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Roll up, roll up – it’s time to announce our incredible line-up of judges for the 2026 Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition!

Submissions for both prizes are open until 1st June 2026, so if you want to be in with a chance of having these legendary industry professionals read your story, be sure you head to our submissions page.

Keen to learn more about our judging panel? Read on …

Lucy Bannerman

Lucy Bannerman is an award-winning journalist at The Times, who has been chasing stories for the past 20 years. She has reported from 24 countries around the world, covering everything from the funeral of Nelson Mandela to the Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan.

She is a regular contributor to The Times magazine, Times Radio and the Stories of Our Times podcast. As the newspaper's children's book critic, the best part of her working week is sifting through the hundreds of stories and picture books - from the fantastical and magical to the comical and historical - that arrive in the mail room every week to find the one that will become 'The Times children's book of the week.' It is the only weekly review space dedicated to children's literature in the mainstream press.

She was Young Journalist of the Year 2006 but is older now.

Caroline Carpenter

Caroline Carpenter is Children's Editor and Deputy Features Editor at The Bookseller, where she leads on the magazine's children's coverage, programmes its annual Children's Conference and chairs both the YA Book Prize and The British Book Awards' Children's Non-Fiction Illustrated Book of the Year category.

Tim Compton

Tim is joint Head of Kids & Family (alongside Angelo Abela) at Lime Pictures. Prior to this, he was a script editor and producer at HIT Entertainment and CBBC. For Lime, Tim was the story producer and core writer on the global hit HOUSE OF ANUBIS (Nickelodeon) and producer and co-creator of EVERMOOR, which was the Disney Channel's first direct drama commission from outside the US. Tim produced and wrote for FREE REIN, the Emmy award-winning Netflix original and was executive producer on the Emmy-nominated limited series ZERO CHILL, also for Netflix. He is currently executive producer on WEREWORLD, Lime’s first animated series for Netflix.

Barry Cunningham

After an English degree at Cambridge, Barry Cunningham joined Penguin Books in 1977. As Children’s Marketing Director for Puffin, he worked with all the great names in children’s books including Roald Dahl and Spike Milligan, and was responsible for the re-launch of Beatrix Potter. Between 1984 and 1994, Barry worked on the Penguin Board, before moving to Random House, and then eventually to Bloomsbury – in which he set up their first children’s book list, and saw vast success with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Barry left Bloomsbury at the height of its success and, in early 2000, decided to start his own publishing company. The result was Chicken House, a lively and creative company publishing highly original and enjoyable children’s books, with a special emphasis on new fiction.

Callen Martin

Callen Martin is a Literary Agent at Madeleine Milburn representing a list of Middle Grade, YA and New Adult authors. As an editorially-minded agent, Callen is drawn to stories that balance their intriguing, commercial hooks against emotional depth, and lives by the motto that 'to edit is to play detective, asking down which alleyway and through which window is the best version of this story'. As someone who's start in publishing was at Chicken House, Callen is very excited to be back at the coop as a judge for this year's The Times / Chicken House Competition.

Lucas Maxwell

Originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, Lucas Maxwell grew up on Nintendo, comic books and Dungeons and Dragons. He has been working in libraries for over fifteen years and is passionate about providing safe and welcoming library spaces for everyone. In 2017 he was named the UK's School Librarian of the Year and in 2024 he was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for his services to libraries. He is proud to be a neurodivergent writer and grateful to be adding his voice to the world of literature. He currently resides in the UK with his amazing family and Biscuit the chocolate lab.

A.F. Steadman

A.F. Steadman is a globally bestselling author, writing for both children and adults. Her internationally award-winning Skandar series has been translated into 48 languages and a film is currently in development with Sony Pictures. Her adult fantasy series will begin with TimeLess, publishing in March 2027 and has already sold in 25 languages. She lives in London, splitting her days between time travelling assassins and bloodthirsty unicorns.

Deborah Texeira

Deborah joined the Kenilworth Bookshop team in 2023. She has been a primary teacher for the last 21 years in both State and Independent Schools in Richmond and Acton in London, Nottingham, Birmingham, Kenilworth, and Rugby. She has been the Assistant Headteacher for Early Years in two schools where she has also had responsibility for Reading for Pleasure throughout the school. She regularly takes in authors and illustrators into over 100 schools across Warwickshire.

Deborah is currently the Vice Chair of the Waterstones Children’s Laureate Steering Group. She is also a member of the Executive Committee for The Book Sellers Association – Children’s Book Group.  She has also been part of many Book Trust reading panels, and has also given CPD lectures to teachers about Reading for Pleasure, and has co-written an article about organising Author visits for the Times Educational Supplement.

The Broken Binding Prize judging panel will be revealed very soon; watch this space!