Shortlists announced for the UKLA Book Awards 2023

The shortlists for the UKLA Book Awards, judged entirely by teachers, have been announced. The awards seek books from a "wide and inclusive range" of publishers that "recognise a broad range of perspectives, experiences and voices".

Four shortlists are announced, for ages 3-6 years, 7-10 years, 11-14 years, and for information books (3-14 years).  Small independent publishers such as Andersen Press, Flying Eye, Firefly, Faber, Troika and Scribble dominate the lists.

UKLA highlights the opportunity the awards give in providing classroom practitioners with the opportunity to read high quality new children's books. Research carried out by members of UKLA (Cremin et al 2008) demonstrated the links between teachers' knowledge of children's books and the likelihood of pupils becoming successful readers. Despite this evidence, teachers are seldom given time to read new books or funding to purchase them when they do. 

12 teachers nominated from the 87 involved in the shortlisting will now form the final judging panel and have the challenging task of reading all the shortlisted books in all categories. The winner's announcement will take place at the UKLA International Conference at the University of Exeter on June 23rd.

The Shortlists in full:

3-6+

Saving Mr Hoot written and illustrated by Helen Stephens (Alison Green)

Who are you? written by Smriti Halls and illustrated by Ali Pye (Farshore)

The Comet written and illustrated by Joe Todd- Stanton (Flying Eye)

Flooded written and illustrated by Mariajo Ilustrajo (Frances Lincoln)

Small's Big Dream written by Manjeet Mann and illustrated by Amanda Quartey (Harper Collins)

We're Going to Find the Monster written by Malorie Blackman and illustrated by Dapo Adeola (Puffin)

7-10+

All to Play For written by Eve Ainsworth and illustrated by Kirsty Beautyman (Barrington Stoke)

The Light in Everything written by Katya Balen (Bloomsbury)

The Lion Above the Door written by Onjali Q Raúf (Orion)

The Elephant in the Room written by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Piccadilly)

Little Light written by Coral Rumble (Troika)

The Chime Seekers written by Ross Montgomery (Walker)

11-14+

Tremendous Things written by Susin Nielsen (Andersen)

In the Wild Light written by Jeff Zentner (Andersen)

The Blue Book of Nebo written by Manon Steffan Ros (Firefly)

Truth Be Told written by Sue Divin (Macmillan)

Julia and the Shark written by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and illustrated by Tom de Freston (Orion)

The Crossing written by Manjeet Mann (Penguin)

Information Books 3-14+

Musical Truth: A Musical History of Modern Black Britain in 28 Songs written by Jeffrey Boakye and illustrated by Ngadi Smart (Faber)

Amazon River written by Sangma Francis illustrated by Rômolo D'Hipólito (Flying Eye)

Bandoola: The Great Elephant Rescue written and illustrated by William Grill (Flying Eye)

Here and Queer written by Rowan Ellis and illustrated by Jacky Sheridan (Frances Lincoln)

The Greatest Show on Earth written and illustrated by Mini Grey (Puffin)

I am the Subway written and illustrated by Kim Hyo-eun. Translated by Deborah Smith (Scribble)

More about the Shortlists

Manjeet Mann makes the first of two appearances this year with the lyrical, empowering Small's Big Dream, about the importance of dreaming big and discovering that when you do, anything can happen. Malorie Blackman teams up with Dapo Adeola in We're Going to Find a Monster. Full of funny, relatable characters, this is a contemporary celebration of creativity, fantasy and family. They are joined by Joe Todd Stanton – also currently shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Illustration for The Comet where the luminous, beautiful illustrations evoke a small child's distress about the bewildering experience of moving house. Both Flooded, a striking debut from Mariajo Ilustrajo, and Saving Mr Hoot by Helen Stephens, emphasise the importance of working together to achieve change. The final book in this category is Who are you? by Smriti Halls, which celebrates and prompts lots of discussion about what makes each of us special.

The 7-10+ category features a repeat of Katya Balen's achievement of being shortlisted for both the Carnegie medal for Writing and the UKLA 7-10+, this time with The Light in Everything, which could produce another double win as she did with October, October in 2022. Alongside Balen, Ross Montgomery is shortlisted with The Chime Seekers, a magical fantasy quest to restore an abducted baby sister, and Onjali Q Raúf with The Lion Above the Door, exploring themes of historical racism in a wonderful story about family and identity, fitting in and having the courage to stand out. Joining them are poet Cora Rumble with her first verse novel Little Light that tells the sensitive and empathetic story of Ava, a young girl at the end of primary school as she faces challenging circumstances; Eve Ainsworth, whose All to Play For is an accessible story of one boy's love for football and the family grief which separates him from it, and Holly Goldberg Sloan's The Elephant in the Room, an emotional and heart-warming read about unwavering family love, the power of friendship and the bonds between humans and animals.

In the 11-14+ category, past winner Manjeet Mann's second UKLA shortlisting this year is for The Crossing, the stunning verse novel which won The Costa Children's Book Award and was also previously shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Writing and is a profound story of hope, grief, and the very real tragedies of the refugee crisis. Competing for the prize are Susin Nielsen, with her brilliantly constructed, compassionate and hilarious coming of age story, Tremendous Things, and award-winning Welsh author Manon Steffan Ros. The Blue Book of Nebo, translated by the author, is also on the current Carnegie shortlist and is a tender and brutal post-apocalyptic novel about a mother and son trying to survive. Jeff Zentner's In The Wild Light is a beautiful, moving story about family in all its forms, a theme echoed in Sue Divin's powerfully authentic Truth Be Told, where two teens across the sectarian divide discover the truth of their family history. Julia and The Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston has illustrations in monochrome and yellow that effectively complement the poetic language in a deeply moving story of a mother and daughter relationship with powerful themes about mental health, the environment, and the importance of science.

The judges' selections for the category of Information Books 3- 14+ span a range of subjects from the heartfelt, engagingly written history of being Black and British since Windrush with Musical Truth by Jeffrey Boakye; to a clear pocket-sized guide to everything that LGBTQ+ teenage girls need to know in Here and Queer by Rowan Ellis; to the history of the Earth as told by a friendly theatre troop of insects in Mini Grey's innovative The Greatest Show on Earth and a cinematic journey through the Seoul subway that masterfully portrays the many unique lives we travel alongside whenever we take the train in I am the Subway by Kim Hyo-eun, a poetic translation by Deborah Smith of the bestselling Korean picture book. Amazon River by Sangmar Francis is a spectacularly illustrated, by Rômolo D'Hipólito, look at the largest river on earth, showing how it impacts the lives of wild animals and diverse human communities and Bandoola: The Great Elephant Rescue, by the award-winning author illustrator William Grill, shows his trademark passion for his subject and the depth of his research into the true story of Bandoola and James Howard Williams.

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