The Waterstones Children's Book Prize is an annual award given to a work of children's literature published during the previous year. First awarded in 2005, the purpose of the prize is "to uncover hidden talent in children's writing" and is therefore open only to authors who have published no more than two or three books, depending on which category they are in. The prize is awarded by British book retailer Waterstones.
It was originally called the Ottakar's Children's Book Prize, after the bookshop chain. When all Ottakar's stores were rebranded as Waterstone's following the HMV Group takeover in 2006, the prize also changed its name to become the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize.
Beginning in 2012, the prize was divided into three categories: Picture Books, Fiction 5âÂÂ12, and Teen. Each category winner receives ã2,000 with an overall winner chosen from the three getting an additional ã3,000 (thus the overall winner receives ã5,000 in total).
In 2016 the categories were renamed: Picture Books became Illustrated Books, Fiction 5âÂÂ12 became Younger Fiction and the Teen category became Older Fiction.