Gouden Griffel

The Gouden Griffel (golden pen) is an important award given to authors of children's or teenager's literature in the Netherlands.

Since 1971, it is awarded each year during the Dutch Children's Books Week, by the Stichting Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek (society for collective propaganda of Dutch books) 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 (Silver griffels) can also be given to translated works. Aside from these, the Gouden Penseel (golden paintbrush) is awarded to the best illustrated children's books (with silver penseel as a runner-up), and since 1997 the Gouden Zoen (golden kiss, with silver as a runner-up) is awarded to the best books for teenagers.