Sarah Hagger-Holt wins Little Rebels Award for unprecedented second time
Congratulations to Sarah Hagger-Holt who has won the 2025 Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction for The Fights That Make Us (Usborne). This is the second Little Rebels win for Hagger-Holt, who also took the award in 2022 with Proud of You (Usborne). No other author has achieved this honour.
Empathetic, positive, empowering and immersive The Fights That Make Us illuminates the lessons that history can teach us, Hagger-Holt exploring the dynamics of the Section 28 legislation that had such an impact on the LGBTQ+ community in 1988. Deftly told through the device of a diary, discovered by a teen who has come out as non-binary, dual perspectives unfold as Jesse slowly reveals the secret story of their mum’s cousin Lisa and her best friends Nicky and Andy.
Phoebe Demeger, Librarian at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education and a Little Rebels Award Judge described The 
Fights That Make Us as ‘An artful equivalence between section 28 and contemporary discrimination’ and ‘an urgent book.’
Sarah Hagger-Holt was presented with the award by Little Rebels Judge, Chris Haughton and receives £2k prize money funded by the Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Trust, £250 through the Gill Lewis Award, a sum which will be donated by the winner to a charity of their choice and a limited edition print by Ken Wilson Max.
The announcement was made at a ceremony held at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, on Wednesday October 1st. It followed a panel discussion on centring radical fiction for children, chaired by Dr. Darren Chetty and attended by 2025 shortlistees: Elle McNicoll, Sarah Hagger-Holt, Cathy Jenkins and Sarah F Layzell.
This is the 13th year of the Little Rebels Award. The award celebrates radical fiction for children aged 0-12. Given on behalf of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers (ARB), the award is administered by ARB members, Housmans Bookshop and Letterbox Library. It recognises children’s books which explore political ideas, challenge the status quo, or promote social justice, social equality and a more peaceful and fairer world. In 2024 the award was won by J T Williams for The Lizzie & Belle Mysteries: Portraits and Poison (Farshore).
The 2025 Little Rebels Award Judges were: author and illustrator, Chris Haughton; Centre for Literacy in Primary Education librarian, Phoebe Demeger; teacher and author, Alom Shaha; designer, illustrator and lecturer, Soofiya.
The other shortlisted books were:
Cottonopolis by S F Layzell (Northodox Press)
Keedie by Elle McNicoll (Knights Of)
Kende! Kende! Kende! text by Kirsten Cappy, Yaya Gentille; illustrated by Rahana Dariah (Child’s Play)
Mayowa and the Sea Of Words by Chibundu Onuzo (Bloomsbury)
Zac and Jac by Cathy Jenkins (Graffeg)
