McCaughrean has written more than 140 books, and won numerous prizes, including:

• The Carnegie Medal in 1988 and the Guardian Prize in 1989 for A Pack of Lies
• The Whitbread Children's Book Award in 1987 for A Little Lower Than the Angels
• The Whitbread Children's Book Award in 1994 for Gold Dust
• The Whitbread Children's Book Award in 2004 for Not the End of the World
• The Michael L. Printz Award in 2008 for The White Darkness

McCaughrean has also won awards for her writing in Germany and America, and has been translated into 41 languages worldwide. Her work includes a retelling for children of the story of The Odyssey. In 2005, she was selected by Great Ormond Street Hospital to write an official sequel to J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, titled Peter Pan in Scarlet.

She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2010.

She has written six historical novels for adults and many fiction books, including The Kite Rider, The Stones Are Hatching, and The Pirate's Son.