Adele Geras on judging for the Costa, among other things.

From the Guardian:

It is a fact that when books are considered in competitions, the shorter, easier, younger ones always lose out against the older, more sophisticated works. I have been banging on (with no result so far) about how it would be good to have a Junior and a Senior Prize for the Carnegie medal. The same might be true for the Costas, who knows? What is true is this: a great many people who inveigh against the suitability of a book for younger readers have completely forgotten what they were like and what they were reading when they were thirteen or so.