Shortlist |
| 2013 | John Green | The Fault in Our Stars | Penguin | 12 | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Katherine Rundell | Rooftoppers | Faber | 10 | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Gillian Cross | After Tomorrow | Oxford | 10 | Longlist |
| 2013 | Sally Gardner | Maggot Moon | Hot Key Books | 12 | Longlist |
| 2013 | William Sutcliffe | The Wall | Bloomsbury | 12 | Longlist |
| 2013 | Lydia Syson | A World Between Us | Hot Key Books | 14 | Longlist |
| 2014 | Piers Torday | The Dark Wild | Quercus | 11 | Winner |
| 2014 | Kate DiCamillo, illus. K. G. Campbell | Flora & Ulysses | Walker; U.S., Candlewick | 9 | Shortlist |
| 2014 | E. Lockhart | We Were Liars | Hot Key Books; U.S., Delacorte | 12 | Shortlist |
| 2014 | S. F. Said, illus. Dave McKean | Phoenix | David Fickling | 10 | Shortlist |
| 2014 | Natasha Farrant | Flora in Love | Faber | 12 | Longlist |
| 2014 | Candy Gourlay | Shine | David Fickling | 12 | Longlist |
| 2014 | Marcus Sedgwick | She Is Not Invisible | Orion | 12 | Longlist |
| 2014 | Francesca Simon | The Lost Gods | Faber/Profile | 9 | Longlist |
| 2015 | David Almond | A Song for Ella Grey | Hodder | | Winner |
| 2015 | Frances Hardinge | The Lie Tree | Macmillan | | Shortlist |
| 2015 | Sally Nicholls | An Island of our Own | Scholastic | | Shortlist |
| 2015 | Kate Saunders | Five Children on the Western Front | Faber | | Shortlist |
| 2015 | Cece Bell | El Deafo | Amulet Books) | | Longlist |
| 2015 | Sarah Crossan | Apple and Rain | Bloomsbury | | Longlist |
| 2015 | Jennifer Niven | All The Bright Places | Penguin | | Longlist |
| 2015 | Jon Walter | My Name's Not Friday | David Fickling | | Longlist |
| 2016 | Alex Wheatle | Crongton Knights | Atom Books | | Winner |
| 2016 | Brian Selznick | The Marvels | | | Shortlist |
| 2016 | Tanya Landman | Hell and High Water | | | Shortlist |
| 2016 | Zana Fraillon | The Bone Sparrow | | | Shortlist |
| 2016 | Malorie Blackman | Chasing the Stars | | | Longlist |
| 2016 | Martin Stewart | Riverkeep | | | Longlist |
| 2016 | Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock | The Smell of Other People's Houses | | | Longlist |
| 2016 | G. R. Gemin | Sweet Pizza | | | Longlist |

## Winners of multiple awards

Six books have won both the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Carnegie Medal (inaugurated 1936), which annually recognizes an outstanding book for children or young adults.
(Dates are years of U.K. publication, which were Carnegie award dates before 2006.)
* Alan Garner, The Owl Service (1967)
* Richard Adams, Watership Down (1972)
* Geraldine McCaughrean, A Pack of Lies (1988)
* Anne Fine, Goggle-Eyes (1989)
* Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials 1: Northern Lights (1995)
* Melvin Burgess, Junk (1996)
In 2001, The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley-Holland won the Tir na n-Og Award, best English-language book for young people with "authentic Welsh background".
In 2003, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon won the 2003 Whitbread Awards as the year's best novel (not children's book) and the "Book of the Year" across all five categories. The Guardian children's book editor Eccleshare wrote, "Published on both an adult and a children's list, it is one of the few titles for which the ubiquitous claim of 'crossover' is not a gimmick. It genuinely has equal, though different, appeal to all readers – 15-year-old Christopher Boone's narrative voice is at once childlike in its observations, and adult in its profundity."
In 2007, Pullman's Northern Lights was named "Carnegie of Carnegies" for the award's 70-year celebration.

## Summer programme

The Young Critics competition was inaugurated in 2002 and is still underway. The newspaper solicited 200-word reviews of books on the longlist from children 16 and younger, with the prize being "a day editing and printing up their reviews".(retrospective by CA, 23 Sep 2002)
Ten years later there are dual competitions for children 17 and younger, one for individuals and one for teams of at least four schoolmates. There are cash prizes and free sets of the longlist books to the winners. Up to 30 students from the winning school also get a day at one Guardian site.(2012 Young Critics) The Young Critics contests are judged by Eccleshare, who also helps select the longlist, and another Guardian editor.
Beside the competition there is a summer book club that features one longlist book each week, with author interviews and discussion.