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Little Rebels Award Shortlist 2024

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The shortlist for this year’s Little Rebels Award has been announced. There are eight books on the list, books that ‘speak to a generation of young activists and critical thinkers’ say the organisers, and they cover a wide range of social justice issues from Black History to Black Lives Matter, from access to the arts to the politics of Pride.

The shortlist includes Yaba Badoe’s middle grade debut and a debut for Jen Reid, the Bristol BLM activist famous for standing on Edward Coulson’s empty plinth in June 2020, fist raised. There’s also a listing for the 4-year-old, micro, Birmingham-based, publisher, Dune Books (est. 2020).

The shortlist in full is:

Man-Man and the Tree of Memories by Yaba Badoe and Joelle Avelino (Head of Zeus Books)

A Hero Like Me by Angela Joy, Jen Reid and Leire Salaberria (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books)

The Lizzie & Belle Mysteries: Portraits And Poison by J. T. Williams with illustrations by Simone Douglas (Farshore)

We Are Here by Kate Rafiq (Dune Books)

Grandad’s Pride by Harry Woodgate (Andersen Press)

Is That Your Mama? By Patrice Lawrence and Diane Ewen (Scholastic)

You’re So Amazing! by James & Lucy Catchpole and Karen George (Faber & Faber)

The Piano at the Station by Helen Rutter with illustrations by Elisa Paganelli (Barrington Stoke)

This year’s judges include two new additions: teacher and author, Alom Shaha and designer and illustrator, Soofiya. They join author-illustrator Emily Haworth-Booth, reading development and children’s book consultant, Jake Hope and Regional Learning Programmes Leader at the CLPE (Centre for Literature in Primary Education), Farrah Serroukh.

Darren Chetty, lecturer at UCL and columnist for Books for Keeps is a new member of the panel. He said, ‘Radical, rebellious fiction has found itself under attack from conservative forces in recent years. We’ve seen authors’ books removed from shelves in the USA as the culture warriors have tried to limit the imaginations of writers and readers. The Little Rebels Award matters more than ever- and I’m proud to be associated with it.’

In 2024, the highest number of publishers, a total of 52, submitted to the award. The award organisers published a longlist for only the second time in May, showcasing 17 of the best radical children’s fiction titles of 2023.

The Little Rebels Award Winner for 2024 will be announced at a ceremony in October. The winner’s prize includes £2,000 funded by the Marxist Socialist funder, 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.

The Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction Award is run by Letterbox Library, and Housmans Bookshop on behalf of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers.

Third time lucky! Matt Goodfellow wins the CLiPPA CLPE Poetry Award

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Congratulations to Matt Goodfellow who has won the 2024 CLiPPA, CLPE Poetry Award, for his verse novel The Final Year, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton (Otter-Barry Books). The Final Year details Nate’s time in Year 6, an important time for any child, but particularly tough for Nate especially when his little brother falls ill. Helped by his teacher Mr Joshua, and with the love of his family, chaotic though that is, Nate survives and thrives. His voice with its Mancunian vernacular is authentic, raw but full of humour too, and unforgettable.

A former primary school teacher, Matt Goodfellow is one of the most exciting and popular new voices in children’s poetry and has featured on the CLiPPA shortlist every year since 2021, most recently for Let’s Chase Stars Together (2023), and twice in 2022, with Caterpillar Cake and Being Me Poems about Thoughts, Worries and Feelings with Liz Brownlee and Laura Mucha   His teaching experience feeds into his poetry, and he delivers workshops in schools, libraries and at festivals throughout the year speaking to thousands of young people.

Poet Liz Berry, chair of this year’s judges, said ‘The Final Year was our unanimous winner. A powerful, sensitive, verse-novel which perfectly captures the voices, energy, and complex feelings of the Year 6 classroom. We admired its empathy, depth, deft storytelling and beautiful use of the vernacular. We were all gripped by Nate’s journey and know young readers will be too. For The Final Year is not only a great read, it’s also an invitation into poetry and the power that writing and reading can hold for those just starting to find their voices.’

Once again, a strong shortlist reflected the vitality of the UK’s poetry publishing for children with new collections from past winner, Kate Wakeling; a carefully compiled anthology exploring the world of feelings featuring new poets and illustrators; poems describing the everyday lives of young siblings in Guatemala, translated from Spanish; and an emotionally intense collection drawing on the poet’s experience as a wheelchair user.

