The shortlist for the 2024 Branford Boase Award, given annually to the author and editor of the year’s outstanding debut novel for children is announced today.
Founded in 2000 to commemorate prize-winning author Henrietta Branford and influential Walker Books editor Wendy Boase, the Branford Boase Award is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Over the last quarter-century, the Branford Boase Award has constantly picked out future stars at the start of their careers. Previous winners and shortlisted authors include Meg Rosoff, Katya Balen, Philip Reeve, Frances Hardinge, Patrick Ness, M.G. Leonard, Maisie Chan and Marcus Sedgwick. Christine Pillainayagam won in 2023 with Ellie Pillai is Brown.
The Branford Boase Award is the only award to honour the editor of the winning title and highlights the importance of editors in nurturing new talent.
From an exceptionally strong longlist of 25 books, the judges have chosen six to shortlist. These include a much-praised verse novel; a will-they-wont-they romance, starring a character living with a disability; two very different stories both with courageous young Muslim women at their heart; and the comic travails of a wannabe rapper in southeast London. Beth Lincoln’s Nero Book Prize-winning gender-playful murder mystery The Swifts also makes the list.
The six shortlisted books are:
- The Final Year, by Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, edited by Charlotte Hacking (Otter-Barry Books)
- The First Move, by Jenny Ireland, edited by Ruth Knowles with Sara Jafari (Penguin)
- Safiyyah’s War, by Hiba Noor Khan, edited by Eloise Wilson (Andersen Press)
- Steady for This, by Nathanael Lessore, edited by Ella Whiddett and Ruth Bennett (Hot Key Books)
- The Swifts, by Beth Lincoln, illustrated by Claire Powell, edited by Ben Horslen and Julie Strauss-Gabel (Puffin)
- You Think You Know Me, by Ayaan Mohamud, edited by Sarah Stewart (Usborne)
Julia Eccleshare, co-founder of the Branford Boase Award and chair of the judges says, “As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Branford Boase Award, we are particularly excited to announce this shortlist. We have seen huge changes in the number of books submitted for the award, but more importantly in the range of stories being written. The development of own voice narratives is particularly exciting. The shortlisted authors are extremely talented, and there’s an authenticity and freshness to their books that we found exhilarating.”
This year’s judges are Christine Pillainayagam, author and winner of the 2023 Branford Boase Award; Emily Drabble, Head of Children’s Books Promotion and Prizes at BookTrust; Lucas Maxwell, former School Librarian of the Year and winner of the UK Literacy Association’s Reading for Pleasure Teacher Champion Award 2022; and Amy McKay, also a past UK School Librarian of the Year and for ten years Yoto Carnegies National Coordinator. The judging panel is chaired by Julia Eccleshare, Director, Hay Children’s Festival.
The winner will be announced at a ceremony at CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) in central London on Wednesday 10 July 2024. The winning author receives a cheque for £1,000 and both author and editor receive an inscribed plaque.
The Henrietta Branford Writing Competition, the annual competition for young people which runs in conjunction with the Branford Boase Award, is open now.