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2025–2026 KPMG Children's Books Ireland Awards Expert Adult Judges Callout

Children’s Books Ireland is currently looking for expert readers to help select the next KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards shortlist, longlist and winners for 2026.

Each year Children’s Books Ireland selects a Chair for the awards, and in conjunction with them, assembles a panel of judges who have considerable expertise and interest in books for children.

The panel is composed of experts in various fields, and they are given absolute authority to judge, longlist, shortlist and choose winners from the submitted books. The panel should be not less than seven judges and not more than twelve, to include four with an appropriate level of Irish, three with expertise in fiction and three with expertise in illustration/picturebooks. The panel also has two young judges (age 16–24), one of whom must be fluent in Irish.
Adult judges should fulfil some of the following requirements:
  • Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the field of children’s literature,
  • Hold a recognised qualification in the field of children’s literature,
  • Display awareness of illustration techniques and media, visual literacy, design, writing styles and editing as they relate to children’s literature.
  • Successful applicants must be able to read a wide volume of books, from picturebooks to young adult texts, including poetry and non-fiction, in English and preferably also in Irish. The books will be sent in batches of approximately 20–30 books at a time and must be read by agreed deadlines. For the 2024–2025 cycle, judges read a total of 169 books. Judges are not required to be expert in all areas, but (with the exception of those judges who cannot read books in Irish and contribute to a discussion of same), all judges will be expected to read all titles.
Reading begins the first week in May/last week in April, when we will have a brief welcome meeting. After that, online meetings will be taking place via Zoom from late August/early September 2025 through January 2026. There will be one final meeting in early January, which we hope to hold in person in Dublin, at which the panel will collectively select the titles for the longlist, the shortlist, as well as the award winners. All judges will have access to an online database of titles to ensure that they are tracking their reading and there will be regular check-ins with the Judging Administrator. This is a nine-month commitment. The full KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy is available here – this policy includes further notes on judges and judging.
The judging panel will be invited to attend the final awards ceremony in mid-May 2026 as part of the International Literature Festival Dublin.
We would particularly like to hear from people from underrepresented backgrounds or communities.
If you are interested and think you would be a good fit, please complete the details below by 12 noon on Friday 4th April 2025.
If you have any queries please feel free to co
1.Name(Required.)
2.Email address you can be contacted at(Required.)
3.Phone number you can be contacted at(Required.)
4.Are you comfortable reading books in English and as Gaeilge?
5.Tell us about a bit about yourself (150 words max.)(Required.)
6.Detail how you fit the judging requirements as laid out above (150 words max.)
7.Why would you like to be on the judging panel? (100 words max.)(Required.)
8.What kinds of books do you like to read for pleasure in your day-to-day life? You can tell us about the genres or favourite authors and illustrators and highlight if you have any areas of special interest or knowledge.
9.You will be reading approximately 160–180 books across a 9-month period, which is approximately 25 books per month. Some of these books will be novels, others picturebooks which will be quicker to read. Can you commit to this level of reading within the timeframe?(Required.)
10.Are you happy to speak to the media if any opportunities arise? Please note this is not a requirement, but we are happy to offer advice and support if this is something our judges are interested in.(Required.)
11.Are you happy to speak up and offer your opinions freely to your fellow judges? Applicants must be prepared to speak at meetings to a judging panel of approximately 10–12 fellow judges.(Required.)
12.Do you know of any conflicts that might prevent you from judging any books that may be eligible for these awards? A conflict is any connection or relationship which might make it difficult for the young judge to assess a book in an unbiased way, e.g. a close friend or family member being the author/illustrator/publisher. Children’s Books Ireland has policies and procedures to deal with these conflicts, so this will not necessarily prevent you from being part of the judging panel.(Required.)