The Whitbread Children's Book Award was first awarded in 1972, in the second year of the Whitbread Awards; in some years it was known as the Whitbread Children's Novel Award.

Note that there was a tie in 1974 and that no award was made in 1975.

Past Winners

• 1972 - Rumer Godden The Diddakoi
• 1973 - Alan Aldridge and William Plomer The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast
• 1974 - Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen
• 1974 - Jill Paton Walsh The Emperor's Winding Sheet
• 1976 - Penelope Lively A Stitch in Time
• 1977 - Shelagh Macdonald No End to Yesterday
• 1978 - Philippa Pearce The Battle of Bubble and Squeak
• 1979 - Peter Dickinson Tulku
• 1980 - Leon Garfield John Diamond
• 1981 - Jane Gardam The Hollow Land
• 1982 - W. J. Corbett The Song of Pentecost
• 1983 - Roald Dahl The Witches
• 1984 - Barbara Willard The Queen of the Pharisees' Children
• 1985 - Janni Howker The Nature of the Beast
• 1986 - Andrew Taylor The Coal House
• 1987 - Geraldine McCaughrean A Little Lower Than the Angels
• 1988 - Judy Allen Awaiting Developments
• 1989 - Hugh Scott Why Weeps the Brogan?
• 1990 - Peter Dickinson AK
• 1991 - Diana Hendry Harvey Angell
• 1992 - Gillian Cross The Great Elephant Chase
• 1993 - Anne Fine Flour Babies
• 1994 - Geraldine McCaughrean Gold Dust
• 1995 - Michael Morpurgo The Wreck of the Zanzibar
• 1996 - Anne Fine The Tulip Touch
• 1997 - Andrew Norriss Aquila
• 1998 - David Almond Skellig
• 1999 - J. K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• 2000 - Jamila Gavin Coram Boy
• 2001 - Philip Pullman The Amber Spyglass
• 2002 - Hilary McKay Saffy's Angel
• 2003 - David Almond The Fire-Eaters
• 2004 - Geraldine McCaughrean Not The End of the World
• 2005 - Kate Thompson The New Policeman