Little Rebels 2023 Shortlist announced

The 2023 Little Rebels Award shortlist, with books spotlighting social justice issues for the youngest readers and celebrating young people's resilience and strength, has been announced.

In these stories, children band together to protest and push back against economic inequalities, disablism, Islamophobia, racism, the cruelties exercised by fast fashion and the harsh realities of our criminal justice systems.

In picture books, wise, empowered children tackle racial microaggressions head on and soothe social panic around trans identities, while elsewhere bunnies rise up against fake news electioneering and political fear mongering.

The Little Rebels 2023 Shortlist 

You Need To Chill! by Juno Dawson, illus by Laura Hughes (Farshore): A picture book challenging assumptions and anxiety around gender identity or, as it says on the back cover, a story about "love, identity and allyship".

I Am Nefertiti by Annemarie Anang, illus by Natelle Quek (Five Quills): Nefertiti is proud of her name so when her new teacher shrinks it to 'Nef', she feels herself shrinking too. A clever treatment of a 'casual' aggression which will resonate with so many people of colour.

Ajay & The Mumbai Sun by Varsha Shah (Chicken House): A group of children living in the Mumbai railways come together to fight the excesses of corporate capitalism - child labour, corruption, Western hypocrisy, social inequality - and all through the power of the pen!

Mayor Bunny's Chocolate Town by Elys Dolan (Oxford University Press): Mr Bunny is back (see the Little Rebels Award shortlist 2018). This time, his ambitions are set on becoming mayor of Coop Town through a strategic campaign of fake news, empty policies, scare mongering and rubbishing the opposition.

The Secret Of Haven Point by Lisette Auton, illus by Valentina Toro (Puffin Books PRH): A cast of disabled characters are full agents in an adventure shot through with magic. Challenges assumptions about disabled people and navigates big ideas such as separatism and a social model of disability.

Fight Back by A.M. Dassu (Scholastic): The 2021 winner, AM Dassu's new book is a realist novel in which political activism is core. Witness Aaliyah and her friends take on Islamaphobia, racism and free expression through sit-in protests and public speaking.

Needle by Patrice Lawrence (Barrington Stoke): A rich range of pressing social justice issues includes the treatment of young people by our welfare and criminal justice institutions and the 'adultification' of Black girls. All contained in a short form, 'reluctant reader', novella.

Free downloadable reading guides for each of the shortlisted titles will shortly be available through the Little Rebels Award website, enabling educators and carers to discuss and plan activities around the social justice topics raised in the shortlist. 

Some 140 books were submitted for this year's Little Rebels award by more than 40 publishers. The 2023 Little Rebels Award winner will be announced at an evening ceremony in July.

Last year's winner, with Proud of Me (Usborne), Sarah Hagger Holt said, "Sometimes I feel powerless and alone. The distance I see between the world around me and the world I would like to see seems vast. Yet every single, wonderful book that is put forward for the Little Rebels Award seeks to bridge this distance.

"Winning the Little Rebels Award last year - for a story about a bunch of queer kids and allies finding each other, defending what matters to them and learning to value themselves, their families and each other - encouraged me to keep on writing stories and to keep on speaking out. We are not powerless. We are not alone."

In 2021, winner A. M. Dassu said, "If there was one award I wanted to win it was this one, not just because I am a rebel at heart but also because it raises the profile of books that are different. And I want to write books that challenge the status quo, make us think and question the state of society and our place in it."

This year's judges are: Gays The Word manager, Jim MacSweeney; author-illustrator and former award shortlistee, Emily Haworth-Booth; reading development and children's book consultant, Jake Hope; research and development director at CLPE, Farrah Serroukh.

Follow the awards on Twitter at @littlerebsprize or on Insta at @littlerebelsaward