Information Book Award 2026 winners announced

The winners of the Information Book Award 2026 have been announced by the School Library Association (SLA), which runs the award. The annual award is a celebration of quality non-fiction books for children and young people.

The award includes the judge's winning books, and the Children's Choice Awards which have been voted for by over 1100 school children who took part in the Information Book Award Book Club.

IBA 2026 Category Winners

This year's IBA Shortlist saw 12 titles recognised, with five books claiming category wins at the award ceremony. The celebratory event was held in London and hosted by children's author and bookseller, Tamara MacFarlane. 

Owning It: Our disabled childhoods in our own words by James Catchpole, Lucy Catchpole, Jen Campbell and Sophie Kamlish (Faber) scooped two awards, including Judge's Overall Winner, whilst Jules Howard and Gordy Wright took home the Overall Children's Choice Award for Choose Your Own Evolution (Nosy Crow).

The judges commented that Owning It 'perfectly encapsulating how books can be both a window and mirror': "For those who can relate, this book is a much-needed reflection, shining a light on experience that is largely unseen; for those who can't, it provides much-needed insight.

"With humour, heart and striking illustrations by Sophie Kamlish, these inspiring stories will illuminate, bring comfort and boost empathy. From blatant to inadvertent othering, to coming to terms with a disabled 'identity' and finding community, this book is honest about pain, fear and heartache. Crucially though, as the title suggests, Owning It offers hope, connection and shows how it is possible to take control of one's life whatever the challenge: a vital message for every teenager."

The Judges' Choice winners

Under 7: Recycling Day: What happens to the things we throw away?, Polly Faber, illustrated by Klas Fahlén (Nosy Crow)

Age 8-12: Choose Your Own Evolution, Jules Howard, illustrated by Gordy Wright (Nosy Crow)

Age 13-16: Owning It: Our disabled childhoods in our own words, James Catchpole, Lucy Catchpole and Jen Campbell, illustrated by Sophie Kamlish (Faber)

Overall winner: Owning It: Our disabled childhoods in our own words, James Catchpole, Lucy Catchpole and Jen Campbell, illustrated by Sophie Kamlish (Faber)

Young judges at the ceremony with Anu Adebogun, Children's Choice winner for It's a Brave Young World

The Children's Choice winners

Over 1100 school children took part in the Information Book Award Book Club this year to choose the Children's Choice Awards, their favourite books on the IBA shortlist. Pupils from three schools also joined the ceremony to present the Children's Choice awards in person.

The overall Children's Choice winner was Choose Your Own Evolution, written by Jules Howard and illustrated by Gordy Wright (Nosy Crow, 2025). The judges said, "This inventive, interactive adventure turns readers into active participants in the story of evolution, blending solid science with an engaging, game-like structure."

Under 7: Frog: A Story of Life on Earth, Isabel Thomas, illustrated by Daniel Egneus (Bloomsbury Children's Books)

Age 8-12: Choose Your Own Evolution, Jules Howard, illustrated by Gordy Wright (Nosy Crow)

Age 13-16: It's a Brave Young World, Anu Adebogun, illustrated by Soofiya and Lila Cruz (Little Tiger)

Overall winner: Choose Your Own Evolution, Jules Howard, illustrated by Gordy Wright (Nosy Crow)

Host Tamara MacFarlane highlighted the ways in which different types of information books can delight and empower children: "We have the great joy of being here to celebrate those books packed with facts so astonishing that children are physically incapable of keeping them to themselves . . . and those equally wonderful information books that answer a different kind of question, possibly the kind of question that a child may not want, or be able, to ask out loud.

"Maybe it is about their body, or what is happening in their family, or in the world. What they find, and the voice of who put it there, whose innate values it carries, what is included and what is left out, is what we are here to explore and celebrate tonight.”

MacFarlane also celebrated school librarians for putting "the right book in the right child's hands at the right moment" - doing something "no algorithm can replicate, no curriculum can mandate, no government policy can engineer."

Chair of the judges Helen Cleaves said that at a time when we are so quick to outsource thinking, knowledge and expertise, "it is books like this years' Information Book Award winners that will ignite curiosity, fuse connections and build empathy; the vital front-line defence for maintaining progress and the fundamentals that make us human."

Victoria Dilly, CEO of the School Library Association, added that each book in this year's Information Book Award "offers a route to discovering more about the world and the amazing people and animals who live in it, their cultures and history. From feminism to frogs, from encounters with grief to evolution - the 2026 shortlist covers everything about the human experience and more."

The Information Book Award is sponsored by DK, and the Information Book  Award Book Club is supported by the ALCS. To find out more about the Information Book Award, visit www.sla.org.uk/iba