Black children's book subscription service Woke Babies launches awards

A Black children’s book subscription company is partnering with BookTrust, The National Literacy Trust, Black women’s youth charity Milk Honey Bees and World Book Day to launch the Woke Babies Awards, in celebration of Black authors and illustrators. 

Woke Babies, the monthly subscription service that delivers children’s books centring on Black characters, will launch its inaugural awards with sponsorship from DK. 

The awards will have four categories, including Author of the Year, Illustrator of the Year and Picture Book of the Year. A Special Recognition Award, sponsored by DK, will celebrate a self-published author who will receive a cash prize to support the funding of their next book.

Winners will receive a custom-designed award, and World Book Day will provide the opportunity for the winner of Picture Book of the Year to feature in its Share a Story Corner videos. 

The partnership with Milk Honey Bees, a Brixton-based charity that champions young Black women and girls, will see two of its representatives hosting the awards on an Instagram Live reel, which will be available to view on the Woke Babies page.

This year’s judging panel features Rykesha Hudson, co-ordinator at BookTrust, Kate Sayer, education manager at World Book Day, Kirsty Cunnington, early years programme manager at the National Literacy Trust, Francesca Young, DK children’s publisher, Natasha Vignon, children’s book researcher at Woke Babies, Elorine Grant, art director at HarperCollins, and author Trish Cooke. 

The line-up is completed by Marvyn Harrison, founder of Dope Black Dads, Ken Wilson-Max, publisher at AlannaMax and HarperCollins, Liz Pemberton, director of the Black Nursery Manager, Jasmine Richards, director of Storymix, and Sallyanne Sweeney, literary agent at Mulcahy Sweeney. 

"It’s an honour to be a part of the first ever Woke Babies Book Awards," Vignon said. "To be a part of this ground-breaking award ceremony for children’s books is incredible."

Richards commented: "The Woke Babies Book Awards is a brilliant initiative that spotlights and celebrates the types of stories that I adore to read or create through my production company Storymix. Uplifting, positive pieces of literature that centre children of colour. Woke Babies has always supported Black authors and illustrators, which I believe is crucial to ending the cycle of under-representation within the industry. I am honoured to be on the judging panel."

Submission are currently open to publishers. Books must be suitable for readers aged three to six, feature a Black protagonist, be authored or illustrated by a Black creative, and not contain historical or social themes, such as allusions to slavery or racism. The team are looking for books with "positive and uplifting themes", and titles that are submitted should have been first published from 1st January 2021 to 31st December 2021. The deadline for entries is 11th February. Publishers will be notified by 21st February if their book has been shortlisted, and contacted by 15th April if their title has won a category. 

“I am honoured and so very excited to judge the inaugural Woke Babies Book Awards," said Hudson. "At BookTrust, we believe all children should be able to see themselves in the books they read and be able to read engaging and inclusive stories that are representative of the society we live in. 

"We launched BookTrust Represents to improve the representation of people of colour in children’s books and to champion new and emerging authors and illustrators of colour within the publishing industry. We share these ambitions with Woke Babies so we’re pleased to partner with them on their first awards and look forward to discovering more fantastic books that children will enjoy.”

The winners will be announced on 5th May.