Accordingly, the Top 10 entrants to the final round of the 7th Cricket Children's Award - 2026 will have 3 collections of stories, 2 sets of comics, 2 collections of comics, 1 collection of poems, 1 musical play and 1 animated series and creative ecosystem.
It is known that the Cricket Children's Award founded by Sports and Culture Newspaper (VNA) is held annually since 2020 to award outstanding artistic creations and performances "of children", including the Grand Prize named Cricket Knight and some consolation prizes named Cricket Desire.
Not only stopping at discovering and honoring "children's" and "for children" creations, the award aims for a long-term goal: Contributing to creating a cultural and artistic ecosystem for Vietnamese children in the digital age; implementing solutions to strongly promote the transformation of potentially awarded works into cultural products with widespread influence, making practical contributions to the development of Vietnam's cultural industry.
The 7th season of 2026 was launched on March 26 with 146 typical children's works composed and completed in the period from 2025 - 2026. Through 2 rounds of judging, the Judging Council selected the Top 10 best works to enter the final round.
According to assessments, the Top 10 finalists this year clearly show the "upgrading" direction of the Cricket Children's Award in line with the spirit of Resolution No. 80 and Directive No. 04, emphasizing the requirement to develop cultural industries, build a creative ecosystem and form cultural products that can spread widely in contemporary life, while promoting reading culture.
The Top 10 also showed a significant expansion in creative amplitude when many different types appeared simultaneously such as prose, poetry, painting, comics, musicals, cinema, animation and multi-platform creative models. Notable examples include Kurt's Magic musical (produced by STARLAB Academy of Arts) or the Wolfoo animated series (multi-episode and theatrical) and the creative ecosystem (produced and developed by Sconnect Vietnam).
Another highlight of this year's Top 10 is the large number of young authors compared to previous seasons. This year, there are up to 4 young authors participating in the Top 10 including Vu Ngoc Diep (11 years old), Nguyen Minh Quan (11 years old), Le Nha Uyen (10 years old) and Nguyen Dang Hai Nam (16 years old).
In addition, the Top 10 also recorded the appearance of many writers full of creative aspirations for children such as Nguyen Thi Nhu Hien or Le Anh Vinh, showing that the creative life for children is having new and potential forces. Along with new faces, this year's season continues to have the presence of names that have made their mark in the literary and artistic life of children such as Nguyen Ngoc Thuan or Ta Huy Long.
From the Top 10 excellent works, the Judging Council chaired by poet Tran Dang Khoa - Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Writers' Association, will begin the final judging process to select the awards of this year's season. The award ceremony will take place on May 22nd in Hanoi.
TOP 10 FINALISTS OF THE 7TH CRICKET AWARD - 2026:
1. 100 legs (story by Nguyen Ngoc Thuan, Tre Publishing House).
2. The most strange grandmother in the world (draft of a long story by Nguyen Thi Nhu Hien).
3. Big belly book (a draft of Vu Ngoc Diep's poetry collection).
4. Collection of paintings "Voice of the Ocean" (young painter Nguyen Minh Quan).
5. Collection of Vietnamese paintings through the strokes of Hai Nam (young artist Nguyen Dang Hai Nam).
6. The robot thinks he is human (story by Le Anh Vinh, Kim Dong Publishing House).
7. Stories about dreamy young masters and a series of works about the cat (character sketch by Le Nha Uyen).
8. Magic of Kurt (musical produced by STARLAB Academy of Arts).
9. Wolfoo animated series and creative ecosystem (produced and developed by Sconnect Vietnam).
10. Yersin - Fish song (comics by Ta Huy Long, Kim Dong Publishing House).