The show featured performances from Matt Goodfellow and poets shortlisted for the award, including Kate Wakeling, Valerie Bloom, representing the poets in My Heart is a Poem, and Stephen Lightbown and, via video link, Julio Serrano Echeverria and Lawrence Schimel.

As well as celebrating outstanding poetry, the CLiPPA encourages schools to explore the shortlist with their pupils through its Shadowing Scheme, each year prompting poetry performances by thousands of children in hundreds of classrooms across the UK. Children from Birmingham, Brent, Wandsworth, Birkenhead and Caterham, winners in the CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme, also performed live at the ceremony on the Olivier Theatre stage alongside the poets. Former Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell illustrated proceedings live. On the day of the ceremony, the performing schools took part in performance skills workshops delivered by the National Theatre to support them in their preparations to perform on the Olivier stage. The pupils also had the opportunity to journey behind the scenes of the National Theatre by taking part in a Sherling Backstage Walkway tour, gaining a unique insight into the production workshops for set construction, scenic painting and prop making, and being introduced to the many career pathways into the theatre industry.

An audience of 1,100 watched the event live while hundreds of schools across the country joined in watching the CLiPPA Award Ceremony via Livestream.

Rebecca Eaves, Chief Executive at CLPE said, ‘In its 21st year, we are delighted to congratulate Matt Goodfellow on winning the CLiPPA with this compelling, heartwarming verse novel. The Final Year celebrates primary schools, their teachers and the power of poetry and stands out even on such a strong shortlist. It’s an enormously popular win with our young audience who lifted the roof off the National Theatre today and we recommend everyone read it. Kids like Nate don’t often get to tell their own stories, and we’re delighted to be putting it in the spotlight today.’

Matt Goodfellow receives a trophy and a cheque for £1000. As part of the prize he will also be recorded for the prestigious National Poetry Archive.

The CLiPPA is delivered in partnership with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and supported by Arts Council England and Teach Primary are the official media partner.

The full shortlist is:

A Dinosaur at the Bus Stop by Kate Wakeling, illustrated by Eilidh Muldoon, Otter-Barry Books
My Heart is a Poem, various poets, various illustrators, Little Tiger Press
Balam and Lluvia’s House by Julio Serrano Echeverria, illustrated by Tolanda Mosquera, translated by Lawrence Schimel, The Emma Press
The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, Otter-Barry Books
And I Climbed And I Climbed by Stephen Lightbown, illustrated by Shih-Yu Lin, Troika Books

This year’s judges are poets Liz Berry and CLiPPA shortlisted Laura Mucha, teacher and writer Darren Chetty, and Billie Manning, Learning and Participation co-ordinator at the Poetry Society, along with teacher and UKLA member Imogen Maund.

Get ready for CLiPPA 2024

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CLPE, the National Poetry Centre for Primary Schools  has announced the judges for this year’s CLiPPA, together with plans for the year’s poetry celebrations. The CLiPPA, the CLPE Poetry Award, is the UK’s foremost award for published poetry for children.

Award-winning poet Liz Berry will chair the 2024 judging panel. She is joined by teacher and writer Darren Chetty, Billie Manning of the Poetry Society, Imogen Maund, teacher and UKLA representative, and poet Laura Mucha, who was shortlisted for the CLiPPA in 2022 with Being Me.

Established in 2003, the CLiPPA highlights the best new poetry for children. Past winners include Michael Rosen, John Agard, Jackie Kay, Roger McGough, Valerie Bloom and current Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho. The unique CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme brings the poets and poetry on the shortlist into classrooms across the UK and encourages children to perform their favourite poems out loud. CLPE anticipate that over 40,000 children will participate in 2024.

Liz Berry says, ‘I fell in love with poems when I was very young, and that love has never faded. Folk rhymes, funny poems, lush mysterious verse, poems which sound like a party, poems full of the music of feeling… If we’re lucky enough to meet poems when we’re children, we come to them with an open heart and never learn to feel afraid of them but to see them as companions on our journey. The best poetry meets young people where they are and then carries them off to dreams and possibilities. As a teacher, parent and a poet, I love reading and sharing poems with young people and seeing that magic happen. I’m delighted to be chairing the CLiPPA this year (honestly, what poetry job could be more joyful?) and discovering the books which will be enchanting the next generation of dreamers.’

