2024 Branford Boase Award longlist announced

Look out for some great new writers in the 2024 Branford Boase Award longlist, highlighting outstanding debut novels for children. The award also honours the editor of the winning book.      The shortlist will be announced on 25 April 2024. 

Founded in 2000, 2024 marks 25 years of this award and 25 vibrant new writers for children, plus their editors, are celebrated on this the 25th longlist.  The Branford Boase Award has a notable record in picking out talented authors at the start of their career.

Past winners and shortlisted authors have included Meg Rosoff, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Patrick Ness as well as Frances Hardinge, M G Leonard and Philip Reeve. Christine Pillainayagam won last year's award for Ellie Pillai is Brown and is on this year's judging panel.   Winning editors have included Philip Pullman's editor David Fickling and Barry Cunningham, who famously published J K Rowling, plus Fiona Kennedy, Sarah Odedina and Bella Pearson.

Branford Boase Award submissions:  Over 60 books were submitted for this year's award, more than three times the number when the award was launched in 2000, and from 30 different publishing houses.

Current Trends:  Reflecting current trends in writing for children and young people, the longlist of 25 features three verse novels, including poet Matt Goodfellow's The Final Year, edited by Charlotte Hacking (Otter-Barry Books) and Tia Fisher's Crossing the Line, edited by Emma Matthewson and Tia Albert (Hot Key); detective stories, including Beth Lincoln's ingenious country house murder mystery, The Swifts, edited by Ben Horslen and Julie Strauss-Gabel (Puffin); YA romances including Lex Croucher's 'queer as hell' comedy, Gwen and Art are Not in Love (Bloomsbury), edited by Hannah Sandford; plus a wealth of original new fantasy adventures including City of Stolen Magic (Puffin) by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak, edited by Natalie Doherty and India Chambers. Issues of identity and modern life are also explored in contemporary dramas including You Think You Know Me by Ayaan Mohamud, edited by Sarah Stewart (Usborne).

The 2024 Branford Boase Award longlist in full:

Montgomery Bonbon: Murder at the Museum by Alasdair Beckett-King, illus Claire Powell, edited by Gráinne Clear (Walker Books)

Glow Up, Lara Bloom by Dee Benson, edited by Ruth Bennett (Hot Key Books)

Gwen and Art are NOT in Love by Lex Croucher, edited by Hannah Sandford (Bloomsbury)

Finding Phoebe by Gavin Extence, edited by Chloe Sackur (Andersen Press)

Digging for Victory by Cathy Faulkner, edited by Leonie Lock (Firefly Press)

Crossing the Line by Tia Fisher, edited by Emma Matthewson supported by Tia Albert (Hot Key Books)

The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow, illus Joe Todd-Stanton, edited by Charlotte Hacking (Otter-Barry Books)

How Far We've Come by Joyce Efia Harmer, edited by Lucy Pearse (Simon and Schuster)

Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend by Lizzie Huxley-Jones, edited by Eishar Brar (Knights Of)

The First Move by Jenny Ireland, edited by Ruth Knowles with Sara Jafari (Penguin Books)

The Detention Detectives by Lis Jardine, edited by Katie Sinfield and Millie Lean (Puffin)

Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan, edited by Eloise Wilson (Andersen Press)

Steady for This by Nathanael Lessore, edited by Ella Whiddett and Ruth Bennett (Hot Key Books)

The Swifts by Beth Lincoln, illus Claire Powell, edited by Ben Horslen and Julie Strauss-Gabel (Puffin)

You Think You Know Me by Ayaan Mohamud, edited by Sarah Stewart (Usborne)

The Kingdom Over the Sea by Zohra Nabi, edited by Ali Dougal (Simon and Schuster)

Last Girl In by Cheryl Diane Parkinson, edited by Sonya McGilchrist (Dinosaur Books)

City of Stolen Magic by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak, edited by Natalie Doherty and India Chambers (Puffin)

The Destiny of Minou Moonshine by Gita Ralleigh, edited by Lauren Atherton (Zephyr)

The Witchstone Ghosts by Emily Randall-Jones, edited by Rachel Leyshon (Chicken House)

Influential by Amara Sage, edited by Alice Swan (Faber)

Yomi and the Fury of Ninki Nanka by Davina Tijani, illus Adam Douglas-Bagley, edited by Mattie Whitehead and Karelle Tobias (Little Tiger)

Greenwild by Pari Thomson, illus Elisa Paganelli, edited by Emma Jones (Macmillan)

The Sleeping Stones by Beatrice Wallbank, edited by Janet Thomas and Rebecca F. John (Firefly Press)

Never Trust a Gemini by Freja Nicole Woolf, edited by Non Pratt (Walker Books)

Set up in memory of award-winning author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase, one of the founders of Walker Books, the Branford Boase Award is given annually to the author of an outstanding debut novel for children. The Branford Boase Award also honours the editor of the winning book.