Gouden Griffel


The Gouden Griffel is an award given to authors of children's or teenagers' literature in the Netherlands.

History

Since 1971, it is awarded each year during the Dutch Children's Books Week, by the Stichting Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek for the best children's books written in the past year. Between 1954 and 1970, one book per year was declared the "children's book of the year". Since then, griffels are awarded in several categories.
Only novels written in Dutch are eligible for the gouden griffel. However, the runner-up awards can also be given to translated works. Aside from these, the Gouden Penseel is awarded to the best illustrated children's books, and since 1997 the Gouden Zoen is awarded to the best books for teenagers.
There is no award for 1960, as the award was then no longer named for the year of production of the book, but the year of the ceremony. Between 1966 and 1971, two awards were given, one for books for readers of ten years or less, and one for older readers. Until 1986, one or two awards were given, but without age categories. Since 1986, only one Gouden Griffel per year is awarded. No awards were given in 1967.
Since 2011, the Griffel is specifically for books for ages 6–12, and a new prize, the Gouden Lijst, was instated for books for ages 12–15. The inaugural winner was Rindert Kromhout for Soldaten huilen niet ; there was also a Gouden Lijst for a translated boek, Mal Peet's Tamar.

Beste kinderboek van het jaar

The Gouden Zoen is no longer awarded.