As recently as 2015, judge Roger McGough lamented the lack of poetry books being published for children but this year, encouraged by the huge popularity of the CLiPPA as well as evidence of children’s enjoyment of poetry, as revealed by CLPE research, over 40 new poetry collections were submitted, including a number by publishers new to poetry.

CLPE’s much-praised CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme encourages schools and teachers to grow that love of poetry. Teachers are invited to choose one of the collections shortlisted for the CLiPPA and share with the children using dedicated teaching sequences produced by CLPE as well as videos of poets performing their work. Children choose a favourite poem from a shortlisted collection to work up into a performance, which is recorded and sent to a CLPE judging panel.  Winning schools are invited to perform live at the award ceremony.  The 2024 CLiPPA Shadowing will open on 8th May, with a live announcement beamed into schools and featuring the shortlisted poets. The award ceremony will be held at the National Theatre on Friday 12th July.

Darren Chetty, former primary school teacher, now teaching at University College, London says, ‘One of my favourite things to do as a primary school teacher was to organise poetry shows. It took very little work, just a good range of children’s poetry and a willingness to photocopy poems that the children themselves selected. The shows were always an emotional rollercoaster – by turns funny, angry, reflective, and silly, with such delight in the sound and feel of words – because that’s what poetry offers children and the rest of us. For twenty years CLiPPA has been helping teachers to keep up with the latest, greatest, poetry collections for younger readers. I’m delighted to be one of the judges this year.’

Rebecca Eaves, CLPE’s new Chief Executive, says, ‘From the earliest nursery rhymes, poetry is an essential part of a child’s journey in reading, writing and oracy. As we enter CLiPPA’s 21st year as the UK’s leading award for published children’s poetry, we’re delighted to have such a brilliant line up of judges, led by Liz Berry, to whittle down our record number of submissions. I can’t wait to celebrate such an abundance of poems with our judges, poets, illustrators and the children they are written for at the National Theatre in July.’

The CLiPPA is delivered in partnership with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and supported by Arts Council England.

Get involved in the Big Amazing Poetry Project!

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CLPE and Macmillan Children’s Books (MCB) have announced a new partnership. They are working together on an initiative for 2023, The Big Amazing Poetry Project.

The campaign celebrates 30 years of MCB’s award-winning poetry list for children and CLPE’s work as the National Poetry Centre for Primary Schools and looks to embed poetry fully both into classrooms and also in children’s choices when reading for pleasure.

Teachers throughout the UK will be asked about their approach to poetry in their classrooms through a Poetry Survey, so that both CLPE and MCB can gain a picture of poetry practice and provision in primary schools.

Bespoke professional training held at CLPE’s Literacy Library in London and led in partnership with two leading children’s poets, will be made available to 30 primary school teachers, whose schools will also receive a free poetry library from MCB to support them to create a physical and joyful space for poetry for their pupils. Teachers will need to fill in the survey to find out more about the training.

Teachers: Get involved in this project and express your experiences of Poetry teaching in Primary Schools. Fill in this survey to take part. All survey entrants will be entered into a draw to win a bundle of Poetry books.

The CLiPPA 2022 is underway

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‘Poetry for children is stretching its limbs in all directions’

CLiPPA 2022 is underway. Organisers CLPE have announced the judges for the UK’s leading award for published poetry for children and its plans for the biggest celebration of poetry for children yet.

Poet and former professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Wales Philip Gross will chair the 2022 judges. He is joined by fellow poets Nikita Gill and John Lyons, Becky Swain, Director of the new Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Charlotte Hacking, Learning and Programme Director at CLPE.

Commenting on his role, Philip Gross said, ‘Poetry for children and young people is stretching its limbs in all directions – up and down the age range, on to the borders of the novel, biography, science or song, outwards into live performance and inwards to the thoughts and feelings you’ve never had words for before. So many different ways of being excellent… Think how hard that makes it to be right at the heart of it, where the CLiPPA sits, trying to select a winner. I’m looking forward to chairing the judges as they go through the submissions, hunting for poems that will prompt that gasp from young readers, “I never knew poetry could do that for me…” and “I didn’t know you could do that with poetry. Let me have a go!”’

