The 2023 Little Rebels Award Shortlist is Revealed

On behalf of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers, we are delighted to announce the 2023 Little Rebels Award shortlist!

AJAY & THE MUMBAI SUN by Varsha Shah (Chicken House Books)

FIGHT BACK by A. M. Dassu (Scholastic)

I AM NEFERTITI by Annemarie Anang and Natelle Quek (Five Quills)

MAYOR BUNNY’S CHOCOLATE TOWN by Elys Dolan (Oxford University Press)

NEEDLE by Patrice Lawrence (Barrington Stoke)

THE SECRET OF HAVEN POINT by Lisette Auton (Puffin Books/PRH) 

YOU NEED TO CHILL! by Juno Dawson and Laura Hughes (Farshore)

The seven-strong 2023 Little Rebels Award shortlist spotlights social justice issues for the youngest readers and celebrates young people’s resilience and strength. 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 2023 Little Rebels Award winner will be announced at an evening ceremony in July. 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 the Centre for Literature in Primary Education (CLPE), Farrah Serroukh.

The winner will receive £2000. The Little Rebels Award is grateful for funding from The Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust. 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.