Powered by The Bookseller and run in partnership with Hay Festival, the YA Book Prize have recently announced the ten books to have made this year's shortlist. 

Launched in 2014, the prize celebrates YA titles by authors living in the UK or Ireland. It is the first prize in the UK and Ireland to specifically focus on fiction for young adults and aims to get more teens reading and buying books.

The 2021 shortlist includes:

• Wranglestone by Darren Charlton (published by Little Tiger)
• Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson (published by Electric Monkey)
• And the Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando (published by Simon & Schuster Children's Books)
• Eight Pieces of Silva by Patrice Lawrence (published by Hodder Children's Books)
• Loveless by Alice Oseman (published by HarperCollins Children's Books)
• The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff (published by Bloomsbury)
• Melt My Heart by Bethany Rutter (published by Macmillan Children's Books)
• Hold Back the Tide by Melinda Salisbury (published by Scholastic UK)
• Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle (published by Andersen Press)
• A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood (published by Scholastic UK)

Alongside the overall £2,000 award, this year the prize are also awarding the third YA Book Prize Special Achievement Award to Malorie Blackman, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the first novel in her seminal YA series, Noughts & Crosses. During her 30-year career as an author, Malorie has inspired generations of young readers, not only through her own writing, but also during her time as Children’s Laureate, which saw the founding of the UK’s first Young Adult Literature Convention. 

Find out more about the shortlisted books and authors, and read the first chapter of each book for free, here. 

Learn more about the YA Book Prize here.