The shortlist will be announced live at Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University on Wednesday 4 May, at the first of a series of live CLiPPA events. Further celebrations will take place at The Globe on 20 June, as part of the Poetry By Heart competition finals, with a very special CLiPPA Poetry Show planned for the announcement of the winner on 8 July 2022. The venue plus details of the special guests taking part will be revealed shortly.

CLPE’s popular CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme is open for registration too.

Children at St. Matthew’s C.E. Primary Teaching and Research School in Birmingham were amongst those who took part in the CLiPPA Shadowing last year, performing their poems alongside Michael Rosen live onstage at The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. Headteacher Sonia Thompson recommends the scheme to all schools, ‘The whole school benefits from the CLiPPA Shadowing. The discussion and sharing between teachers, classes and children creates a joy in poetry that is palpable.  As far as I am concerned, all schools should take part, there is nothing to lose and everything to gain.’

Louise Johns-Shepherd, Chief Executive of CLPE, said, ‘In CLPE’s 50th year we are delighted to be launching CLiPPA 2022 with a fantastic panel of expert judges, a return to a full programme of live poetry events, and record numbers of children from across the country expected to take part in the Shadowing Scheme. The CLiPPA raises the status of children’s poetry, introducing so many children to poets and poems they wouldn’t otherwise meet and encouraging everyone to find joy and excitement in the reading and performing of poetry.’

Michael Rosen won the CLiPPA 2021 with On the Move Poems About Migration.

The CLiPPA is delivered in partnership with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and supported by Arts Council England.

Booklet design: Ben Cotterill

CLPE release their 4th annual Reflecting Realities Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children’s Literature

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Reflecting Realities Report cover 2021

The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) have released their 4th annual Reflecting Realities Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children’s Literature. It reveals positive changes but warns against complacency and identifies further room for improvement.

The survey shows that 15% of children’s books published in 2020 feature a minority ethnic character.  This is a significant increase from 4% in 2017.

The CLPE survey, which is funded by Arts Council England, identifies and evaluates representation within Picture Books, Fiction and Non-Fiction for ages 3–11. It also reports that 8% of the books published in 2020 featured an ethnic minority main character, up from 1% in 2017.

In the 4 years since its launch, the Reflecting Realities Survey has had a significant impact, helping to ensure that all children have the opportunity to see themselves represented in the books they read. The survey not only provides a benchmark to track and understand progress but also serves as a resource, providing a toolkit and lexicon to support publishers and educators in the move towards more inclusive literature.

Key points include:

  • Increase in children’s books featuring a minority ethnic character – from 10% in 2019 to 15% in 2020.
  • Minority representation in children’s books is up significantly from the 4% reported in the inaugural report in 2017
  • Significant increase in representation in Picture Books and Non-Fiction but the percentage of characters from a minority ethnic background in Fiction remains static.
  • The Reflecting Realities Report highlights the range of initiatives across the publishing and charity sectors that have been working for positive change in this area but cautions against complacency.

Alongside the publication of the 4th year of data, CLPE announced that with support from Paul Hamlyn Foundation, they are taking lessons learnt from this research into 10 schools to support the reading journeys of 300 pupils across a 3-year period. The project will test what happens when children have the opportunity to engage with quality representative literature and will track the impact on their reading and writing. The initial findings from this work will be published by Sage in a new book from CLPE in 2023.

CEO of CLPE Louise Johns-Shepherd, said of the next steps, ‘Every year we say, this work is not just about the numbers, and we say it again this year.  We can see that, across the industry there are real and concerted efforts to change the quality of pictures, descriptions and stories of people from racialized minorities. We welcome these changes, but we are not yet at the point where children of colour have the same experience of literature as their white peers. The survey shows us that work is still needed and this report highlights those areas and makes recommendations for future and further development.

We know that this survey sits within a wider societal context, we don’t presume to think that we can do this alone and we don’t think that we would achieve anything if we did.  As well as looking at representation of characters, we need to look at who gets to write and illustrate the books; where the opportunities in the publishing industry are; who chooses what gets published, marketed, publicised, stocked and sold – all of these things go towards making a change to what actually gets into bookshops, libraries, classrooms and homes.  This report celebrates the work of many organisations who are doing exceptional work to make sure that what we all do individually becomes greater than the sum of its parts – we hope that it is a useful reference point for everyone interested in this work who wants to find out more about real, deep and lasting change.’

To view CLPE’s Reflecting Realities Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children’s Literature click here.  Read more about the methodology behind the report here.

 

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