The AED 1.2 million award has five categories: "Early Childhood" for children under five, "Picture Book" (5–9 years), "Chapter Book" (9–12 years), "Young Adult Book" (13–18 years), and "Poetry Book" (up to 18 years), the latter of which was a biennial category in the 15th and 16th editions.
Creators can submit scanned copies of recommended books to the UAE Board on Books for Young People at
[email protected], provided they are original Arabic works published in print and not violating intellectual property rights. The books must not have received other awards or been published more than five years ago.
Publishers can nominate five "Early Childhood" books. There is no restriction on how many "Young Adult" books a publisher can nominate, as long as they are distinctive, new, or revised, and have captivating storytelling, dialogue, plot, and well-developed characters.
The "Picture Book" category permits up to five entries, whereas the "Chapter Book" group, which tells stories in prose, allows unlimited nominations if the books are distinctive and newly published or revised.
For poetic books for children and young people, publishers can propose as many books as they like in the "Poetry" category, which covers nature, animals, friendship, and family. Each book must be creative, innovative, appealing, and have outstanding metre and purpose.
The award does not accept series, educational, scientific, school, electronic, audio, manuscripts, short story collections, essays, or biography books. Officially registered publishers must make submissions; you cannot resubmit previously submitted books and publications.
The jury's judgements are final and may withhold the award or dismiss non-compliant entries. The 2024 Sharjah International Book Fair will reveal and honour winners.
Each of the five categories awards AED 180,000, divided equally between the author, illustrator, and publisher (AED 60,000 each), with the exception of the Young Adult category, where the author and publisher each receive AED 90,000.
The "Workshop" programme receives an additional AED 300,000 to find and develop new Arab children's and young adult book authors, as well as improve their creative skills to make books that reflect Arab culture and international standards.
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