Oscar’s Book Prize is delighted today to announce its amazing 2024 Judges - as well as reveal Oscar’s Book Club, a new venture designed to inspire and encourage reading with children at a grass-roots level.
Now in its eleventh year, the prize, which is supported by Amazon and the Evening Standard, was set up by James Ashton and Viveka Alvestrand to celebrate magical stories for children in memory of their son Oscar, who was three-and-a-half when he died from a heart condition in December 2012. The £10,000 prize seeks to find the best breakout illustrated book for young children, inspired by Oscar’s endless imagination and love of storytelling.
This year, for the first time, Amazon is also teaming up with Oscar’s Book Prize to create Oscar’s Book Club, which aims to reach children in areas with typically low engagement with the arts. Throughout April and May, the Amazon Reading Volunteers, a national network of schools volunteers that Amazon has been growing since September 2023, will be donating the Oscar’s Book Prize shortlisted books to schools and nurseries across the country and supporting on the ground with group reading sessions, to inspire young children through the magic of reading.
Oscar’s Book Prize has also announced their judging panel for 2024. This year’s panel comprises of librarian Zoey Dixon, who was named Librarian of the Year in 2020 as well as one of The Bookseller’s Rising Stars. Zoey is joined by children’s author and illustrator, and Oscar’s Book Prize alumnus Chris Haughton, who won the prize in 2022. Completing the lineup is Viveka Alvestrand, who co-founded the literary award in memory of her son Oscar, and Lisa de Meyer, the UK Books Country Manager at Amazon.co.uk.
HRH Princess Beatrice is patron of Oscar's Book Prize, which is supported by Amazon Books and Evening Standard. Submissions closed in January and the shortlist will be revealed in April, before the winner is announced in May 2024.
James Ashton, the prize's chairman and co-founder, said: “We've championed brilliant picture books for a decade and always encouraged parents, carers and children to dive into these stories together, so I'm delighted this year we can extend Oscar's Book Prize into Oscar's Book Club, reaching more young readers than ever as we deepen our relationship with Amazon.”
Lisa de Meyer, Country Manager for Amazon UK Books, said: “It’s always a joy to work with Oscar’s Book Prize each year to celebrate the best talent in children’s literature. Picturebooks are a vehicle for teaching children about themselves and the world around them, and I know from personal experience with my own daughter how special our time reading together is. It’s because of this that we’re so proud to support the prize and also work together to roll out Oscar’s Book Club through our Amazon Reading Volunteers. We hope that through this new initiative, we can inspire a whole new generation of book lovers together.”
About Oscar’s Book Prize
Oscar’s Book Prize is an annual prize for the best illustrated book for young children. It champions magical storytelling by authors and illustrators, best shared between young children and their parents.
It is awarded in memory of book-loving Oscar Ashton, who died in 2012 of an undiagnosed heart condition aged three and a half. Founded by his parents and supported by Amazon and the Evening Standard, the prize has been running since 2014.
Previous winners of the prize include:
2023: The Boy with Flowers in His Hair by Jarvis(Walker Books)
2022: Maybe… by Chris Haughton (Walker Books)
2021: The Littlest Yak by Lu Fraser and Kate Hindley (Simon & Schuster)
2020: Tad by Benji Davies (HarperCollins)
2019: How To Be a Lion by Ed Vere (Puffin)
2018: There’s a Pig Up My Nose by John Dougherty and Laura Hughes(Egmont)
2017: The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright and Jim Field (Orchard Books)
2016: The Cow Who Climbed A Tree by Gemma Merino (Macmillan Children’s Books)
2015: The Queen’s Hat by Steve Antony (Hodder Children’s Books)
2014: The Storm Whale by Benji Davies (Simon & Schuster)
For news and all other information please visit www.oscarsbookprize.co.uk, follow @oscarsbookprize on Instagram or Twitter, or find Oscar’s Book Prize on Facebook.
About Amazon.co.uk
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth’s Best Employer, and Earth’s Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalised recommendations, Prime, Fulfilment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.co.uk/about and follow @AmazonNewsUK.
Amazon’s support of Oscar’s Book Prize forms part of Amazon in the Community, the company’s programme which supports communities across the UK, with a focus on the areas where Amazon operates. Community donations and employee volunteering are just two of the ways Amazon supports the communities in and around its operating locations across the UK. Amazon provides students, teachers and parents with free computer science and STEM education programmes through Amazon Future Engineer and has teamed up with charity partner Magic Breakfast to deliver more than seven million healthy breakfasts to children at risk of hunger in disadvantaged areas of the country. In 2023, Amazon partnered with Comic Relief to become the official home of the Red Nose. Amazon employees across the UK hosted fundraising activities and together with their customers and partners, raised £2.7 million to support those going through the toughest time of their lives. Learn more about the ways Amazon supports its communities.
The London Evening Standard is the only quality free daily newspaper in the UK. An iconic London brand, the Standard’s paper, website and apps keep the capital up-to-date on the latest news, business, sport, features and entertainment. The Evening Standard is famous for its campaigning to improve life in the capital. Campaigns have included the Dispossessed Campaign, which raised over £14 million to tackle poverty and inequality and Get London Reading, a campaign to raise literacy levels for children in the capital.
