J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in the 9–11 years category in 1997.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published in the United Kingdom that year and quickly attracted both critical attention and young readers. The Nestlé Smarties Book Prize was a major British children’s book award whose winners were determined by votes from children. Rowling’s victory helped demonstrate that the novel had strong appeal among its intended readership.
The book also won other early awards, including the British Book Award for Children’s Book of the Year. These honors came before the later worldwide expansion of the franchise, so they belong to the novel’s initial British breakthrough rather than its later film era.
The award category is important because the Smarties prizes separated books by age group. The relevant category was 9–11 years, not the overall adult fiction category.