Plague 99 won the Lancashire Children's Book of the Year award in 1990.

Reasons to be Cheerful won Mojo magazine's Book of the Year in 2010.

It also won the Dublin Airport Authority Children's Book of the Year Award for 2005.

Man and Boy won the British Book Awards' Book of the Year Prize in 2001.

Darkside also won the Calderdale Children's Book of the year Award.

In 1994, the novel won the Children's Book of the Year Award for Younger Readers.

His book about Lohmann won The Cricket Society's Book of the Year award for 2007-8.

It won the Saltire Society's 1998 Scottish Book of the Year Award.

The book won the American Educational Research Association's 2007 Book of the Year Award.

It won the 1999 Whitbread Award, Children's Book and the Carnegie Medal.