THE FIGHTS THAT MAKE US by Sarah Hagger-Holt is the 2025 Little Rebels Award winner

Congratulations to Sarah Hagger-Holt, winner of the 2025 Little Rebels Award for THE FIGHTS THAT MAKE US.

From the modern-day experiences of LGBTQ+ young people to the historic struggle against Section 28, this cross-generational story honours the activists of the 1980s and 90s – and those still fighting today.

Phoebe Demeger, Librarian at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education and a Little Rebels Award Judge, described The Fights That Make Us as drawing “an artful equivalence between section 28 and contemporary discrimination” and as “an urgent book.” Author, teacher and award judge, Alom Shaha, said, “This is the kind of book I’d put into the hands of young readers. I want to see this in schools.”

The organisers of the Little Rebels Award called The Fights That Make Us “a beacon of resistance in this current climate.”   

Sarah Hagger-Holt is the award’s first double winner – she took home the prize in 2022 for PROUD OF ME.

The announcement was made by guest judge Chris Haughton at a ceremony at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. Alongside a £2000 prize, funded by the Barry Amiel and Normal Melburn Trust, Hagger-Holt received a limited edition print by Ken Wilson Max, commissioned by and exclusive to the award.

THE FIGHTS THAT MAKE US publisher description:

“Jesse has recently come out as non-binary, and is struggling to find their place at school, and ideas for their project on lost stories from history.

Thirty-five years earlier, Jesse’s cousin Lisa is falling for her best friend, but with new laws being introduced to restrict LGBT people’s rights, they’ll have to fight for the world to accept who they are.

When Jesse stumbles across Lisa’s teenage diary, they are fascinated and horrified by her stories of living a secret life and protesting in the streets. Now it’s Jesse’s turn to find a way to shine a spotlight on a history that mustn’t be forgotten.”