The Winners of the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards 2026
The winners of this year’s KPMG Children's Books Ireland Awards were announced today (18th May) by host Rick O’Shea at a ceremony held in Merrion Square, as part of International Literature Festival Dublin.
Début picturebook author Neil Sharpson and Dan Santat made a splash at this year's Awards ceremony, picking up the KPMG Book of the Year Award for their novel Don't Trust Fish! The Honour Award for Illustration was presented to NI illustrator Colleen Larmour for her picturebook,This That What, written by Katy Ashworth.
Young Adult novels also prevailed with Caroline O'Donoghue's Skipshock and Emma Shevah's My Name is Jodie Jones picking up the Judges' Special Award and the Honour Award for Fiction. Meanwhile, The Junior Juries' Award, as voted for by the thousands of participants in the reading programme island-wide, was presented to Gráinne O'Brien's for her YA verse novel Solo.
During the ceremony, there was thunderous applause in the Speranza tent from St Christopher's school group as they celebrated their teacher, and winning author Kevin Moran who was awarded the Eilís Dillon Award for his début middle-grade book The Doomsday Club. A total of six awards were presented to Irish authors and illustrators, who will also receive a total prize-fund of €16,000.
Alongside the winners of the six award categories, Tom Woods Head of Clients KPMG in Ireland presented the KPMG Reading Hero Award which recognises remarkable passion and achievements in reading by a young person. Speaking at today's ceremony he offered his congratulations to all the winners before presenting this special award to a young reader. This year, eleven-year-old Caoilfhionn Carlin from Gaelscoil na Daróige in Derry, was the recipient of the annual Reading Hero Award. Caoilfhionn was nominated by her teacher, Fíachra Ó Donghaile.
Speaking on the award Tom said: "It is truly inspiring to see the comfort, creativity and sense of possibility that reading has brought into Caoilfhionn’s life in recent years. She is a wonderful example of the transformative power of reading and perfectly embodies the spirit of the Reading Hero Award.”
Caoilfhionn has been awarded a trophy, a €200 book voucher and her school from Gaelscoil na Daróige in Derry will receive a collection of books worth more than €1,000. Six runners up for the award also received €100 book tokens at the ceremony today, recognising their efforts in reading and their love of books.
Speaking at today’s ceremony, Elaina Ryan, CEO of Children’s Books Ireland, said: "Children’s literature in Ireland is ever-evolving and this year’s winners undoubtedly reflect that. The winning titles are deeply imaginative and original, and by turns side-splittingly funny and incredibly moving. It’s a joy to see neurodivergent characters so strongly represented in this inclusive selection of excellent books.
“We’re proud to celebrate the authors, illustrators and publishers behind the books, and offer them our warmest congratulations. Our judges read 151 titles in total, and whittled these first to a shortlist of ten, and then to today’s winners – a mammoth task, undertaken with great skill and care. My thanks go to our dedicated panel of judges, whose expertise and enthusiasm made this year’s awards possible. These shortlisted books have already been enjoyed by 8,377 young people through our Junior Juries’ programme, and I have no doubt they will continue to inspire readers of all ages for many years to come.”
The KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards and Junior Juries programme are supported by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon, and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland National Lottery Funding. A total prize-fund of €16,000 has been awarded to this year’s winners.
KPMG Book of the Year Award 2026: Don't Trust Fish!
By Neil Sharpson and Dan Santat (Andersen Press)
"Presented in an engagingly funny and self-aware style, with the text and illustration both working off – and with – each other, playwright Sharpson’s début and Caldecott Winner Santat have created an elevated picturebook for all to enjoy. This is skilled storytelling at its best – witty, humorous, and sharp – combining metafiction and postmodernism, and asking the reader to consider what lurks beneath!"
Honour Award for Fiction: My Name is Jodie Jones
By Emma Shevah (David Fickling Books)
"This is a dark story about trauma and abandonment, but also about the power of love and literature. The author addresses complex issues for a young adult audience, effectively and with great insight. Her skill in scaffolding the story, with rich writing and believable characterisations, makes it sublime, authentic and believable."
Honour Award for Illustration: This That What
By Katy Ashworth and illustrated by Colleen Larmour (Puffin)
"This is a joyfully rhyming story vividly conveying the sometimes-overwhelming experience of living with ADHD. The rich illustrations capture that felt sense of the emotional and psychological flooding that can be experienced by someone living with such an acute sense of the multiplicity of things. A book about courage, hope and the possibility of understanding, this book highlights the daily challenges with which some children have to deal."
The Eilís Dillon Award: The Doomsday Club
By Kevin Moran (The O'Brien Press)
"Combining fantasy and realism, along with a cohesive narrative telling a believable story, The Doomsday Club is an impressive début by writer Kevin Moran. Mixing humour and fantasy, an unwilling gang of mismatched adventurers play out their story in the heart of Dublin city, as they prepare to finish primary school. The inventive use of both colloquial English and Irish languages, rich mythological storytelling mixed with great laughs makes for an enormously fun adventure."
Judges' Special Award: Skipshock
By Caroline O'Donoghue (Walker Books)
"Skipshock is an ambitious, interdimensional, world building young adult fantasy with definite filmic qualities. Author Caroline O’Donoghue deliberately creates worlds that are richly immersive, well-crafted, culturally diverse and different from our own. Told alternately, from Margo’s and Moon’s viewpoints, this rollercoaster ride though multidimensional time address big themes and weighty issues that will resonate with readers."
KPMG Junior Juries' Award: Solo
By Gráinne O'Brien (Little Island Books)
"Author Gráinne O’Brien takes us on a heart stopping journey through music, love, betrayal, and redemption. Dealing with big themes, this young adult verse novel will resonate with readers, as we accompany Daisy through her final year at school. The pace and focus is almost operatic in its impact, enabling the story to authentically encompass big emotional moments while retaining the tension of the storyline."
KPMG Reading Hero Award: Caoilfhionn Carlin
Caoilfhionn Carlin an eleven year old student from Gaelscoil na Daróige in Derry won the KPMG Reading Hero Award which recognises remarkable passion and achievements in reading by a young person. Speaking on the award, Caoilfhionn said, “I was shocked, flabbergasted and bursting with joy when I heard about the award. Personally, I think children are too distracted by technology instead of being lost in a good book. I feel it is almost a personal challenge to share my love of books with others. Books transport me to other worlds where I experience other places and people. When I was sick, and listening to the hospital machines and crying babies, I could escape to another world in a book.”
About the KPMG Children's Books Ireland Awards
The KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards recognise excellence in writing and illustration in Irish or English and are open to books by authors and illustrators who were born in Ireland, are permanently resident in Ireland or are citizens of Ireland and which were published between 1st January and 31st December each year. Previous winners include Kelly McCaughrain for Little Bang, Eilish Fisher and Dermot Flynn for Fia and the Last Snow Deer, Steve McCarthy for Beanie and the Bansheenie, Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston for The Dictionary Story. Founded in 1990, the Awards are the leading children’s book awards in Ireland. Each year a panel of judges read all of the books submitted by publishers, with a record of one-hundred and sixty nine titles in 2024.
