Danielle Jawando winner of the YA Book Prize 2023

Danielle Jawando has won the YA Book Prize 2023 with When Our Worlds Collided. Her book follows three teenagers from different backgrounds who are brought together in the aftermath of a stabbing. What follows flips their worlds upside down and makes Chantelle, Jackson, and Marc question the deep-rooted prejudice and racism that exists within society.

Caroline Carpenter, YA Book Prize chair, children’s editor and deputy features editor at The Bookseller said, ‘Though this is only Danielle Jawando’s second novel, she has already proven herself to be a powerful author of deeply affecting and authentic stories and a rising star of YA.’

Jawando’s debut novel, And the Stars Were Burning Brightly, was shortlisted for the prestigious Branford Boase Award which highlights outstanding new writers for children and young people.

The other judges are Gary Deane, National Children’s Events Co-Ordinator at Waterstones, Rachel Fox, Children and Schools Programme Director at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, author Patrice Lawrence and Charley Robinson, founder of Paper Orange UK.

The full shortlist is:

Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber (Electric Monkey)
The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch (Little Island)
Five Survive by Holly Jackson (Electric Monkey)
When Our Worlds Collided by Danielle Jawando (Simon and Schuster)
The Songs You’ve Never Heard by Becky Jerams and Ellie Wyatt (Sweet Cherry)
The Cats We Meet Along the Way by Nadia Mikail (Guppy Books)
Her Dark Wings by Melinda Salisbury (David Fickling Books)
If You Still Rcognise Me by Cynthia So (Little Tiger Press)
The Society for Soulless Girls by Laura Steven (Electric Monkey)
Kemosha of the Caribbean by Alex Wheatle (Andersen Press)