THE LIZZIE AND BELLE MYSTERIES: PORTRAITS AND POISON by JT Williams is the 2024 Little Rebels Award winner

The winner of the Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction 2024 was revealed at a special ceremony on October 16th as:

LIZZIE & BELLE: PORTRAITS AND POISON, by J.T. Williams, with illustrations by Simone Douglas, published by Farshore.

Portraits and Poison is the second instalment in Williams’ Lizzie & Belle middle grade detective series, set against a backdrop of real-life British Black history. The first in the series, Drama and Danger, was longlisted for the Little Rebels Award in 2023. Portraits and Poison explores the history of Black British activism in Georgian London, introducing young readers to real life eighteenth-century campaigners such as the Sons (& Daughters) of Africa. The novel also exposes the racist mechanisms at work in the conventions of Western portraiture.

JT Williams with prize-winners’ print by Ken Wilson Max, alongside Little Rebels organisers, Kerry Mason and Fen Coles, judge Farrah Serroukh and ceremony panel chair Darren Chetty

Little Rebels Award Judge, Farrah Serroukh, described Portraits and Poison as, “A fantastic means of countering erasure across all spheres including artistic, fictional, historical and political; challenging misrepresentations whilst encased in a brilliantly crafted, engaging and accessible story.” The organisers of the Little Rebels Award said, “We love how Portraits and Poison, with its themes of civil disobedience and rebellion, channels the spirit, energy and optimism of the Little Rebels Award.”

J.T. Williams was presented with the award by Little Rebels Judge, Farrah Serroukh. Alongside a £2000 prize, funded by the Barry Amiel and Normal Melburn Trust, they received a limited edition print by Ken Wilson Max, new for 2024, commissioned by and exclusive to the award.

The winner announcement was made at the Little Rebels Award Ceremony, held at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, on Wednesday October 16^th. It followed a panel discussion on centring radical fiction for children, chaired by Dr. Darren Chetty and attended by 2024 shortlistees: Yaba Badoe; Jen Reid; Kate Rafiq; Harry Woodgate; JT Williams; James Catchpole & Karen George; Helen Rutter & Elisa Paganelli.

Pictures from the ceremony below, with credit to photographer Lily Slaymaker!