The Branford Boase Award was created to celebrate and commemorate their names and memories and to encourage new talent in writing, which they worked for.
"[2] The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature has written that the award's "success in talent-spotting has been impressive, consistently recognising debut works by writers who subsequently go on to achieve great things—among them Marcus Sedgwick, Mal Peet, Meg Rosoff, B. R. Collins, Frances Hardinge, Sally Prue, Kevin Brooks and Siobhan Dowd.
"[2] In 2018 judges for the competition criticized the amount of family dramas nominated for the award, stating that it was formulaic and showed a lack of diversity.
[5] Judge Philip Womack stated that at least third of the books fell into this category and that they all had a “very similar narrative: there’s an ill child at home, who notices something odd, and is probably imagining it, but not telling the reader.
"[1] Publishing Perspectives praised the 2022 shortlist for including a strong selection of books that appeal to both boys and girls.