Red House Children's Book Award
The Federation of Children's Book Groups Children's Book Award is a set of annual literary prizes for children's books published in the U.K. during the preceding calendar year. It recognises one "Overall" winner and one book in each of three categories: Books for Younger Children, Books for Younger Readers, and Books for Older Readers. The selections are made entirely by children, which is unique among British literary awards. It was previously known as the Red House Children's Book Award. The Federation of Children's Book Groups owns and coordinates the  Award, which it inaugurated in 1981 as the Children's Book Award. Its purpose has been "to celebrate the books that children themselves love reading." From 2001 to 2015 it was sponsored by the mail order bookshop Red House —a brand owned by bookselling company The Book People. Process and latest rendition. The 2017 Overall Winner was from the Books for Younger Readers category and was won by Michael Morpurgo and illustrator Michael Foreman for "An Eagle in the Snow", published by Harper Collins. The 2017 winners were announced at an Award Ceremony held in London on Saturday 10 June  2017. The 2016 Overall Winner was from the Books for Younger Readers category and was won by Pamela Butchart and illustrator Thomas Flintham with "My Head Teacher is a Vampire Rat," published by Nosy Crow. The 2015 Overall Winner was from the Books for Younger Children and was announced at the Imagine Festival in February. The Winners were Oliver Jeffeys and Drew Daywalt with "'The Days the Crayons Quit'," published by Harper Collins. The 2014 Overall winner was from the Older Readers category, announced in mid-February 2014: "The 5th Wave", written by Rick Yancey and published by Penguin Books . Winners are determined by the votes of children on three category ballots composed by nominations from the same group. "Children from around the world" are eligible to participate in both stages. At least in Britain, many children participate through book groups. The three ballots, or shortlists, comprise those ten books that garner the most nominations. There are four books on the Younger Children ballot and three each on the Younger Readers and Older Readers ballots. Winners. Currently the annual awards cover books first published in the U.K. during the calendar year. From 1992 to 2017 —the period of one Overall  and three category awards— 13 Overall winners have come from the Long Novel or Older Readers category, 76 from the Short Novel or Younger Readers category, 4 from the Picture Book or Younger Children category. 2017 Winners of multiple awards. Prior to winning the 2012 Red House Award, Overall, "A Monster Calls" was named the 2011 British Children's Book of the Year. Subsequently, Ness and Kay as writer and illustrator won both annual children's book awards from the professional librarians, the Carnegie Medal and Greenaway Medal; that double award alone was an unprecedented sweep. In fact, no previous  Children's/Red House Award winner (Overall) has won the Carnegie Medal and only one has won the Greenaway Medal for illustration: the inaugural Children's winner "Mr Magnolia" (Jonathan Cape, 1980), written and illustrated by Quentin Blake. Michael Morpurgo has won four Overall awards for "Kensuke's Kingdom" in 2000, "Private Peaceful" in 2004, "Shadow" in 2011 and "An Eagle in the Snow" in 2017. He has also won category awards for "The Wreck of the Zanzibar" in 1996 and "Out of Ashes" in 2002. Four other authors have won two Overall awards: J. K. Rowling won the Long Novel  category four years in succession, 1998 to 2001, for the first four Harry Potter books.