UKLA Book Award Winners 2024
The winners of the UKLA 2024 Book Awards have been announced. The judges, a panel of twelve teachers, have chosen winners across four categories, picturebooks, fiction and information books.
The Hare-Shaped Hole written by John Dougherty and illustrated by Thomas Docherty (Frances Lincoln) is the winner in the 3 – 6+ category. The judges felt that this ‘beautiful, moving and important book’ gives children of all ages the vocabulary to talk about loss, praising the ‘beautifully crafted’ language and the ‘gentle , expressive’ illustrations for creating an ‘emotional toolkit’ for young children.
Wildsmith: Into the Dark Forest by Liz Flanagan, illustrated throughout by Joe Todd-Stanton and published by independent UCLan Publishing is the winner of the 7 – 10 + category. This ‘excellent adventure’ with its ‘anime like’ illustrations and the ‘brilliantly written age-appropriate text’ make it the ‘perfect first chapter book’ providing ‘pure reading for pleasure’, said the judges.
Tia Fisher’s Crossing the Line, Shadower’s Choice for the Carnegie Medal, won the UKLA 11-14+ category. Inspired by the real experiences of a friend’s son in county lines drug dealing, this powerful exploration of entrapment techniques and the domino effect of bad choices is made brilliantly accessible by the verse novel structure. Tia commented, ‘I’m so grateful to the teachers who have promoted Crossing the Line in their schools, not only to the children but also to staff and parents. The UKLA award will give Erik’s story even greater visibility, opening much-needed conversations around county lines and exemplifying the importance of reading for pleasure.’
Finally, the 3-14+ Information Book category was one by another groundbreaking text, The Boy Who Didn’t Want to Die by Peter Lantos, an account of the author’s experiences as a survivor of Bergen Belsen. The judges felt that Peter’s lived experience related in his ‘simple, direct and truthful style’ was entirely appropriate for the audience and, it ends on a positive note. ‘It’s a book, not about death, but about survival.’ Peter commented on his win, ‘I am delighted to receive this most prestigious award from the United Kingdom Literacy Association. The memory of having taught medical students for some 40 years adds a special appreciation to the fact that it comes from fellow teachers.’
As Chris Lockwood, Awards Chair said, ‘Once again, the range and quality of the books submitted for our award were of the highest standard. There are many talented and creative writers, illustrators and translators bringing forward exciting and stimulating works for children and young people. Publishers should be congratulated on their efforts to identify, nurture and support creators working in this area. Our range of teacher judges this year needed all their skill, knowledge and insight to select the texts to go forward to the shortlists, and the final panel, which chose the winning books, should be proud and delighted with the outcomes.’
Judge Florella Scozzafava said, ‘Being on the UKLA teacher judging panel has helped me expand my reading habits and, with the support of other teacher judges, step out of my comfort zone. Hearing different interpretations on texts has helped me think more critically about what roles particular texts serve and this has made me even more deliberate in my book-buying decision making for school. I’ve come away from every meeting buzzing with ideas of how to use texts and inspired by colleagues across the country who work so hard to promote the love of reading.’
The awards are sponsored by Lovereading4Kids and Reading Cloud.
The Shortlists in full
3-6+
Fox & Son Tailers written and illustrated by Paddy Donnelly (The O’Brien Press)
The Hare-Shaped Hole written by John Dougherty and illustrated by Thomas Docherty (Frances Lincoln)
10 Dogs written and illustrated by Emily Gravett (Two Hoots)
Martha Maps It Out written and illustrated by Leigh Hodgkinson (Oxford)
The Wilderness written and illustrated by Steve McCarthy (Walker)
Dick the Delightful Duck written by Kaye Umansky and illustrated by Ben Mantle (Alison Green)
7-10+
The Song Walker written by Zillah Bethell and illustrated by Saara Katariina Söderlund (Usborne)
Call Me Lion written by Camilla Chester and illustrated by Irina Avgustinovich (Firefly)
How to be More Hedgehog written by Anne Marie Conway and illustrated by Danielle Dey (Uclan)
Wildsmith: Into the Dark Forest written by Liz Flanagan and illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton (Uclan)
Finn Jones Was Here written by Simon James Green and illustrated by Jennifer Jamieson (Scholastic)
Where the River Takes Us written by Lesley Parr and illustrated by David Dean (Bloomsbury)
11-14+
Away with Words written by Sophie Cameron (Little Tiger)
Crossing the Line written by Tia Fisher (Hot Key)
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow written by Zoulfa Katouh (Bloomsbury)
Steady for This written by Nathanael Lessore (Hot Key)
All My Rage written by Sabaa Tahir (Atom)
I Must Betray You written by Ruta Sepetys (Hodder)
Information Books 3-14+
Unspoken written by Kwame Alexander and illustrated by Dare Coulter (Andersen)
Lands of Belonging: A History of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Britain written by Vikesh Amey Bhatt, and Donna Amey Bhatt and illustrated by Salini Perera (Nosy Crow)
The Boy Who Didn’t Want to Die written by Peter Lantos (Scholastic)
Whose Tracks in the Snow? Written and illustrated by Alexandra Milton (Boxer Books)
Saving H’Non: Chang and the Elephant written by Trang Nguyen and illustrated by Jeet Zdung (Macmillan)
Darwin & Hooker written by Alexander Stewart and illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton (Bloomsbury)