The International Reading Award (aka Reading Challenge Award) is a new competition for schools to promote international and inclusive reading.

The Award is intended to encourage young people to read for pleasure, to explore international perspectives and global citizenship, to see the value of a second or other language as a cultural and creative asset.

Reading projects can take place at any time of the year, but the Award is open for entries during September, World Kid Lit Month. Entries close 10 October!

The Award is for the most imaginative, innovative or inclusive projects where participants share and respond to what they’ve read.

This year, the Award is open to schools anywhere for young people of any age up to 18. The three prize categories are:

• Younger category for readers aged 0-6
• Middle category for readers aged 7-12
• Older category for readers 13+

The judges of the inaugural International Reading Award 2025 are Leila Rasheed, UK-based author and founder of Megaphone Writes, Nanette McGuinness, USA-based literary translator and opera singer, Avery Fischer Udagawa, literary translator and Thailand-based teacher, and Josephine Murray, UK-based literary translator, writer and former languages teacher.

Download the poster for your school or library here:

How to enter

Run an international reading project or challenge in your school, where participants share and reflect on what they have read in a physical or online display or presentation. The project can be of any scale and involve any number of students; in the inaugural edition it could even involve just teachers or staff!

The inaugural Award closed for entries on Sunday 12 October 2025 and the winners will be announced by the end of November!

The 2025 Award was a pilot project to test the concept and we will be refining the entry conditions based on your feedback, so thank you to everyone who has taken part. We will share the updated entry form and guidelines here in early 2026, but for now please browse the guidelines for the inaugural year:

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